Family Fest celebrates 30 years of Music for Minors II

On Saturday, June 2 Music for Minors II (MFMII) invites you to a its Annual Family Music Festival taking place at Niles Town Plaza. Three stages featuring children’s performance groups will entertain you with singing, dancing, and an instrumental performance. The event is hosted by the acclaimed duo of RJ and Lori, and special guests are expected to delight young and old.

 Kids love to make music together and this exciting and interactive event is the perfect place to find out what MFMII is doing for our kids in the schools.

Founded by MFMII president Carol Zilli in 1988, Music for Minors II’s mission is to “nurture the love and literacy of music in children’s classrooms and lives and provide performance opportunities for them in the schools and community.”

MFMII trains musical “docents” and assigns one docent to a classroom where he or she gives one lesson per week throughout the school year. The program is oriented to TK though first grade, but opportunities exist for older kids as well. The half hour lesson per week teaches singing, rhythm and movement, and provides exposure to music instruments. Lesson plans—besides being purely fun—are adaptable to aid in reinforcing subjects currently under study.  In one class, the animal of the week was the llama. “I taught the class two songs with llamas,” says docent Nidhi Garg, “and the children just loved it.”

MFMII owes its staying power to founder Zilli’s sheer love of music and commitment to music education. In 1987 Zilli was playing piano for her son’s class at Hacienda School in Fremont when she discovered one of the students had been to Music For Minors (MFM) across the bay. Curious, Zilli investigated, eventually becoming a docent herself. When Zilli started bringing MFM to Niles Elementary, she received encouragement from MFM executive director Deanna Stock to start a similar program, which is today’s MFMII.

Zilli began with one class at Niles Elementary, but as parents wanted to get more involved, Carol trained docents herself. As the demand grew she arranged with Ohlone to feature the docent raining course, which she herself taught for 20 years. As the cost of tuition rose, Carol decided to offer training for free, and so took the curriculum and divided it into 22 two-and-a-half hour session. Today, responding to the needs of busy individuals, the course has been streamlined to eleven sessions.

Speaking to Zilli about the role of music in kids’ lives sparks the her enthusiasm. She is quick to point to research that indicates the study of music builds neuron bridges between the right and left halves of the brain thus integrating them. “the corpus callosum [vital for communication between the brain’s hemispheres] is bigger in individuals who study a musical instrument,” she says.

“I’ve emphasized the research recently because that’s where the culture is. We give [administrators] the science to bring them in, but then the heart of the music speaks for itself.” In other words, in many schools, the arts, especially music, have to show benefits to justify the time, even if it’s only 30 minutes a week. It’s not a given that the arts have intrinsic value on a par with STEM subjects. Zilli spends much of her time giving presentations that 2 demonstrate the cooperation, positive mental attitude, and self-expression children display when studying music. “Teachers tell us that socialization improves, that academics improve when we come to the classroom,” says Zilli.

MFMII provides exposure to youth-oriented entertainers like like Charlotte Diamond and Red Grammer. Zilli credits them with helping keep the organization going. Either through attracting children to their concerts and getting them turned on to music or helping raise funds through ticket sales, “we wouldn’t have been around this long without them,” says Zilli.

RJ and Lori are family friendly performing duo who also sit on the MFMII Board of Directors. For more than 30 years they have spread “Kids’ music with a GROOVE” all over the Bay Area. Their brand of kid-accessible music has earned them numerous awards, including recognition by the State of California and two Emmys for their work in children’s television. Speaking of her role as a performer and advocate of kid involvement with music, “it’s all about interaction and letting kids participate in the show,” she says. “When I talk about us [RJ and Lori], I am really talking about what MFMII is all about.”

Zilli courted RJ and Lori for two years to be on the Board. “We aren’t the kind of people who go around saying ‘I believe this’ or ‘I believe that,’” says Moitie. “We’ve always been wary of aligning ourselves with an organization; but Carol convinced us that we were a perfect fit. I am deeply honored that we get to help make decisions about bringing music to more than 5000 kids. It provides
a balance to the stressful technological lives they live.”

Volunteers like RJ and Lori and Nidhi Garg are the backbone of the organization. The quality of involvement and the quality of instruction has a special nature “when it is comes from the heart,” says Zilli.

Docent Nidhi Garg currently teaches two first grade glasses weekly, but is hoping for as many as seven next year. “Teaching music is the highlight of my day,” she says.

Watching Garg in the classroom is a treat. Her enthusiasm and patience are extraordinary and she clearly loves what she is doing; likewise, the children respond positively with their attention and their smiles. “I had no formal training, so I was apprehensive. Could I do that? But by the end of the training,” says Garg, I was ready! I couldn’t wait to get into a class room.”

“The transition from training to teach was very smooth.“ Says Garg. New docents simply observe their senior mentors for three sessions then have visits from them for a few until they are ready to fly solo.

There is plenty of material to teach. “We have so many songs.” There are six MFMII resource centers, one at James Leitch School where Nidhi teaches. They are stocked with binders full of songs, puppets, instruments, educational charts, and more—everything the teachers need, provided for free. Six thousand dollars from the School District and the Candle Lighters organization helped establish the first resource center at Niles Elementary in the 1990s.

Each resource center serves itself and neighboring schools where MFMII teaches, of which there are “36 or 37,” Says Zilli. “We have 99 docents serving 5000 kids a week.” MFMII provides its services for $10 per child per year. That not only gives a class a half-hour music lesson each week, but also provides for family music nights at the schools where parents and kids come and learn about the program, what it offers, and for the adults, to learn more about becoming a docent.

Even at $10 per child, or about $250 per classroom, (“A deal you can’t beat with a baton,” says Moitie) some schools are hard-pressed to find the funds. Still, “We’ve never turned down a request for our program because of money,” says Zilli.

If you or someone you know is interested in having MFMII at your school, or in teaching music to youngsters, visit http://musicforminors2.org/

If music in our schools is important to you, come out and show your support for MFMII on June 2. This free event will open your eyes to the gift that music is both to our children and the volunteers who teach it.

MFMII Family Music Festival

Saturday, June 2

2 p.m. — 5 p.m.

Niles Town Plaza, Fremont

For more information: http://musicforminors2.org/ or (510) 733-1189

Free