Tahoe Truckee School of Music: A Project to Support
Written By: Meaghen Lottman
Booking your entertainment through Tahoe Music Professionals is not just for a good time, it is also for a great cause. That cause is supporting music education throughout the Tahoe and Truckee communities.
Tahoe Music Professionals was founded by Ben Martin and Andy Mond to not only help bring quality entertainment to venues throughout the Tahoe Basin but to give back to that same community through the Tahoe Truckee School of Music, which is a 501(c)(3) non-profit music school with locations in both Tahoe City and Truckee. The school offers scholarships to students as well as teaches in local schools. Any student eligible for the TTUSD lunch program is eligible for a scholarship for music lessons.
Through music education we pass down knowledge and pave the way for the next generation of performers and entertainers. Music education is shown to improve cognitive thinking skills in all aspects of learning and improves reading and writing skills. A study by E. Glenn Schellenberg at the University of Toronto at Mississauga, as published in a 2004 issue of Psychological Science, found a small increase in the IQ's of six-year-olds who were given weekly voice and piano lessons. Schellenberg provided nine months of piano and voice lessons to a dozen six-year-olds, drama lessons (to see if exposure to arts in general versus just music had an effect) to a second group of six-year-olds, and no lessons to a third group. The children’s IQ's were tested before entering the first grade, then again before entering the second grade. (Source) In addition to improvements in cognitive thinking, beginning music lessons at a young age can even increase language skills.
Tahoe Truckee School of Music provides summer camps, workshops, public performances, and special events in addition a music lessons to provide students with a social community of learning that is all encompassing. Students can make great friends, share goals and gain confidence in a healthy and supportive environment.
Children and adults alike benefit from music education in a magnitude of ways both socially and neurologically. Adults benefit from the increase in creativity which is easily lost in the modern day adult world. As well as using multiple sections of the brain simultaneously to read, interpret and execute a piece. The benefits of music is measurable in many ways, it can teach you to express yourself, to understand you emotions and feeling and can be very therapeutic, helping to navigate the trenches of life. It can provide an enjoyable break to the daily grind, and give you a chance to release energy.
We believe that the gateway to higher learning and self expression lies in music education and spreading that message to our community is our goal. Tahoe Music Professionals exists to support music education within our community.