Music Education

Taylor Swiftis donating $4 million to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum to fund the Taylor Swift Education Center, an exhibit and classroom space scheduled to open in 2014 and offer music education to children and seniors. "In terms of what it will allow us to do, we do education very well now," museum director Kyle Young said. "It will allow us to do what we do better, serve more people, develop new programs and I'm happy to say that as we talked through this opportunity with Taylor, she very much wants to be involved in an advisory capacity in what we do. Is there a better person out there who's in touch with a young audience?

Tyrone Breuninger, a trombonist with the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1967 to 1999, sure kept in touch with his roots. In the 1940s, his father's father decided that he didn't want to perform anymore after decades with the Red Hill Band, named for the northern Montgomery County borough where he lived. So he handed his horn to the 7-year-old Tyrone. By the time he was 12, the youngster was a soloist with the band. Fast-forward to 1995 and, in an interview, the Philadelphia Orchestra stalwart said he was still playing occasional small-town summer concerts with his grandfather's old small-town band.

Carmen Culp, a music teacher at the Tredyffrin/Easttown Middle School, was selected by the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association to receive the Citation of Excellence Award. She was honored at the PMEA conference this spring. Culp was cited for her classroom style, as a recognized authority on the changing voice, and her involvement with musical theater productions and choral groups that involve more than 300 students annually. She is also a consultant and evaluator of music programs in Pennsylvania.

Michael S. Giamo, 73, a former director of music education for the Philadelphia School District, died Friday at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania after a brief illness. Mr. Giamo retired in 1984 after working in the school district for 32 years. He was conductor of the All-City Orchestra that performed annually with the All-City Choir at the Academy of Music. Mr. Giamo's music accomplishments were widely known. He had been a musician since childhood, when he and his twin brother, Louis, played at local music festivals and for the former Horn & Hardart's Children's Hour.

Senior Alicia Rogers said she endured a lot of teasing when she was younger. The words nerd and geek followed her around because she played the violin in middle school. "I enjoy playing, and I'm glad I stuck with it," Rogers said. "Playing in the orchestra is such a change from math or physics class. And one thing's for sure, we're not getting tested. " Rogers is one of about 60 students at Haverford High School who play in the orchestra and recently performed on "string night," which featured fifth through 12th graders.

Irving J. Maitin, 75, an architect and an avid supporter of music and music education, died after an extended illness Saturday at his home in Meadowbrook. Mr. Maitin was a partner in the Ewing Cole Cherry Brott architectural firm from 1966 until his retirement in 1994. Before that, he was a partner in Fruchtbaum & Maitin, architects and engineers, and worked with acclaimed Philadelphia architect Louis I. Kahn. Mr. Maitin was noted for his work on health-care facilities, including major projects for Abington Memorial Hospital, Chestnut Hill Hospital, Cooper Hospital-University Medical Center and Presbyterian Medical Center as well as general projects for PNB and CoreStates Bank and the Atlantic City Race Track.

The orchestra's overture swells into the opening notes of Leonard Bernstein's haunting standard "Somewhere" from the award-winning Broadway musical West Side Story . Soon the harmonies of the choir seamlessly fold in, and the cascade of sound seems to literally descend from the rafters of Verizon Hall. It wasn't the Philadelphia Orchestra that gave goose bumps to a packed house Monday night. It was the All-Philadelphia High School Orchestra and Choir, which each year borrows the orchestra's Kimmel Center home to perform its High School Music Festival.

It has been more than two years since the sound of flat horns and sharp flutes filled the multipurpose room at Sharon Hill Elementary School. Budget cuts and fiscal responsibility forced the Southeast Delco School District to end its elementary instrumental music program in June 1991 and its middle school program a year later. This year, instrumental music is back, but with a twist. In a first-of-its-kind experiment for public schools, Southeast's parents rather than taxpayers are footing the bill, said Jack McGovern, director of curriculum and instruction.

Alysia Lee can already hear the voices of the Sister Cities Girlchoir. She can see the faces of young women from Camden and Philadelphia as they harmonize with and help each other and their communities. "We'll start with 60 middle school students in Camden and another 120 in Philly in September," says Lee, who has spent the last six months enlisting support from civic leaders, musicians, and educators in both cities to launch the group. "We're looking for people who like to sing.

George Mesterhazy, 58, of Cape May, a Hungarian-born, Grammy-nominated jazz musician, died at home in his sleep early Thursday of what longtime life partner Vicki Watson called natural causes. Mesterhazy's selfless attitude when playing and composing music made him the perfect fit for renowned jazz singers for decades. He translated this musical quality into everyday life, leaving a legacy of generosity on and off the bandstand. "He is, by far, the most inspirational piano player I've ever worked with," said cabaret and jazz singer Paula Johns, with whom Mesterhazy worked for more than 20 years.

