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Traditional Chinese Music
Lincoln Elementary School
Oakland
Fund for the Arts joined with parents of students at Lincoln
Elementary, a K-5 school serving a large low-income population in
the heart of Chinatown, to hire an assistant music teacher.
Lincoln
is the only school in California that offers music training
on traditional Chinese instruments. Under the direction of artist
and educator Sherlyn Chew, Lincoln offers a comprehensive music
education program, teaching music, rhythm, theory and note reading,
music history and traditional Chinese opera.
The
more advanced students participate in the school's Purple Bamboo
Orchestra, which performs throughout the Bay Area.
Westlake Middle School
Chinatown/Central District: 2001
For three years, Oakland Fund for the Arts
helped fund a music class at Lincoln Elementary School in which
students learned to play traditional Chinese instruments. Many of
these students graduated to Westlake Middle School. To help continue
their study of traditional Chinese music and to introduce these
instruments to new students, Oakland Fund for the Arts purchased
23 authentic Chinese instruments for the Westlake music program.
During the 2001-02 school year, 15 students studied, practiced,
and performed for the school in the Westlake Chinese Instrument
Orchestra. The program is expected to grow now that the instruments
are available.
Chinatown/Central District: 2002
For many years there had been no music program at Westlake Middle
School. Music teacher Randy Porter arrived and started a new music
program in 2000. In 2001 he created the Westlake Chinese Instrument
Orchestra. During the current school year (2002-03) seven music
classes are being offered: beginning band, intermediate band, beginning
strings, intermediate strings, piano/guitar, jazz band, and Chinese
instrument orchestra. For the piano/guitar class, Oakland Fund for
the Arts purchased 6 Yamaha electronic keyboards and 16 Lucida nylon
string guitars (and cases). Twenty students are currently enrolled
in this class
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