What a concert! It’s not too late to support our local “School Music Matters” Fund On Sept. 12, I attended a wonderful concert at the Community Church in Eastsound.

The musicians performing were students in the Orcas Middle and High Schools. They presented a beautiful concert to help launch the “School Music Matters” Fund. I was impressed by how talented and motivated these students are. They (and we) are so lucky to have excellent school music teachers guiding and motivating them, and a school board and administration that know the value of music education in our schools.

However, the funding for keeping our public school music program in its current form runs out on Sept. 30 this year. After that, the proposal is to combine all middle and high school strings into one class, and all middle and high school band into one class. While a number of dedicated middle schoolers do play with the high schoolers, as in this concert, combining these classes would create too much of a spread in experience and ability in one class, creating frustration for both the less experienced and the more advanced students.

Thus, funding is needed to keep the middle school and high school music programs intact and separate. It’s not too late to support our local “School Music Matters” Fund. If you can make a donation to the public school music program, it would mean a great deal to the students and, I believe, to our entire community, which is greatly enriched by having a high quality school music program we can be proud of.

Checks payable to “MAG School Music Matters Fund” can be mailed to: MAG, P.O. Box 1170, Eastsound, WA 98245. Public school music played a major role in my musical development. And what we have here in our community is very special.

Many thanks for any support you can provide to help keep our local public school music program going strong! In addition to supporting our local music program in this way, I also suggest putting pressure on our state senators and representatives to adequately fund public education, which includes music education.

Sharon Abreu

Eastsound