To the Fort Worth Arts Council:

It was with great dismay that I read in last Saturday morning’s paper that many deserving arts organizations across our city received not only support for the coming year, but greatly increased support from the Fort Worth Arts Council. As a staunch supporter of the arts, this bothered me only because the local arts organization from which my music students have benefited enormously over the past several years was not similarly rewarded. In fact, they received less funding than in the past. I am referring to Guitar Fort Worth, which has for several years provided life-altering experiences for my classic guitar students at J.P. Elder Middle School and North Side High School of the Fort Worth Independent School District.

For the past 28 years, I have directed mariachi music programs at each of these schools, occasionally benefiting from grants such as the Neighborhood Arts Program, formerly headed by Ken Kahn. An integral part of my curriculum for the guitar students in my mariachi music classes is the formal study of the classic guitar. In the forthcoming publication of the MENC, the National Association for Music Education, entitled “Foundations of Mariachi Education,” I put forth my deeply held belief that it is essential that our mariachi guitar students graduate from high school with training in more than simply the mariachi repertoire, which, in itself, does not prepare them for entrance into college and university music programs. However, while I hold a doctorate degree in anthropology/ethnomusicology and am a professional performer of mariachi music, I am only an “enthusiastic amateur” when it comes to classic guitar.

This is precisely where Guitar Fort Worth has come to our rescue. The initial offer they made to FWISD middle schools was to supply the fledgling guitar program at the Applied Learning Academy with a number of quality classic guitars for their students’ use. When I informed GFW that I was fairly well equipped in that regard due to my long tenure within the FWISD, they offered to give me free weekly classic guitar lessons with Artistic Director Michael Dailey at his Guitar Studio on Camp Bowie Boulevard, as they have with Applied Learning Academy guitar teacher Joe Veanueva. These sessions have proven enormously valuable to me, not only in improving the classic guitar technique I can model for my younger students, but also in my pursuit of better pedagogical methods, particularly when instructing my more advanced students.

But Guitar Fort Worth has done so much more for our young people. Members of Guitar Fort Worth’s Guitar Orchestra have made weekly visits to our classrooms in order to instruct our students in one-on-one and small group settings. These volunteers have included graduate and undergraduate students from Texas Wesleyan University and the University of North Texas, along with adult employees of the Lockheed Martin Corporation. Even more vital have been Michael Dailey’s weekly sessions with the classic guitar students at North Side High School, a direct result of which is that three of our students qualified to advance to the state-wide competition in Austin in May 2008. The foundation for this kind of success was laid several years ago when Guitar Fort Worth began providing-- free of charge-- a panel of professional and graduate student classic guitarists to serve as adjudicators for our annual middle school guitar Solo & Ensemble Competition held alternately at J.P. Elder Middle School and Texas Wesleyan University. Clearly, participation in this event has provided our students with experiences that have subsequently proven invaluable when performing in high school at the UIL level.

As I am sure you are already aware, Guitar Fort Worth presents an annual five-event series of concerts by world-class classic guitarists, in spite of being run on a shoestring budget by a 100% volunteer, non-salaried staff. In fact, while the Star- Telegram reported that certain local arts organizations received grant increases of $10,000-$30,000, the entire Guitar Fort Worth concert season requires a total funding of only $15,000!!! Internationally renowned artists such as Eliot Fisk have been so impressed by Guitar Fort Worth’s community outreach efforts that they routinely offer to perform at discounted rates!

For the past several years, Guitar Fort Worth has given 100% free tickets to every one of my 100+ classic guitar students to every one of their concerts, all of which are presented at Martin Hall on the campus of Texas Wesleyan University. This offer has also been extended to mariachi students at both Polytechnic High School in Fort Worth and Grand Prairie High School, along with the guitar students at the Applied Learning Academy. A number of years ago, another local classic guitar society (which shall remain unnamed) offered to give us from 5-10 free or partially discounted tickets, but only on the condition that they would be seats in the back row or balcony of the auditorium and if the society sales staff was unable to first sell the tickets to a paying customer. Thus, we would often not be made aware of the availability of tickets until the last possible minute--usually the actual day of or the day before the concert.

Obviously, this made acquisition of a school bus and completing required FWISD field trip permission paperwork extremely difficult and awkward, especially when we could never be sure just how many students I would be able to select for the privilege of attending the concert until the very last minute. I do not wish to appear ungrateful, but this type of offer is more than just demeaning (especially when my four or five selected concert attendees sat in designated seats in the back row-- at times seated on folding chairs-- and usually separated from the paying customers by several rows of what ultimately turned out to be unsold seats). It is also nearly impossible to take advantage of such an offer, especially when one has to justify the use of school funds to acquire an entire school bus-- for several hours-- for such a small handful of handpicked students.

As Guitar Fort Worth guarantees us complimentary tickets for as many students as we can fit into our school buses (including tickets for parents and faculty chaperones), I have been able to order school buses, in advance, without worrying about having to make last-minute cancellations. In addition, our principal, Dr. Carla Spaniel of J.P. Elder, has been highly impressed with the benefits our students have enjoyed and offered to fund our bus trips to every concert of the series, as she views it as an educationally meaningful and cost-effective utilization of our generally scanty district funds. I should also mention that Guitar Fort Worth has even been so generous as to provide dinner for our students at the concert venue to “tide them over” from the time of school dismissal on Friday evening at 4:30 until the conclusion of the concert at approximately 9:30 p.m.! (I should also add that several of our more advanced students were flattered to have been asked to provide classic guitar entertainment for concert attendees during the concert intermission-- and relished the opportunity to comply!)

But I have so far only scratched the proverbial “surface.” Each of the artists presented in concert by Guitar Fort Worth has visited our middle school campus on the afternoon of the concert and presented a mini-concert and master class for our 6th, 7th, and 8th grade guitar students. Imagine! Five times a year, our youngsters have been able to literally sit at the feet of the current international masters of the classic guitar and receive individualized suggestions and coaching from them! Our students have been able to question, perform before, and be personally counseled by recording artists including Ana Vidovic of Croatia (winner of the Albert Augustine Memorial International Guitar Competition, Rome’s Sor Competition, and the Francisco Tárrega International Guitar Competition), Spaniards Virginia Luque and Pablo Sáinz-Villegas (winner of both the Francisco Tárrega International Guitar Competition and the Christopher Parkening Prize), Marcela Sfriso of Argentina, Irene Gómez of Colombia, American Tom Sheeley (winner of the Manuel M. Ponce International Guitar Competition), and, most incredible, the eminent Eliot Fisk! One of my 8th grade students was even selected to perform in the master class presented by Mr. Fisk at Texas Wesleyan University, shoulder to shoulder with graduate and undergraduate students from around the region!

My music educator colleagues across the nation are unanimously envious of my good fortune to have such a beneficial relationship with an arts association with the outreach mission of an organization of the caliber of Guitar Fort Worth. Closer to home, my colleagues within the FWISD also salivate over the mere pipedream that anyone from the local music ensembles, such as the Fort Worth Opera or Fort Worth Symphony would ever even consider providing the kind of community outreach to our band, orchestra, and choral music students that is simply “business as usual” for our “angels” at Guitar Fort Worth. They may not be expert at self-promotion-- and I concede that is all-important in the cutthroat world of funding for the arts-- but isn’t this group of selfless individuals worth another look?

I certainly hope so!

Respectfully,

William J. Gradante, PhD

Mariachi and Classic Guitar Instructor

North Side High School & J.P. Elder Middle School

Fort Worth Independent School District