“The day the music didn’t die was May 16, 2008,” writes Dixie Reid in Tuesday’s (3/23) Sacramento Bee (California). “Two months earlier, the Davis Joint Unified School District had sent layoff notices to its junior high and high school music teachers, essentially making them the last musical dominoes to fall in a budget crisis. Their replacements would be elementary school teachers whose entire music program was to be eliminated. … The community rallied, with professional musicians, retired music teachers, members of the UC Davis music department, corporate donors and, in particular, the parent volunteers who make up DSOMA, the Davis Schools Orchestra Music Association, stepping up to help. … Today, as cutbacks in state funds have caused schools across the United States to drop music education from the curriculum, Davis High’s orchestral program is thriving. … And it’s grown from 35 students in 2000, when [Davis Senior High School Orchestra Director Angelo] Moreno came on board, to 150 today. … the school district last year added the Baroque Ensemble to the existing symphony and chamber orchestras. All three, along with elementary and junior high orchestras, will perform during the annual Wennberg Music Festival on Saturday at the Mondavi Center.”
Posted March 24, 2010
