Category Archives: Education

Jordan Kitts with NAMM in Washington, D.C. – Day 2

Tuesday morning began with a visit to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The visit was kicked off with briefings and welcome comments by Darrell Ayers, Vice President, Education, Kennedy Center; Joe Lamond, President and CEO, NAMM; Leo Coco, Senior Policy Advisor, Nelson Mullins; and Mary Luehrsen, Director of Public Affairs and Government Relations, NAMM. Briefings on Education Reform, Common Core, and Arts Education were presented by Chris Minnich, Executive Director of the Council of Chief State School Officers; Sandra Ruppert, Director, Arts Education Partnership; Richard Riley, Former United States Secretary of Education; and Maria Voles Ferguson, Executive Director, Center on Education Policy, George Washington University.

The morning continued with “Community Collaboration: Achieving Access and Equity in Arts Education”, presented by Darrell Ayers and Barbara Shepard, Director of National Partnerships, Kennedy Center. This session explored the Kennedy Center’s innovative Any Given Child initiative promoting arts education nationally. The visit was concluded with an overview and tour of the Kennedy Center, including the BlueNote at 75 exhibit, led by Kevin Struthers, Director of Jazz Programming, Kennedy Center.

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The NAMM Advocacy Fly-In Delegation at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

In the afternoon, NAMM Delegates participated in a working lunch at the Nelson Mullins offices. Peter Fenn, Partner, Fenn Communications Group, provided an overview of the current political climate, outlook for 2014 Congressional elections, and projections for the 2016 Presidential race. He and Leo Coco facilitated a Q&A while a select group of delegates attended a White House event celebrating the Turnaround Arts Initiative with the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Both President Obama and the First lady were present for the event that included the Savoy Players performing.

The afternoon concluded with a training, message and logistics discussion for the Capitol Hill meetings the next day, facilitated by Leo Coco. It included individual State teams meeting in small groups to prepare for the Hill visits.

On Tuesday evening, NAMM Delegates headed for the Library of Congress for a reception and dinner honoring the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) Turnaround Arts Initiative. The talented Savoy Players from Savoy Elementary performed a wonderful dance and vocal routine that dazzled the audience. Kristen Madsen, GRAMMY Foundation, presented the first ever GRAMMY Music Educator Award to Kent Knappenberger, a music teacher from Upstate New York. He was the top nominee in the U.S. from over 32,000 submissions.

 

Mr. Syllaba Goes to Washington

This week, Chris Syllaba, President of Jordan Kitt’s Music, and over 60 fellow members of NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) gathered in Washington DC from across the country to advocate for music education in the public schools. During this 10th anniversary of the annual NAMM Advocacy Fly-In, over 130 meetings were held with Members of Congress and their staff about the importance of music education.

NAMM Delegates started the week with a “day of service” event, making music with students at Savoy Elementary School in Anacostia, in SE Washington DC. Savoy is one of eight Turnaround Arts project schools, a program of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH). Delegates first met with Patrick Pope, principal, and Carol Foster, Chief Creative Officer, after which students part of the Savoy Players performed a dance routine for the group. They then participated in a drum circle, a guitar workshop, and a ukulele workshop, with assistance from NAMM members. Bernie Williams, former Yankee’s baseball player and Latin Grammy Nominated jazz musician and Chad Smith, drummer for the band Red Hot Chili Peppers, were both on hand to assist as well.

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Chris Syllaba with Chad Smith

At the first “White House talent show” where the Savoy Players performed the next day, First lady Michelle Obama declared “with the help of this [Turnaround Arts] program and some school improvement grants, math and reading scores have gone up in these schools, attendance is up, enrollment is up, parent engagement is up, suspensions have plummeted, and two of the schools in our pilot improved so dramatically that they are no longer in ‘turnaround’ status. That’s amazing.”

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Chris Syllaba with Bernie Williams

Monday evening, NAMM Delegates convened at the Capitol Hill offices of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough for a NAMM Foundation reception honoring Senator Tom Harkin with a SupportMusic Award celebrating 10 years of NAMM Fly-In’s.

Stronger reading and language proficiency linked to musical children.

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New research is shedding light on how music education may help improve children’s reading and language skills.

In a study from Northwestern University, researchers demonstrated that children with a better sense of rhythm were able to more clearly process sound in their brains – a trait that has been linked to stronger reading and language proficiency.

Read more at the Foxnews article.

Jordan Kitt’s Bruce Anderson featured on Elliot in the Morning!

Elliot in the Morning

Elliot stopped by our Rockville store to take a piano lesson in with our education coordinator, Bruce Anderson. Bruce is also the official organist/keyboardist at the Verizon Center in DC – home of the Washington Capitals Hockey Team. Besides the organ, there is a Yamaha keyboard there that he plays for Caps games.

Watch the video here.

 

Announcing Julia Turnbull to the JKM Teaching Staff

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Julia believes that a student’s music education should explore rhythm, melody, and harmony incorporating songs and basic theory with piano. Julia is a professional soprano with a desire to share her training with students who are passionate about music. She teaches beginner and intermediate students of all ages in piano. She also instructs beginning to advanced students in voice. Julia is certified by the state of Virginia to teach music education for grades K-12.

Education:

Master of Music in Vocal Performance from Converse College
Bachelor of Music in Music Education from James Madison University
Holds Teacher Licensure for Virginia

JKM welcomes back Ai Yuki Sato to the Music School!


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Ai is a very capable pianist, teacher, and accompanist with many years of experience teaching all levels of piano from young beginners to community college students. She endeavors to bring her students to a high level of proficiency while keeping lessons fun and upbeat.

She especially enjoys teaching children. Her lessons incorporate piano repertoire, ear- training and theory. She also particularly enjoys teaching duets and music for two pianos. She is familiar with multiple teaching methods.

