Band Aid

At 10, Mika Brazelton speaks of her fate with great certainty.

“I was just born to play,” she says.

When Mika speaks of playing, she doesn’t mean jacks or hopscotch. She means the violin.

But fate played a nasty trick on Mika this year when she entered the fifth grade at Top of the World Elementary School and learned that the instrumental music program had been eliminated by budget cuts.

Suddenly, the chance for fourth- and fifth-grade students to learn clarinet, flute, trumpet, trombone, saxophone, drums and string instruments had vanished.

It was, Mika remembers thinking, “a bummer.”

But now, some Laguna Beach High School students have enabled Mika and other young musicians to resume their dance with destiny.

The teens, fearing that there would be no fresh talent feeding into the high school’s award-winning jazz ensemble and marching band, formed the Mentor Music Program to give free after-school lessons to the elementary school kids. The mentors were stunned to learn that the elementary school classes, which had existed since 1967, were gone.

“We just thought it was terrible,” said Brian Rabben, 17, a program founder. “And we wanted to figure out a way to help.”

Parents say it is crucial that youngsters are acquainted with instruments early, before it becomes uncool to hoist a cello or a violin. And not all district families can afford to pay for private lessons.

“What we’re saying is music is not an extracurricular activity, it’s a primary educational . . . activity,” said Deborah Rabben, Brian’s mother. “With this budget crisis, it went. And the community . . . is united in how important music is.”

The Laguna Beach Unified School District has been struggling with a financial crisis that has resulted in district-wide program and salary cuts. While parents helped decide which classes would be axed, it has been hard for some in this arts-oriented community to see music shoved to the sidelines.

Jeff Foster, who has taught music at the high school and at Thurston Middle School for 30 years, said the end of musical instrument classes at the elementary level will make it harder for students when they reach the upper grades.

“Unless the kids get the classes in the elementary schools,” he said, “it’s really hard for them to pick up an instrument and be in a band.”

Foster said he is proud of his high school students for creating what he believes is the only music program of its type in Orange County schools.

Parents say the teens are eager to help.

“They just took it and ran,” parent Patricia Morgan said. “They’re very, very enthusiastic.”

The students recently distributed flyers to parents of fourth- and fifth-graders advising them of the mentor program and looked for band members willing to teach. So far, about a dozen high school students have volunteered and others are expected to join.

The next step is to match the young teachers with the younger students.

“Hopefully,” Brian Rabben said, “we will be able to pair them up.”

In addition, band member Dan Olney, who in October was awarded a $500 community service grant, is giving the money to the mentor program for books and music.

“Dan’s money will enable them to get started and have at least some resources,” Deborah Rabben said. “So it came together beautifully.”

The effort will offer tangible rewards for some high school students who can submit their volunteer time to gain community service credits toward graduation, or may include their good deeds on their college resumes. For others, the reward will be knowing that they have helped to keep the district’s bands alive.

Hale Jacob, a 14-year-old freshman who has already begun teaching Mika to play the violin, agrees that it is important for children to start early. Hale was playing piano at 6, tackled the violin at 9 and took up the cello two years ago.

“If the program at the high school and junior high is going to be good,” she said, “you have to start earlier.”

On this count, all seem to agree.

“If we don’t have elementary school children feeding into [the high school] band, the band will disappear within two to five years,” Patricia Morgan said. “The high school students are so committed to their music program that they don’t want to see it disappear.”

But both Foster and the parents agree that the mentor program is only a temporary solution.

“Nothing can really replace having a teacher in the elementary schools offering a traditional program in the field of instrumental music,” Foster said. “But it’s a perfect stopgap measure. Hopefully, if enough parents are concerned, that can be part of the healing process from all these budget cuts, to try and get the music program reinstated somehow.”

It is unclear when lost programs will be restored in the district, since a recent auditor’s report predicted more budget cuts may be required next year. Still, parents are optimistic that, one way or another, their youngsters will learn early about musical instruments.

“The more you talk about it, the more people are interested,” said Kirsten Whalen, whose 9-year-old son, Elliot, is eager to play the saxophone. “It’s my hope we can patch something more significant together next year.”