Keith Urban says Hi. Really. I mean, he was twenty feet away and talking and singing and stuff and he looked right at me and said “Hi.” I’m sure he meant for me to pass it along to you. He seems like that kind of guy. Not hard to figure when you learn that his concert Friday night was a benefit for the GRAMMY Foundation’s GRAMMY in the Schools® music education programs for high school students and the Southern California Tennis Association Foundation. It was a beautiful night at the LA Tennis Center on the UCLA campus. A concert under the stars in Straus Stadium featuring the Avett Brothers and Keith. I would say something quaint about blowing the roof off the dump but, you know, there wasn’t a roof. But you get the idea.
One of the programs getting some of the cash from the concert was the sixth annual GRAMMY Camp®. I was a band geek in my youth so the idea of the ultimate band camp kind of gets my heart racing.
This year 81 talented high school students from 72 cities and 20 states across the US were selected to participate in classes and seminars about the technical aspects of creating, performing and recording with an emphasis on new and emerging music technologies. The program offered 10 music career tracks: Audio Engineering; Concert Promotion/Production; Electronic Music Production; Music Journalism; and performance tracks in Bass; Drums; Guitar; Keyboards; Singer/Songwriter; and Winds & Strings. All tracks culminated in media projects, CD recordings and/or showcase performances. Right. My summer at band camp consisted of various rehearsals, cafeteria food, and awkward conversations with the cute (okay, a junior high level of cuteness) trumpet player. Oh, and my camp definitely did not include Keith Urban as honorary dean.
So, you can rest assured that violinist Kevin Schwarzwald, drummer India Pascucci, vocalist Katie Gavin, guitarist Kristen Castro, and vocalists Brenna Miles and Savannah Meares will take away much stronger memories from their camp experience than I did because during the Starry Night concert, Keith invited them to join him on stage to perform his number one smash “Days Go By.” The crowd, as they say, went wild.
This is the paragraph where I write the part about how music is so, so, so important to kids – how it improves their brains and their social skills and their souls. This is the sentence that reminds you that schools are cutting programs left, right, and center. And this is the link that will let you chip in towards making sure that music continues to be a part of every child’s life. Thanks.
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Photograph courtesy of The Recording Academy®
Photographed by: Jordan Strauss/WireImage.com © 2010
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Tags: Avett Brothers, Farmers Classic Tennis Tournament, GRAMMY Camp, GRAMMY Foundation, Keith Urban, Starry Night