Education: Ai holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance, a Master of Music in Piano Performance and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, from Indiana University, IN.

Students perform in recitals, Spring Festival, Sonatina Festival and competitions.

Ai is available to begin lessons on March 10.

Improving Children’s Literacy through Music Teaching

Excerpt taken from a January 28th, 2013 article by the Institute of Education, University of London:

The New London Orchestra’s flagship education project Literacy through Music is aiming to improve primary school teachers’ confidence and skills in using music in the classroom, and provide them with methods and activities that they can use to support literacy development.

 

The scheme, now in its second full year, is being run by the New London Orchestra, which provided in-service training (Inset) for teachers. Sessions involving the teaching of music and literacy activities took place in 30 primary schools in the London Borough of Newham, involving around 650 teachers during 2011- 2012.

 

The previous (first) year’s scheme evaluation (available at http://www.imerc.org) had found that the children taking part in the scheme had significantly improved their reading abilities compared to those in control groups. This positive finding led to the NLO organising the professional development programme that built on the evaluation of the first year.

 

Literacy through Music is made possible through a donation to the New London Orchestra from the JPMorgan Chase Foundation.

 

Researchers from the Institute of Education carried out a thorough evaluation of the latest phase of the programme by surveying the teachers who took part.

Professor Graham Welch, who led the research, said:

 

“The New London Orchestra’s Literacy through Music project is demonstrating the power of music to enhance the quality of children’s learning in other areas of development. A key design feature is the close partnership and teamwork exhibited by NLO musicians, teachers and teaching assistants. The outcomes of the initiative are very positive”.

Teacher Spotlight: Olga Boeva

Olga Boeva is our featured teacher of the month! She heads up the teaching staff at Jordan Kitts Music School in Sterling, located on Route 7 in the Sugarland Crossing shopping center. Olga has been teaching full time with Jordan Kitts Music since 2003, offering both group and private lessons. Her studio operates 7 days a week.

Her musical training at the University of St. Petersburg in Russia helped develop her broad background in music education. She is able to offer lessons in piano, violin, beginning and intermediate guitar, and will tutor children on the recorder. She is our certified Yamaha teaching specialist at the Sterling location, where she offers Junior Music Course, an incomparable foundation for musical study on any instrument. Four and five year old beginners experience singing, music reading and writing, playing piano, ear training and creating music.

Olga has a remarkable ability to communicate with children and engage them in the learning process. When asked what she loves about teaching, she will say the joy lies in building relationships. She takes great pleasure in watching young people grow and blossom in their musical abilities.

Now is the time to enroll in Junior Music Course with Ms. Olga for the spring semester. Class begins in February. Enrollment is on line. Follow the link at www.jordankittsmusic.com/lessons

Benefits of a Music Education for Children

Perform a Google search on  “benefits of music education,” and you will find countless explanations of the societal and personal advantages to those students fortunate enough to learn about music in their youth.  However, I want to explain to you the top six reasons why I think a music education–specifically learning how to play the piano–should be part of every child’s education beginning at the age of six.

1)         Developing Coordination – The child who learns to play the piano is also developing fine motor skills, dexterity, and hand-eye coordination in the process.  This has been shown to enhance performance in other areas such as athletics.

2)         Increasing Concentration – Participating in a half-hour weekly lesson and practicing every day, a child is intensely focused on the complexities of rhythm, melody, harmony, technique, and theory.  This requires spatial reasoning, critical thinking, and creativity, which provide a rigorous mental workout!  The increased concentration often results in helping a student to study more effectively, resulting in better grades in school.

3)         Building Self-Esteem – There is such a quality as “talent” for playing the piano, but not every child is endowed with this precious gift.  However, making the effort to overcome the mental and physical challenges of each new lesson creates feelings of accomplishment and ongoing success, which long-term is building self-esteem.  The child who enters middle school years with a strong sense of self-worth fares far better in what can often be a hostile social environment.

4)        Acquiring a Well-Rounded Education – More and more, colleges must choose from an applicant pool of academic over-achievers with impressive SAT scores and GPAs over 4.0!  What makes one candidate more appealing than another of equal academic success is his/her well-roundedness.  Are they involved in their community?  Do they play sports?  Do they play at least one musical instrument?  In addition to the food pyramid steering us to optimal nutrition for our bodies, we must also remember to nourish our souls by feeding our children a healthy dose of the arts every day.

5)         Experiencing Future Math/Science Success – This one is a little tough to explain without getting a bit technical–and I am no neuroscientist–but the way I understand it, the grey matter in the brain of a six-year-old child is far more malleable than that of a child who is 16.  When spatial reasoning is developed at age six, as happens with the study of music, complex synapses (information transmitters) fire in the brain and forge pathways through the grey matter resulting in “hallways” or “channels” that can be used again later when that child is studying such complex subjects as advanced math and science.  If the 16-year-old has no prior pathways forged, the synapses have a more difficult job firing through the grey matter of the brain.  The bottom line as shown by research is that children who learn to play the piano at a young age perform better at high-level math and science later in life.

6)         My favorite reason:  Producing ENJOYMENT! – It is very important for children to have fun too!  It is joyful to make music.  The ability to play music fosters a deeper appreciation for listening to music of all kinds.  In this age of instant gratification, electronic gadgets, and countless media distractions, it is refreshing to find an activity in which great patience and persistence are required.  Playing a keyboard instrument carries forth a Western tradition dating back over 400 years!

Your child’s music education can begin with initiating  contact today along with the purchase or rental of a fine piano…  Allow us to utilize our experience and expertise in pianos sales to also guide you through that process.   We hope you’ll provide the gift of music for your child — it’s the gift that lasts a lifetime!