Music In Our Schools Month® is the National Association for Music Education’s annual celebration which engages music educators, students, and communities from around the country in promoting the benefits of high quality music education programs in schools. It began as a single statewide Advocacy Day and celebration in New York in 1973 and grew over the decades to become a month-long celebration of school music in 1985. Although national Music In Our Schools Month runs during March, we celebrate in May as this fits better into the schedule of the schools we join forces with.
One of the core missions of the Maine POPS Concert Band is to engage our community in quality music, be they playing it or listening to it. We feel it is important to begin developing a lifelong love of music as early as possible, and to encourage young musicians to continue playing by providing them a real-life example of what “a lifetime of music” can look like.
We work with two local communities to promote MIOS; Falmouth and Saco Schools. Maine POPS musicians work with middle school musicians, typically moving forward with the same class through grades 5 through 8. We start from the very basics of how to put the students’ instruments together and play their very first notes, progressing to more sophisticated pieces of music over the course of their time. Once they move into high school, students are invited to become regular playing members of the Maine POPS, at which point they may rehearse and perform with us just as the adult members.
During the MIOS events, members of the Maine POPS provide small group instruction on a piece of music new to the students, before a whole-ensemble rehearsal and finally a public concert where the bands play both separately and together.
We have found this collaboration to be greatly beneficial to the students, as well as a great deal of fun for all involved, and encourage you to come and share in the joy of shared music-making!
2017 MIOS concerts will be held on the following dates:
- Monday May 8th Scarborough High School
- Tuesday May 9th Scarborough High School
- Thursday May 25th Falmouth Middle School
We look forward to seeing you there!
This work is made possible by donations from the local community, including the Falmouth Education Foundation, Rotary Club of Falmouth, and the Rotary Club of Saco, and we thank them for their generous support.