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Decades of silence can come to an end

Donations offset the frightful costs of running school music programs.

By EDDY RAMIREZ
Published April 22, 2005

The violins hadn't been played in 20 years.

All that time, Mary Ann Walters kept them out of view, stashed under a bed inside her Brandon home. They were the unfinished work of her late father, a University of South Florida music librarian who also taught and repaired instruments for a living.

Last week, Walters, 75, decided to give the violins away.

She thought long and hard. It occurred to her that schoolchildren would be the ones to benefit the most.

At a time when budget cuts and standardized testing are putting a squeeze on arts and music programs, more used instruments like Walters' are finding their way into the music classrooms of Hillsborough schools. It's hard to say how many students are the beneficiaries of such instruments because the school district doesn't keep count. But school officials welcome the gesture.

"Occasionally, you get lucky and you get a gem," said Ted Hope, music program supervisor for middle schools."Even if it's just one. That's one more instrument that we can put in a child's hands."

For years, the school district has accepted and restored a wide range of used instruments - clarinets, trumpets, saxophones, French horns and oboes - and distributed them to schools, especially those in low-income areas.

Kevin Fuller, the band director at Mann Middle School in Brandon, said several of his students have received instruments donated by people looking to put an old high school saxophone to better use.

"It takes a lot of money to run a music program," he said. "And there is never enough of it."

The district provides enough instruments to keep music programs running in all 66 Hillsborough middle and high schools, Hope said. Approximately 8,000 students participate in chorus, orchestra and marching band programs. Usually they buy or rent small instruments such as flutes, clarinets and violins, which are less abundant than the large instruments such as tubas and French horns.

Only schools that are newly built or undergoing renovations receive money for new instruments, Hope said.

But as Fuller, the band director, points out, "the cost of instruments is frightful" and not all students can afford them. A trumpet, for example, can cost $500, flutes are $400 to $500, and a low-end clarinet can cost $600.

School music programs traditionally have relied on parent organizations, like booster clubs, to raise money for new instruments. But uniforms, sheet music, concert costs and other incidentals can quickly drain those funds. The district's annual budget also helps pay for instrument repair and transportation to football games.

So instruments from people like Walters come as a blessing to needy schools.

On a recent afternoon, John Vincent Importuno, a renown violin maker in Tampa, inspected the instruments at Walters' home. Most were beyond repair, but Importuno picked out two violins, a baritone saxophone and a string base that he believed could be saved.

Walters, a retired elementary school teacher, regretted letting go of her father's treasured instruments, but took comfort knowing that one of them might make a difference in the hands of a future virtuoso.

"I could have thrown them away or sold them to a music store," she said. "but I'd rather give them away to the schools. I hope they can use them."

Eddy Ramirez can be reached at eramirez@sptimes.com or 661-2441.

[Last modified April 21, 2005, 08:33:10]