October 28, 2015
Reaching out with music Recipes
Get a boost with mangos
11
Around Town
3
Special Section
4
“Nunsense”
Photo courtesy Clifford Eise
Students at Johnson Wabash Elementary School in Ferguson with Thomas Flippin (kneeling front left) and Chris Mallett of Duo Noire.
St. Louis Classical Guitar Society provides lessons to students in underserved neighborhoods By Sara Hardin The accessibility of the universal language of music is being made unconditional by the St. Louis Classical Guitar Society, which through its afterschool programs provides masterful guitar instruction to students interested in learning how to play guitar. William Ash is the Executive Director of St. Louis Classical Guitar Society, and also served as its president from 1980 until June of this year. He explains that the society, which has been presenting some of the world’s finest classical guitar players since the mid-1970’s, is enriched by the opportunity to educate kids willing to learn about music. The program’s instruction is provided through the society’s primary guitar instructor Courtney James, who teaches twice a week alongside the schools’ classroom music teachers. The program adheres to a curriculum provided by “GuitarCurriculum.com,” which Ash remarks as being “revolutionary,” and has been adopted by eighteen public schools since the curriculum’s developers came to St. Louis from Austin, Texas in July 2013 to teach it to 28 local registered teachers. Ash explains that as interest in the programs grows, so does the society’s need for funding in order to provide its services to everyone eager to learn. “Since January of this year we began supporting local public school classroom teachers to conduct new classical guitar programs, significantly in underserved neighborhoods in Ferguson, Normandy,
and the city of St. Louis,” said Ash. “Class sizes vary from eight to twenty-four in the schools to which Mr. James or one of our other educators visits, so eight schools we directly support reach 100+ students. For all eighteen schools using the curriculum, we estimate close to 300 students are engaged with the curriculum. As we find additional funding we will expand into more schools, as the interest is growing, and we have much more interest from schools in all districts than we can currently accommodate.” The school program was made possible by funding through The Ferguson Guitar Initiative, which began with a $20,000 grant from the Augustine Foundation in New York. “We have generated the same amount two years running from within our individual followers, and we reach out to all foundations which fund programs such as ours,” said Ash. “We need additional local funding to reach new schools, a primary focus being all the elementary schools in both Normandy and Ferguson. We are currently exploring a major fundraising event at the Ferguson Community Center this spring.” So, why classical guitar? “The classical guitar represents all of the world’s fretted string instruments. Virtually every country has a fretted instrument important or dominant in its folk music tradition,” explained Ash. “Students in our programs will experi-
ence music from many countries, many styles, many traditions--most if not all previously unfamiliar to them. In practical terms, guitars are affordable, portable, and the primary instruments of choice of young people everywhere. Finally, the classical style is the best way to learn the instrument, with proper seating, technique, music reading, and group ensemble experience all incorporated into a single program.” By targeting students who are not already enrolled in a school’s traditional See MUSIC page 2
The Golden Years
School
7
NCCS student of the month
Movie: “Rock the Kasbah” FREE Online Subscription at mycnews.com
11