Springtime Must Be Getting Close – It's Music In Our Schools Month®!

National Association for Music Education Sponsors National Celebrations throughout March

 This year's theme is "Music Makes Me __________!" which is NAfME's way of encouraging schools and communities around the country to get busy with activities and initiatives to raise awareness of the benefits of learning music, and the ways that music can empower and enrich lives.

 Music In Our Schools Bus Tour

To kick off the month, NAfME's Give a Note Foundation, Disney Performing Arts, and Big Machine Group will join forces with Danielle Bradbery, Season 4 winner of The Voice, to celebrate music education with a week-long nationwide bus tour. The special bus starts its journey on March 2 at Disneyland and will travel cross-country to schools in five different cities to recognize excellence in music education and the value of a supportive community.  NAfME staff members will be on the bus and will keep social media followers updated via Facebook and Twitter.  The tour will conclude on March 8 with festivities at Walt Disney World.  For more information, visit http://giveanote.nafme.org/

The Concert for Music In Our Schools Month

In an innovative online concept for the annual Concert for Music In Our Schools Month, student video performances from across the U.S. and Europe are being featured on the NAfME website.  All music students, educators, parents, and supporters are encouraged to view these videos in celebration of the importance of school music programs.  The Concert for MIOSM (formerly known as the World's Largest Concert) features songs appropriate for K–12 students. The 2014 program includes:

• "America, Of Thee I Sing"
• "Explore, Dream, Discover"
• "Shake Them 'Simmons Down"
• "The Best In Me"
• "The Star-Spangled Banner"
• "Una Sola Voz"

Student performances can be viewed at http://musiced.nafme.org/concert  from March 1 through March 31. 

"Music In Our Schools Month® is more than just a singular event," says Michael A. Butera, NAfME's Executive Director and CEO.  "It is a coming-together of musical celebrations nationwide for the express purpose of recognizing how music education can orchestrate success for every student, teacher, parent, and person in our country.

"We thank Hal Leonard Corporation for their continued support of The Concert for Music In Our Schools Month, for which they provided the sheet music and audio tracks for the 2014 program," added Butera, "and PreSonus for providing a school recording package to the school whose video receives the most online views."

Listed below are the teachers, schools, and hometowns of the performing ensembles ffrom throughout the United States and Brussells, Belgium, that are featured in the Concert for Music In Our Schools Month® -

For more information, visit http://musiced.nafme.org/concert/ .

NAfME Advocacy Efforts during Music In Our Schools Month®

The "Broader Minded" Movement

Music In Our Schools Month has always had deep roots in music education advocacy.  In keeping with that, NAfME has just launched a new national initiative for 2014 called "Broader-Minded™" which effectively articulates new arguments that stress the importance of music in every child's education.  Learn more at http://broaderminded.com/

Share Your Story

NAfME's social media initiative, "Share Your Story," continues in 2014 through Broader Minded. "NAfME wants to hear from people whose lives have been positively affected by music," said Executive Director and CEO Michael A. Butera. "We are collecting 'stories' -- any kind of personal testimony -- from teachers, students, and parents about why music education is important. We use these stories when we visit Capitol Hill later this year to make our case for protecting music in school. The more we can collect from constituents, the better positioned we will be to garner support in Congress for our legislative agenda, which includes supporting the arts as a core subject in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act."

Visit http://broaderminded.com/ and click on 'Share Your Story' for more information.

More Programs and Activities

NAfME celebrates MIOSM by offering its members an advocacy webinar, specialty items with the new "Music Makes Me __________!" theme, and even a certificate to commemorate the U.S. flag flying over the national Capitol building in honor of MIOSM.  For more information, visit http://musiced.nafme.org/

 of students nationwide and has supported music educators at all teaching levels for more than a century.  With more than 70,000 members, the organization is the voice of music education in the United States.

Follow NAfME on Twitter (twitter.com/nafme) and on Facebook (facebook.com/nafme).

 For additional information, contact Nelson Duffle at NelsonD@nafme.org