NAMM Awards $580,420 In Market Development Grants To Music Organizations

NAMM, the International Music Products Association, announced the 15 recipients of its 2006 grants program slated to receive $580,420 in funding to initiate and maintain Recreational Music Making programs. In July of 2005, NAMM issued a worldwide request for proposals and received a record-breaking 68 applications in response.

During the recent NAMM Board of Directors meeting, the following programs received unanimous approval:

The American Music Therapy Association will use NAMM's funding to support its early intervention program for military personnel returning from combat and their dependents, which combines Recreational Music Making with post-traumatic stress therapy techniques.

The American String Teachers Association will receive funding to support its "Extreme Strings" pilot program, which instructs public school teachers on how to incorporate alternative techniques to attract students who normally would not be interested in traditional orchestra programs.

Bands of America's SYNERGY performance troupe pilot program will benefit from the funding. It is designed to provide community-based Recreational Music Making programs such as "Family Days" in city parks where young children can hold, hear and play all types of instruments.

The Canadian Coalition for Music Education will be able to expand its annual "Music Monday" Public Relations music advocacy event with the funding. The money will also be used to enhance the Coalition's Web site and online discussion forum.

The Guitar Accessories Manufacturers Association will use the funding for continued expansion of its already-successful guitar program to 10 new training sites, including one pilot site for advanced level two training.

Guitars in the Classroom's K–6 "Strum and Sing" programs will benefit from NAMM's funding, putting it to use with the hiring and training of regional directors who will coordinate and supervise regional trainings.

International House of Blues Foundation will use the funding to expand and strengthen its "Roots of Rhythm" program offering by delivering the corresponding teacher guide and workshop to 10 locations.

The funding will help Little Kids Rock expand its successful grassroots program, which offers integrated music instruction providing basic music-making, improvisational skills and songwriting teacher training for general education teachers, elementary music educators and after-school youth workers.

The National Guild of the Community Schools of the Arts will use the funding for the "Creative Aging" project in the creation of a Web-based tool kit and training institute, which will help assist in the replication of music programs for seniors.

The Percussive Arts Society will use the funds for its Recreational Music Making pilot program, created for families with relatives in hospitals, as an introduction to the health benefits of music making.

The Percussion Marketing Council will use the funding to create more music makers by launching an "Awareness into Action" campaign, promoting their "Play Drums," "Developmental Drumming" and "Roots of Rhythm" programs through alternative channels such as parent-teacher and after-school organizations, as well as home school networks.

The funds will assist Rhythm Gym Community Outreach in the development and implementation of Recreational Music Making community outreach pilot programs.

The funding will assist Roots of Rhythm World Drumming Summer Teacher Workshop in its expansion to phase two of the training and certification in the use of the innovative Roots of Rhythm curriculum at two major universities.

NAMM funding will support Soundhouse Music Alliance's "Music Making" program for children with cerebral palsy, helping to train teachers to use a special music access kit while expanding the program's outreach worldwide.

The Technology Institute for Music Educators will apply funds to the creation of an innovative multimedia-based pilot program that uses musical concepts to teach technology, literacy and other core subjects to middle-school students.

"This funding, which is just one part of our annual outreach activities on behalf of our Members and the industry, upholds NAMM's strategy to proactively develop partnerships with organizations who support the mission of creating more active music makers," said Joe Lamond, president and CEO, NAMM.

Slick in Airline Magazine
The summer issue of Atlantic Southeast--the in-flight magazine for the regional airline of the same name features a three-page spread about 2004 Albert King Award recipient Slick Ballinger.

The article by Colleen Birch Maile is entitled "Steps Back in Time with Blues in His Soul." Among other items, the story relates that Slick's mother brought him to Memphis to the W.C. Handy Awards to celebrate his 16th birthday.