“The future belongs to young people with an education and the imagination to create.” ~ Barack Obama

The College Entrance Examination Board found that students involved in public school music programs scored 107 points higher on the SAT’s than students with no participation. ~ Profiles of SAT and Achievement Test Takers, The College Board, compiled by the Music Educators National Conference (2002)

A study at the University of California at Irvine demonstrated that young kids who participated in music instruction showed dramatic enhancements in abstract reasoning skills. In fact, researchers have found neural firing patterns that suggest that music may hold the key to higher brain function. ~ Rauscher, Shaw, Levine , Ky and Wright, “Music and Spatial Task Performance: A Causal Relationship,” University of California , Irvine , 1994

Music and math are highly intertwined. By understanding beat, rhythm, and scales, children are learning how to divide, create fractions, and recognize patterns. ~ Lynn Kleiner, founder of Music Rhapsody in Redondo Beach, CA

Two-thirds (67%) of Americans say music education provides people with a disciplined approach to solving problems. ~ July 2014 Harris Poll

“The arts significantly boost student achievement, reduce discipline problems, and increase the odds students will go on to graduate from college. As First Lady Michelle Obama sums up, both she and the President believe ‘strongly that arts education is essential for building innovative thinkers who will be our nation’s leaders for tomorrow.” ~ Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education

Music education lays the foundation for individual excellence in group settings, creative problem solving, and flexibility in work situations. ~ July 2014 Harris Poll

“We need people who think with the creative side of their brains—people who have played in a band, who have painted…it enhances symbiotic thinking capabilities, not always thinking in the same paradigm, learning how to kick-start a new idea, or how to get a job done better, less expensively.” ~ Annette Byrd, GlaxoSmithKline

The skills gained through sequential music instruction, including discipline and the ability to analyze, solve problems, communicate and work cooperatively, are vital for success in the 21st century workplace. ~ U.S. House of Representatives, Concurrent Resolution 355, March 6, 2006

Teens feel that playing music teaches self discipline. ~ Shehan Campbell, Patricia. Adolescents’ Expressed Meanings of Music In and Out of School

Two-thirds (66%) of Americans say that music education prepares someone to manage the tasks of their job more successfully. ~ The Harris Poll®, July 2014

Studies have shown that assiduous instrument training from an early age can help the brain to process sounds better, making it easier to stay focused when absorbing other subjects, from literature to tensor calculus. ~ Hearing the music, honing the mind. (2010). Scientific American, 303(5), 16

“I would say that music is the easiest means in which to express, but since words are my talent, I must try to express clumsily in words what the pure music would have done better.” ~ William Faulkner