Yoko Ono Lennon, Quincy Jones and a Host of Other Celebrities Keep John Lennon???s Legacy Alive in 2010, with the Kick-off of his 70th Birthday Celebration at the 2010 NAMM Show
Legendary Icons Show Their Support of Music Education in His Honor; John Lennon Educational Tour Bus Keeps Legacy Alive for Students Across America
???This is precisely the type of project that John Lennon would have loved.???
???Yoko Ono Lennon
WHAT: Yoko Ono Lennon keeps John???s legacy alive by kicking off 2010 with a press conference at NAMM, the international music products association, supporting music education in celebration of Lennon???s 70th birthday. Quincy Jones and a host of other celebrities will speak out on the importance of music education on behalf of American youth. Students from South Central Los Angeles??? Fernando Pullum Performing Arts School will perform a medley of Lennon songs with Rickey Minor, the musical director of American Idol, Jackson Browne and Fishbone. Yoko is utilizing this year to celebrate John???s legacy and is showing her continued support of music education and the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, which gives students across the country free hands-on access to music and the digital arts.
WHO: Yoko Ono Lennon, Quincy Jones, Jackson Browne, Fishbone, Rickey Minor, Joe Lamond, CEO of NAMM, Brian Rothschild (Executive Director of The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus), Fernando Pullum, Principal of the Fernando Pullum Performing Arts School and his students.
WHEN: Thursday, January 14th, 1:30pm
WHERE: NAMM Show, Wanna Play?/Lennon Bus Stage at the Arena Plaza, Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, CA
WHY: As Yoko says,
???The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus is a non-profit outreach program with the mission of giving kids a chance to express themselves through music and video productions. It has been a living legacy to John???s passion for musical expression and artistic freedom. By utilizing the on-the-road John Lennon Educational Tour Bus and its fine studio set-up, thousands of students have written, recorded and produced original songs and videos ??? students who otherwise might not have had the opportunity to explore these avenues of creativity. At a time with music education in the schools is facing tough funding challenges, the Bus has been a rolling testament to the enduring, positive power of music making.???
The students from the Fernando Pullum Performing Arts School are a shining example of what music education can do. In an area of Los Angeles where only 30% of students graduate from high school, 100% of Fernando???s students graduate from high school, and 99% have gone on to college. To learn how to keep music in your local community, go to www.supportmusic.com, a non-profit outreach initiative of the NAMM Foundation.
I'd had a similar intent with the multi-media studio component at the Ontario Science Centre in 1994; I had coaxed Silicon Graphics to provide us with their very latest video post-processing gear to be housed in an isolated work-area of the Information Highway exhibit, even Alias Research came on board to provide the complete Maya kit for photo-realistic 3d animation, and as with the LennonBus we had arrangements with these vendors to re-furbish the gear on a regular basis to give the schools opportunity to use the very latest pro-quality tools.
Sadly, however, the schools refused to use the studio. We had one private media-arts college that agreed to bring about a half-dozen kids in a few times, and that was it, a free-access million-dollar studio sat there weeks on end, collecting dust, growing obsolete. I really did think it would work, I really though the schools would beat the door down trying to get their hands on that gear. Go figure.