A closet, a box and a lifetime of memories.(Forum focus: arts awareness and advocacy)

A few weeks ago I decided to tackle the project of cleaning my closet. It's something I actually do rather frequently. Each time is exciting for the first few minutes, and then I become disinterested, which is why I have to clean my closet so often.

I started shoveling through the clutter and unearthed an old box--not labeled of course. I opened the lid half curious and half afraid of what I would find. As I pulled the lid aside and discarded it in the growing pile of stuff, I realized this was going to be a trip down memory lane. The box was filled with old photos, programs and videos of concerts, musicals and recitals I had been in.

The first thing I found was a picture of me dressed in my Scottish kilt for my role in the high school production of Brigadoon. I'm sure that performance brought a tear to many an eye--probably for more than one reason. I rifled through some of the other photos. There were pictures of my friends and me when we were in Hello Dolly, Oklahoma and show choir and solo and ensemble contests. I paused for a moment to reflect on the times after the concerts when we would go out for ice cream, and sit at the football games and watch the marching band play as they crossed the field.

Then I thought of what the students at my high school are doing now. Budget cutbacks have forced students to pay to play football and be in the marching band. The musicals are a thing of the past, and the show choir can't afford to travel anywhere to perform or compete. The buildings are showing their age, and the instruments are embarrassing to take out of their cases. The mighty Baldwin in the auditorium hasn't been tuned in ages, and the school morale is at an all-time low.

Suddenly my trip down memory lane took a turn for the unpleasant. I then began to think of all the schools around the nation facing the same situation. Many have even less funding than my own school. How did music in the schools take such a back seat? I began to think of a whole host of reasons this was happening and began to blame administration and the economy. Then I stopped myself and thought, "What can MTNA do to be proactive for music advocacy?"

As music professionals, it is our job to promote music in all facets of life, not just in studios. No musician is well rounded without work in an ensemble, and the social skills developed by participating in ...