The Portland Conservatory of Music brings music education to anyone willing to learn, regardless of their ability level. I heard about the youngest student participating in the piano festival who is only 11 years old, and I also heard about an 82 year old student learning the piano for the first time!
Sadly I also learned that music education has been drastically cut in Portland's local schools, making what the Portland Conservatory of Music does even more vital for their community. Many of the teachers from the local schools instead come to the Portland Conservatory of Music in order to continue teaching music in the Portland area. In their schools some are only able to conduct small lessons either before school or after school because they are no longer able to fit that type of music education in to their standard curriculums.
I'm glad that Portland has such a great organization to fill the void that their schools have left behind. It's a shame that Portland can't have the best of both worlds, as I witnessed in Portsmouth, NH...
It is sad that music is being cut in Maine schools I think a lot of that is pressure from our politician who decided it was a good thing to give schools a grade. Many schools that are amazing schools decided once they got those bad grades they needed to change and have less and less of music and the arts. The sad part is they don't realize that kids that play music often have higher grades and achieve more. Thank you for the amazing donation to our state's music through these stands and the piano bench. You are making the difference in many many people in our state through this donation.
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DeleteI can just imagine that these people are so excited to find that someone cares about the arts through these "random acts of kindness". Very exciting!
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