Performers Push for Music in the Schools

Today’s Independence Day 2000 celebration at Valley College will feature a variety of musical performers seeking to boost a new program to improve music education in public schools.

Music for Our Children, a program sponsored by the nonprofit Artists Resources & Theatre Society, hopes to restore music programs that have been cut in recent years.

“At a lot of schools, even if they have a music program, children are sharing instruments. And when they don’t have a program, they have a music teacher who only comes once or twice a semester,” said Gene M. Waldman, event chairman for Independence Day 2000, who is helping get the music program started. “We’re not going to get the next Benny Goodman or Miles Davis if kids don’t have the opportunity to express their talents.”

The program, which would pay for a music teacher to give instrument instruction, is scheduled to begin this fall at Monlux Elementary School in North Hollywood, Waldman said.

The society is applying for grants from major corporations, and a portion of the profits from food booths at today’s event will go to the organization. In the meantime, the program is being funded by Waldman, 43, a musician who took up the guitar when he was 8 and wrote his first song at 9. Eventually, he hopes the program will go citywide.

Those who attend today’s event are encouraged to donate a new or working, used instrument for students in the program. A handful of instruments have been collected and a major manufacturer agreed to contribute several more, he said.

Independence Day 2000 runs from 3 to 10 p.m. at Valley College, 5800 Fulton Ave. Admission and parking are free. Nine bands, comedians and individual performers are expected, including Cuba Gooding Sr. from the group The Main Ingredient, comedian Rick Overton and actor-comedian Jeff Rector, the event host.

A fireworks display will be accentuated by live music from the Tony MacLaren Band and Arianna, a five-octave soprano who will sing patriotic songs.

For additional information about Music For Our Children, call (818) 786-2886.