NEW YORK – President Bill Clinton and music artists Billy Joel and Brian
McKnight joined Time Warner Cable and the VH1 Save The Music Foundation, a
non-profit organization dedicated to restoring music programs in America’s
public schools, to present a $5 million donation to the
New York City public schools at a press conference held, Friday, June 16.
Viacom Chairman & CEO Sumner Redstone, City of New York Schools Chancellor
Harold Levy, Time Warner Cable of New York President Barry Rosenblum and VH1
President John Sykes were present at the event, which took place at PS 96,
Joseph Lanzetta School, located at 216 East 120 Street, New
York City.
The donation of $5 million of musical instruments over five years will
restore music education in more than 200 New York City schools.
“I might not have been President if it hadn’t been for school music,”
President Clinton said during the press conference. “You have got to help
us
help all of these schools keep music education.”
Billy Joel echoed the president in his remarks: “I don’t know where I would
be today if it hadn’t been for the music programs and the efforts of the
teachers in public schools.”
“When I was growing up, music was mandatory,” added Brian McKnight. “I’m a
glowing example of what can be achieved if you have that foundation.”
VH1 President John Sykes, who created the VH1 Save the Music program in
1996, said, “Let’s enlighten the policy makers so that we ensure a future
where music touches the lives of every child in every classroom in every
school across America.”
Chancellor Harold Levy recognized the impact of VH1 Save The Music and VH1’s
lobbying for more support. “The result has been an outpouring of new
generosity from our communities as parents and friends of the schools
recognized the vital importance of music in the lives of our children,” he
said.
The New York City donation event capped “VH1 Save The Music Today!” week,
a special instrument drive presented on NBC News’ “Today,” June 12-16. Top
music artists A.J. McLean of Backstreet Boys/Johnny No Name, Goo Goo Dolls,
Darius Rucker of Hootie & The Blowfish, Mariah Carey, Bon Jovi, and Billy
Joel
appeared on “Today” during the week to assist in the drive and speak about
the
importance of music education. More than 2000 instruments were collected
during the week including a donation totaling $1 million worth of electric
guitars and basses from Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, the largest
commitment the company has ever made to any one program.
Also this week, a Sense of Congress Resolution supporting the efforts of
many national organizations, including VH1 Save the Music, received a
unanimous vote from the House of Representatives. The Resolution advocating
music education in public schools was introduced to the House by Congressmen
David McIntosh (R, Ind.) and Bob Clement (D, TN) earlier this year.
By the end of the year 2000, VH1 Save The Music Foundation and its
affiliate partners will have donated more than $10 million worth of musical
instruments to public schools. The program will be in 40 cities serving 500
schools and will impact the lives of 200,000 children.
VH1 Save The Music was recently honored with this year’s prestigious
George Foster Peabody Award for broadcast and cable excellence. The
campaign
also recently won two Beacon Awards, presented by the Cable Television
Public
Affairs Association to honor excellence in public affairs throughout the
cable
industry.
The national partner organizations of VH1 Save The Music include The
National School Boards Association, U.S. Department of Education, Chief
State
School Officers Association, MENC-The National Association for Music
Education, NAMM-International Music Products Association, the American Music
Conference, and America’s Promise-The Alliance for Youth. Additional
support
is provided by the Diane Warren Foundation and the ASCAP Foundation. VH1
Save The Music national sponsors are Tommy Hilfiger and Subaru.
Time Warner Cable in New York City serves over 1.2 million customers in
Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island and portions of Brooklyn. The company also
includes NY1 News, Staten Island Cable and Time Warner CityCable
Advertising.
Time Warner owns and manages the world’s most advanced, best clustered
cable television operations, with 80 percent of its 13 million customers in
systems of 100,000 subscribers or more. It is a division of Time Warner
Entertainment.
The VH1 Save The Music Foundation is dedicated to improving the quality of
education in America’s public schools by restoring music programs in cities
across the country and by raising awareness of the importance of music
participation for our nation’s youth. Through partnerships with affiliates,
VH1 conducts awareness campaigns, musical instrument drives, and fundraising
events in conjunction with public schools to help restore instrumental music
programs.
VH1 produces and programs a wide variety of music-based series, specials,
live events and acquisition-based programming that keep viewers in touch
with
the music they love. VH1 is a registered trademark of MTV Networks, a unit
of
Viacom Inc. MTV Networks owns and operates the cable television programming
services MTV: Music Television, MTV 2: Music Television, Nickelodeon/Nick
at
Nite, TV Land and VH1 as well as The Suite from MTV Networks, a package of
ten
digital services, all of which are trademarks of MTV Networks. MTV Networks
also has joint ventures, licensing agreements and syndication deals whereby
its programming can be seen worldwide.
