{"id":95081,"date":"2020-11-04T14:08:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-04T18:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/?post_type=bu-article&#038;p=95081"},"modified":"2024-03-19T11:03:20","modified_gmt":"2024-03-19T15:03:20","slug":"michael-reynolds-revitalizing-music-education-in-schools","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/magazine\/articles\/2020\/michael-reynolds-revitalizing-music-education-in-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Revitalizing Music Education in Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin magazine-block-editorial-leadin is-style-side-by-side has-media has-wider has-box has-media-focus-center-middle\">\n\t\t<div class=\"container-lockup\">\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-leadin-media\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1300\" height=\"503\" src=\"\/cfa\/files\/2022\/11\/CFKFMusicEducation_no-text.jpg\" class=\"\" alt=\"Michael Reynolds\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2022\/11\/CFKFMusicEducation_no-text.jpg 1300w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2022\/11\/CFKFMusicEducation_no-text-636x246.jpg 636w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2022\/11\/CFKFMusicEducation_no-text-1024x396.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2022\/11\/CFKFMusicEducation_no-text-768x297.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1300px) 100vw, 1300px\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-outer\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-inner\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"wp-prepress-tag\">Music<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"head\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRevitalizing Music Education in Schools\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h4 class=\"deck\">Michael Reynolds\u2019 Classics for Kids Foundation supports string programs across the US<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar js-block-editorial-metabar magazine-prepress-layout-metabar\">\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-date\">November 4, 2020<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-credits\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul data-credit-type=\"By\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/magazine\/authors\/mara-sassoon\/\">Mara Sassoon<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-share js-bu-prepress-share-tools\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-action\"><\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">$8 billion.&nbsp;That\u2019s the National Science Foundation\u2019s yearly budget. Meanwhile, federal funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, which has suffered major budget reductions over the years and which the Trump administration has repeatedly called for eliminating, is around $160 million per year. And the disparity trickles down to the steady decline in funding for school arts programs, including music education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe budget cuts are devastating,\u201d says&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/about\/contact-directions\/directory\/michael-reynolds\/\">Michael Reynolds<\/a>, a cellist and longtime CFA professor of music. String programs, he says, are often the first to be cut because the instruments are typically more expensive and more fragile than wind and brass instruments. And often, trumpets, tubas, and trombones get priority if a school has a marching band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reynolds is working to change that. In 1997, he established the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/classicsforkids.org\/\">Classics for Kids Foundation<\/a>&nbsp;(CFKF), a grant program that supports string programs serving rural and at-risk youth in all 50 states. The foundation\u2019s matching grants fund high-quality string instruments, including ukuleles, guitars, and harps. At first, CFKF supported only public school programs, but the organization has grown over the years to back all types of youth music initiatives, such as those by Boys &amp; Girls Clubs of America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNow, almost half of the programs we support are brand-new programs and initiatives that are springing up all over the country\u2014it\u2019s very exciting,\u201d says Reynolds, who has played with the renowned Muir String Quartet since it was founded in 1979 and also works with Boston University Tanglewood Institute\u2019s String Quartet Workshop. \u201cI think there is a lot of developing knowledge that this sort of thing really helps kids to thrive\u2014academically, socially, and behaviorally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The son of two violinists, Reynolds was always surrounded by music. His father founded Montana\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bozemansymphony.org\/\">Bozeman Symphony<\/a>&nbsp;and his mother started the now-thriving orchestra program in Bozeman\u2019s public schools. Before his parents settled in Montana, \u201cmusic life in Bozeman was pretty quiet. My parents gradually became the epicenter of that music life there,\u201d says Reynolds. He joined the program his mother started and thought back to his own formative school orchestra experience when founding CFKF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The foundation provides grants to 60 to 70 organizations each year, and Reynolds is in the process of setting up an endowment with the hopes of reaching even more. This year\u2019s recipients had to contend with shifting their programming online due to the pandemic, says Reynolds, but \u201cthey all went virtual and were amazingly vibrant and active. Nobody shut down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What is most fulfilling for Reynolds is hearing from the students that CFKF grants have benefited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI heard from a student living in a community with gun violence who said playing the violin makes them feel safe. Giving that kind of positive experience to a kid can be truly transforming,\u201d he says. \u201cWe are seeing how playing an instrument helps give kids a sense of meaning and joy in sometimes very tough personal, family, and community circumstances. That\u2019s exactly what I was hoping would happen from the beginning. I\u2019m very proud of what we are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Learn more about the Classics for Kids Foundation at&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/classicsforkids.org\/\">classicsforkids.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>$8 billion.&nbsp;That\u2019s the National Science Foundation\u2019s yearly budget. Meanwhile, federal funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, which has suffered major budget reductions over the years and which the Trump administration has repeatedly called for eliminating, is around $160 million per year. And the disparity trickles down to the steady decline in funding for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14125,"featured_media":95082,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[],"bu-publication":[191],"magazine-article-category":[373,377],"magazine-topic":[],"news-article-category":[],"news-topic":[],"bu_edition":[384],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/95081"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95081"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/95081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95085,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/95081\/revisions\/95085"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95081"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=95081"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-article-category?post=95081"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-topic?post=95081"},{"taxonomy":"news-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-article-category?post=95081"},{"taxonomy":"news-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-topic?post=95081"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=95081"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=95081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}