GRANT WILL AID STRINGS, GUITAR PROGRAMS AT DSA
D’Addario Music Foundation assists with much-needed repairs
The Durham School of the Arts has received a $2,500 grant from The D’Addario Music Foundation to restring and tune instruments for the school’s music programs. The grant will provide guitar, violin, viola, cello and double bass strings as well as other tuning and instrument care accessories that teachers and students can use to maintain high-quality sounding instruments in the Guitar and Strings program.
DSA parent volunteer, Trudi Abel, initiated the grant application to D'Addario Music Foundation. She met with the Guitar teacher, Jim Baird, and Strings teacher, Boyd Gibson, to get an idea of their needs.
“D'Addario Music Foundation has not been awarding this grant to public schools, but Ms. Abel's proposal convinced them that this was a worthy project to fund,” Gibson said.
The grant was divided equally between the Guitar and Strings programs.
“The gift will have a tremendous impact on the quality of guitar and strings instruction and performances at DSA where over three hundred students study these instruments on a daily basis,” Abel said.
Most of the budget for the Guitar and Strings program goes for new instruments and music, leaving little for repairs, Baird said. “The nature of classical guitars is that they are easily damaged and difficult to repair, which necessitates new replacements frequently,” he said. Guitar strings are always breaking or going bad and there are many guitars that need single-string or whole-set replacements.” The foundation grant will facilitate string changing and tuning and improve maintenance of the guitars.
“The gift of these strings will allow us to replace strings on basses that have not been changed in over 10 years. It will also give me replacement strings when they break on DSA's violin, violas, and cellos,” said Gibson.
D’Addario Music Foundation is a non-profit organization committed to inspiring and assisting the growth and appreciation of music throughout the world by partnering with passionate music educators. Through the generous support of Farmingdale, New York-based D’Addario and Company, the D’Addario Music Foundation awards grants and product donations to educational programs that offer sustained opportunities for active participation in music making, particularly to those that might not otherwise have the opportunity.
More information on the foundation can be found at www.daddariofoundation.org.
