About 500 Sea View Elementary School students are learning piano. A $25,000 Coachella Valley Spotlight grant to the Waring International Piano Competition (WIPC) is bringing professionals to the school to teach students in Kindergarten through 5th grades to play keyboards as well as learn music fundamentals. The goal of the outreach program is to expose children to classical music and encourage them to learn an instrument.
“Research has shown that learning to play music jumpstarts areas in the brain that can improve problem solving and organizational skills,” said Ann Greer, WIPC executive director. “Reading comprehension, mathematics, spelling, listening and motor skills are all shown to improve when people are learning to play an instrument.”
Founded in 1982 as the Joanna Hodges, the Waring International Piano Competition organization – named after accomplished pianist and the late desert resident Virginia Waring – is most known for its piano competition. The competition culls about 200 of the world’s top pianists down to 25 to compete for the recognition and honor of being named a Masterplayer with a prize that could launch a career. The competition is held in Palm Desert every other year, but meanwhile, the organization conducts educational outreach and performances on an ongoing basis to impart knowledge and interest in classical music.
The organization’s mission is to excite, educate, and engage the community at large with the joy of classical piano by presenting, promoting, and nurturing classic music through live piano performance including international competitions, concerts, and local educational outreach programs for all ages.
Some of the grant funding will support a classical piano performance on Friday, May 18 at 6 p.m. at Sea View Elementary, 2467 Sea Shore Dr., Salton City. The community is invited to this free concert, which will feature Sabrina Xiao He, a 2017 Waring contestant currently working on her doctorate in piano at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. The WIPC is looking to continue similar programs in other east valley schools and after school programs.
“The Waring organization found an underserved niche and is filling it with inspiration,” said Catharine Reed, Program Director for the H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation, who presented the grant to the nonprofit.
The Coachella Valley Spotlight partnership also offers recipients media exposure by featuring the organization on CBS Local 2’s “Eye on the Desert,” in public service announcements and on the cbslocal2.com website.
“Watching these kids light up when they are learning piano is priceless,” said Mike Stutz, General Manager of Gulf California Broadcast Company, which owns and operates CBS Local 2.
For more information about the Waring International Piano Competition and its outreach, visit www.vwipc.org or call (760) 773-2575. For more information about the Coachella Valley Spotlight grant, go to cbslocal2.com, and click on the Coachella Valley Spotlight logo on the home page.
