Advancing Music Making
Blues Angel Music Foundation, a non-profit established by NAMM Members Jim and Nan DeStefney, owners of Blues Angel Music, are providing class sets of ukuleles for up to 12 teachers for the 2021-2022 school year.
In May, iconic retailer and NAMM Member Sam Ash Music donated over $22,000 of musical instruments to the Hempstead Union Free School District in Hempstead, New York. The donation was made in honor of Bernice Ash, the matriarch of the family, and the Bernice Ash Memorial Fund.
Make Music Day, the annual global celebration of music will return on June 21. The festival is held on the summer solstice and features a lineup of virtual and in-person music-making events designed to connect, comfort, unite, and uplift. Last year, the COVID-19 pandemic forced a mostly virtual celebration, but many in-person events are to return this year.
After a forced hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic prevented Play Me, Tulsa! from rolling out the sophomore year of its community music and art installment, the event returned this month. Play Me, Tulsa! installed six pianos in public spaces throughout Tulsa, encouraging the community to play and enjoy the power of music.
NAMM Member Music Forecast and Greg Pardue began the Front Porch Pandemic Jazz Jam in the University City neighborhood of San Diego, California during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020.
The National Museum of African American Music (NMAAM) opened its doors to much anticipation in January 2021. The museum is the only museum “dedicated to preserving and celebrating the many music genres created, influenced, and inspired by African Americans.”
Percussion Marketing Council (PMC), a NAMM Foundation grantee, is welcoming the return of International Drum Month. This May, the organization is offering drummers the opportunity for a once-in-a-lifetime experience to learn from a percussion icon.
The NAMM Foundation has named North Shore School District a 2021 Best Community for Music Education (BCME). The Long Island, New York district has earned the distinction for the past five years, and the announcement arrives on the heels of the debut of three documentaries produced by the district’s music programs.
The NAMM Foundation’s Best Communities for Music Education (BCME) award program acknowledges schools and districts across the United States for their commitment to and support for music education. For the past 22 years, the Foundation’s BCME program has recognized districts and individual schools throughout the country.
NAMM’s Museum of Making Music (MoMM) is undergoing its most comprehensive renovation since it opened its doors in 1998. The transformation is currently underway, with the grand reopening scheduled for summer 2021.
On February 9, the Board of Regents of the University System approved the naming of Georgia Southern University’s School of Music, the Fred and Dinah Gretsch School of Music, to honor the legendary duo and manufacturer.
March is Women’s History Month, and to celebrate the many women who have contributed to a more musical world, Playback is featuring stories from female luminaries who have shattered glass ceilings and served as pioneering agents.