NOTES PACKED, READY
Composers Suitcase Folds Music World Into Classroom

By Tracy Garcia, Whittier Daily News Staff Writer

In September, the Los Angeles Chapter launched a pilot of Composers Suitcase™, the Forum's elementary music education curriculum, in Whittier City, Calif., schools. This article was originally printed in the Friday, October 19, 2001, edition of the Whittier Daily News, and is reprinted with the publication's kind permission.

(Oct. 19, 2001) It looks like an ordinary piece of children's luggage, but the pink-and-purple suitcase contains a bevy of musical tools to help teach second-graders about music and composition.

The suitcase is the central part of Composers Suitcase, a new 18-week program in the Whittier City School District that enables any classroom teacher to feel confident about conducting music lessons.

"I have always said that when you put music in the heart of a child, there's no room for violence," said Whittier Mayor Pro-Tem Dave Butler, one of several community leaders who attended a news conference Thursday to introduce the program. "These kids are going to increase the quality of life for us all."

The $100,000 program, which began at Longfellow and Phelan elementary schools last month, was created by the American Composers Forum and funded with a grant from the California Arts Council to reach the goals set for music in K-4. The standards were adopted by the state last January.

Superintendent Carmella Franco said she was flattered when the district was approached earlier this year to apply for the grant by Heidi Lesemann, director of the ACF's Los Angeles Chapter and an alumnus of Whittier City schools.

"One of the things that made an impact on me was that you had been associated with the school district, and you said you wanted to give back to the community," Franco told Lesemann. "When I heard that, I was sold."

Through Composers Suitcase, students examine Latin American, African-American, and Asian-American culture and music using books and instruments -- such as maracas, congas, and pan flutes -- all packed inside the suitcase.

A teacher's manual, books, cassettes, videos, and other suitcase items help bring the lesson to life for second-graders. Composers Suitcase also includes visits from composers Robert Fernandez, Ron George, and Amy Knowles to give students an idea of what a composer does.

In funding the program the California Arts Council is using Longfellow and Phelan students to prove the benefits of a strong arts curriculum in schools. The results will be compared against a control group of students at Sorensen Elementary.

"I think music is one of the many things that combines the old with the new," said school board President John Peel. "And Whittier is the perfect training ground because it has always been a combination of the old and new."

Composers Suitcase is made possible by support from the California Arts Council, a state agency.