Hal Leonard Donates Essential Elements Guitar Method to New Young Guitarists Program
Leading Print Publisher Provides Book/CD Packs for VanderCook College Outreach Program
MILWAUKEE - The largest and most innovative music print publisher, Hal Leonard Corporation has donated beginning method book/CD packs in its flagship Essential Elements for Guitar series to the New Young Guitarists Program, a just-launched outreach program sponsored by Chicago's prestigious VanderCook College of Music.
The 15-week program offers free after-school guitar classes to interested 5th through 8th graders at the James R. Doolittle School in Chicago, providing these students with their first opportunity to learn an instrument at the school. Recitals will take place at the semester's conclusion in May.
Dr. Julie Goldberg, guitar professor at VanderCook, is facilitating the program. She also directs the Chicago Community Classical Guitar Ensemble. Plans are underway to expand the New Young Guitarists Program to additional city schools, and to create an ongoing guitar ensemble combining students from all of the schools involved.
A grant from the D'Addario Foundation and the tireless support of VanderCook President Dr. Charles Menghini have made this program possible. Menghini comments, "This program offers underprivileged kids an entryway into the world of music by providing a hands-on learning opportunity at a crucial time in their development. We are proud to be a part of it, and very grateful for the support of D'Addario and Hal Leonard. We look forward to getting many more kids involved."
The program is similar to the Hal Leonard Young Musicians Program, which the print publisher began in 2001 to teach music to Boys & Girls Club members in the metro Milwaukee area. That program has since been expanded nationally with the backing of NAMM and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
About VanderCook College of Music
VanderCook College of Music was founded in Chicago in 1909. The college was one of the first three schools to offer a degree in instrumental music education and is the only independent college dedicated solely to music education. It remains at the center of the profession today, attracting over 10,000 music students and teachers to Chicago's near south side for workshops, classes and concerts every year. Within one year of completing their bachelor's degree, 98% of VanderCook College of Music students find jobs teaching music - many of them in the Chicago metropolitan area.