| Music center hits a flat note with finances Norm Johnson got involved with Island Music Center in 2002, back when it was the Island Music Teacher's Guild, because his daughter Melissa loved music. Burnett, who has taught piano since the center's beginning in 1999, said students' ages range from 2 to 83. In addition to reverting to an all-volunteer effort, save for a part-time office manager, the plan is to reintroduce the concept of offering memberships to the community. Everybody pitching in "We're getting back to where we started, with everyone pitching in," said Duke, who is now donating the services she was getting paid to do. Teachers, such as Burnett and Justin Davis, all operate as independent contractors now. Davis, who teaches guitar to support his performing habit — he's guitarist for Star Anna and the Laughing Dogs — said he enjoys being part of a community of teachers and students and thinks organizations like Island Music Center are relatively rare. The center is running in the red to the tune of $1,200 a month, and that's after cutting loose interim executive director Julie Duke, who had stepped in after Dave Bristow's departure. Duke had signed on six months ago in an attempt to find grant money, but the well is dry, or at the very least, diverted to more immediate needs in the down economy. It's inspiring for me, and for the students to hear that next level or how far they've come. As a teacher, Davis has seen young people's relationship to music change through the years. "Somebody said recently that the most popular instrument these days is the iPod," he joked. When you have 5,000 songs in your breast pocket your relationship to it is shallow. "This didn't happen overnight," Norm said Tuesday at the center. We're in trouble. in the red, with the blues The counterpoint is a growing cash-flow problem stemming from an astounding 75-percent drop in individual donations since 2008, combined with cuts in funding from city of Bainbridge Island and a migration of grant dollars to social services. When he heard about the center's financial troubles, he enlisted the help of the band. "For stuff that's important, people who are artists are sensitive to the requirements," he said. She organized a series of benefit concerts — first with her band, then Bainbridge Has The Blues, and now Star Anna and the Laughing Dogs on Saturday. "They're not learning to listen," he said. "Students who went through the program in Island Center's early days are now old enough to bring their own kids," Norm said. ". He said students will bring him music they want to play in his guitar class, only there's no guitar in the song. "You often see music lessons where they're shoved in the back room of a music store" he said. |
Saturday 31 March 2012
Music center hits a flat note with finances
