Miscellaneous - Fender Music Foundation

  by Lisa Torem

published: 27 / 8 / 2012

intro

Our Website of the Month is the Fender Music Foundation, a music charity that provides musical instuments to American music education programmes and schools

What is a world without music?" is the disturbing question raised on The Fender Music Foundation's website www.fendermusicfoundation.org, though all concerned sincerely hope that world will never see the light of day. The Foundation distributes drums, brass, string, additional instruments and unique artifacts, signed by notable celebrities like Bruno Mars and Vince Gill, to music ed. programs and was formed in 2005 by former CEO of Guitar Center, Larry Thomas. Since that inception, the foundation have reached an intergenerational audience of more than 150,000. As education is an important mission, a great number of self-help articles and tips are published there, such as 'Saving Your Music Program from Budget Cuts' and 'The Future of Music Education'. The articles are often written by a range of writers; music professors and prominent non-performing people in the music/business community. In addition, music therapy is a concern and workshops on this, plus movement therapy are geared towards populations who would normally not have access to such services. One way the programme raises monies is when it receives memorabilia, which is sold online. 'Guitars in the Classroom' also caters to programs where children have limited access to essentials. Those in the organization remain concerned that school music programes are often disregarded in the standard curriculum, or if they do exist, they are vulnerable to constant cuts. The Advisory Board is impressive and includes legendary musicians such as Mick Fleetwood, Dave Mason, Carlos Santana, Danny Seraphine and Billy Gibbons, and a group of individuals who work, not necessarily as performers, but who are top in their respective fields.