For years, the student musicians at DuSable High School–as well as their instructors–dreamed of the day when the school band might include a full complement of four tubas.
Unfortunately, at a price tag of about $5,000 apiece, the tubas weren’t likely to be turning up anytime soon at DuSable, 4934 S. Wabash Ave. Though the school is known nationally for a rich musical legacy–famous alums include singer-pianist Nat “King” Cole and tenor saxophonist Von Freeman–its physical resources are sparse.
But the Chicago Public Schools, in partnership with two private corporations, will announce Friday that seven schools, including DuSable, will receive an estimated $350,000 annually in cash and instruments for the next five years.
The school system will team with New York-based VH1 (the cable music network) and TCI Communications Inc. (the cable television company) in a program called “Save the Music.” The venture was inaugurated last year in New York and has been embraced by school systems in Washington, Denver, San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New Orleans and other urban centers.
“VH1 and TCI approached us because they wanted to establish a partnership in Chicago,” said Diane Chandler, the school system’s director of cultural arts, “and it’s a program that I would have been crazy not to have in the Chicago Public Schools.”
Though the Chicago Public Schools has collaborated with such organizations as the Chicago Sinfonietta and the Ravinia Festival, the new venture apparently marks the school system’s first arts partnership with a for-profit corporation. Such mergers have inspired debate in the academic community over the propriety of subjecting students to corporate marketing efforts, but the chance to get extra financial support and instruments appears to be a hit with DuSable’s music teachers.
“It’s an excellent program, it should have been done many years ago,” said DuSable band instructor Newsome Oatis.
VH1 launched the program in New York after its president, John Sykes, served as “Principal for a Day.” Informed that the school was struggling to acquire decent instruments, Sykes joined with Time Warner Cable’s president, Barry Rosenblum, to establish “Save the Music.”
The program benefits school music programs by soliciting corporate donations, creating campaigns urging the donation of unused instruments and running public service announcements on cable TV that promote the importance of music education.
But are all these efforts an attempt to condition young musicians to tune in to VH1?
“VH1 obviously is all about music,” said Susan Taylor-Demming, account director for MTV Networks (which includes VH1). “The point, though, is the importance that arts education plays on academic education, and this is the kind of program that any corporate partner working with a school would want to do.”
Chicago’s “Save the Music” will support “clusters” that link elementary and high schools: DuSable will participate with Farren Fine Arts Elementary School, 5055 S. State St.; Marshall High, 3250 W. Adams St., with Faraday Elementary, 3250 W. Monroe St.; Sullivan High, (6631 N. Bosworth Ave., with Hayt Elementary, 1518 W. Granville Ave.. Sullivan Elementary (8739 S. Exchange Ave.) also will participate.