Tyrone Breuninger, a trombonist with the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1967 to 1999, sure kept in touch with his roots. In the 1940s, his father's father decided that he didn't want to perform anymore after decades with the Red Hill Band, named for the northern Montgomery County borough where he lived. So he handed his horn to the 7-year-old Tyrone. By the time he was 12, the youngster was a soloist with the band. Fast-forward to 1995 and, in an interview, the Philadelphia Orchestra stalwart said he was still playing occasional small-town summer concerts with his grandfather's old small-town band.

Taylor Swiftis donating $4 million to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum to fund the Taylor Swift Education Center, an exhibit and classroom space scheduled to open in 2014 and offer music education to children and seniors. "In terms of what it will allow us to do, we do education very well now," museum director Kyle Young said. "It will allow us to do what we do better, serve more people, develop new programs and I'm happy to say that as we talked through this opportunity with Taylor, she very much wants to be involved in an advisory capacity in what we do. Is there a better person out there who's in touch with a young audience?

Despite the Philadelphia School District's ongoing budget turmoil, the show will go on Thursday night as more than 200 of the most talented middle-school musicians take the stage for the annual All Philadelphia Middle School Music Festival. This year's concert features musicians selected through auditions from 50 city schools. They'll play classical and contemporary pieces, including a Vivaldi concerto and a tribute to Ray Charles, at South Philly's Girard Academic Music Program, according to Virginia Lam, the district's content specialist for music education.

Alysia Lee can already hear the voices of the Sister Cities Girlchoir. She can see the faces of young women from Camden and Philadelphia as they harmonize with and help each other and their communities. "We'll start with 60 middle school students in Camden and another 120 in Philly in September," says Lee, who has spent the last six months enlisting support from civic leaders, musicians, and educators in both cities to launch the group. "We're looking for people who like to sing.

George Mesterhazy, 58, of Cape May, a Hungarian-born, Grammy-nominated jazz musician, died at home in his sleep early Thursday of what longtime life partner Vicki Watson called natural causes. Mesterhazy's selfless attitude when playing and composing music made him the perfect fit for renowned jazz singers for decades. He translated this musical quality into everyday life, leaving a legacy of generosity on and off the bandstand. "He is, by far, the most inspirational piano player I've ever worked with," said cabaret and jazz singer Paula Johns, with whom Mesterhazy worked for more than 20 years.

The orchestra's overture swells into the opening notes of Leonard Bernstein's haunting standard "Somewhere" from the award-winning Broadway musical West Side Story . Soon the harmonies of the choir seamlessly fold in, and the cascade of sound seems to literally descend from the rafters of Verizon Hall. It wasn't the Philadelphia Orchestra that gave goose bumps to a packed house Monday night. It was the All-Philadelphia High School Orchestra and Choir, which each year borrows the orchestra's Kimmel Center home to perform its High School Music Festival.

Mary Walker Brown, 84, of Philadelphia, a Baptist and Methodist choir director, died Saturday, Feb. 18, after a stroke at the Vitas Hospice of Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital. Born in Louisville, Ga., Mrs. Brown graduated from William Penn High School in 1946 and earned a degree in music education at what is now West Chester University in 1950. Mrs. Brown's daughter, Donna Brown Ginyard, said she was a music teacher at the Gay Street Elementary School in West Chester from 1950 to 1952 before teaching at Thomas M. Peirce Elementary School in Philadelphia from 1952 to 1961.

Sister Mary McNulty is taking inventory of a sort, ticking off a list of frailty, desultory home life, and human ruin. One girl, a sixth grader, has a father who works in a deli until midnight, so it's her job to make sure her little sister finishes homework before putting her to bed. There's the boy who sits in the public library until closing every night because no one is at home, and another who wasn't doing homework because the electricity had...

WASHINGTON - Say, can you sing the national anthem? Nearly 5,000 students and teachers from across the United States joined in a mass sing-along yesterday in the shadow of the Washington Monument to demystify a notoriously difficult patriotic song. The event was the culmination of a two-year, $3 million effort to "reteach" Americans to recall and sing the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner" and to promote music education in the nation's schools. Organizers billed it as a "campaign to restore America's voice," as they strive to erase thousands of painful images of fans on stadium JumboTrons clearly mouthing the wrong words to Francis Scott Key's composition.

Betty Schoenfeld Levin, 80, a gifted pianist, music educator, and writer who aspired to be a dancer, died of cancer Tuesday at her home in Philadelphia. Before moving to Center City last year, Mrs. Levin had been a longtime resident of Montgomery County. In 1954, her husband, Monroe Levin, cofounded the Jenkintown Music School with Cameron McGraw. Mrs. Levin taught piano at the school and wrote news releases and program notes for concerts at the school. "My father had the ideas," their daughter Anne Levin Benedict said, "and my mother implemented them.