What? Musical Visions: Live Music & Art Auction – Saugerties, NY
When? Saturday, May 4
Where? OPUS 40, Saugerties, NY opus40.org
Why? Benefit for Hungry for Music; transformed musical instruments by NY-area artists auctioned to raise money to purchase new musical instruments for HfM’s music instrument donation program.
How much? Donations accepted. Also, HfM will be accepting donations of usable musical instruments at the event.
Music? TBA
Food? provided by several local restaurants, bakeries, and chefs.
Source: http://facebook.com/events/157097927783757/

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PRESS RELEASE

OPUS 40 TO HOST FUNDRAISER FOR HUNGRY FOR MUSIC
Event will feature auction of artworks created from old musical instruments, live music, and food

SAUGERTIES, NY — A fundraiser for Hungry for Music (HFM), a grassroots, not-for-profit organization that provides free musical instruments to underserved children, will take place on Saturday, May 4, at Opus 40 in Saugerties, from TBA pm. The event, “Musical Visions: Live Music Art Auction,” will feature an exhibition and auction of old musical instruments that have been turned into paintings, sculptures, and assemblages by more than 30 area artists; live music by TBA; and food provided by several local restaurants, bakeries, and chefs.

According to Jeff Campbell, director of Hungry for Music, the volunteer-driven organization’s mission is “to get instruments into the hands of kids who are eager to learn but can’t afford to buy their own.” To that end, the organization—which is based in the District of Columbia—collects donated instruments and has bestowed them upon thousands of underprivileged children all over the United States. The group’s programs are supported through memberships, benefit concerts and events, raffles, and the sale of Hungry for Music–produced CDs.

Although most of the donated instruments quickly find homes, some of them “have exhausted their usefulness,” Campbell says, and these are the instruments that have been given to artists to transform into remarkably striking works of art.

Admission to the Opus 30 event is by donation. Attendees are also welcome to bring old, but still functional musical instruments to donate. The artwork will be sold in a silent auction that will take place during the event.

For more information send us a message.

facebook.com/events/157097927783757/

What? Hungry for Crawfish #18 benefiting Hungry for Music When? Saturday, May 18, 2013 – Noon til 5 pm. Where? Ft. Hunt Park, Alexandria, VA Who? Bands (To Be Announced) Food? All you can eat crawfish, potatoes, bread, and corn. Drink? Beer & soda served. How Much? $40.00 in advance via paypal, also donations accepted

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Please consider a donation to Hungry for Music today and help put a music instrument into the hands of a deserving child.

Donation | Item Donated $20 cowbell/percussion $75 acoustic guitar $100 violin $150 electric guitar $200 electric bass Join Hungry for Music and Sister Cities in supporting Morazan, E cowbell/percussion $20.00 acoustic guitar $75.00 violin $100.00 electric guitar $150.00 electric bass $200.00

Hungry for Music and Montgomery County Sister Cities have joined to provide musical instruments for the youth of Morazan, El Salvador – the first sister city in a county program that hopes to expand to cities throughout the world. With the help of Hungry for Music, a Takoma Park-based charity that donates musical instruments to underserved children, the mission is to raise $2,500 to purchase instruments through a vendor in El Salvador and support a city youth development program and boost the local economy. The fundraising drive, which began July 1, will run through July 25.

“Montgomery County’s Sister Cities program will help to enrich our community by building relationships around the world to promote cultural, educational and economic development opportunities,” County Executive Ike Leggett said.

During a 2010 trip to Morazan, a Montgomery County Sister Cities delegation toured a newly built House of Culture community center in Perquin. The city’s mayor asked the delegation for musical instruments to create an out-of-school music program. The delegation later decided this request was one they would fulfill first. Delegation member Bruce Adams, director of the county’s Office of Community Partnerships and founder of the Bethesda Big Train baseball team, had worked with Hungry for Music founder and director Jeff Campbell and turned to him that charity, which has donated more than 5,000 instruments to youth across the United States and abroad. In this case, the instruments will be purchased in El Salvador, working with businesses there to supply and transport them.

You can support the campaign by buying a raffle ticket for a First Act electric guitar (valued at $2,000) at Bethesda Big Train games or Strathmore Summer Concert Series shows. Donations also can be made online at www.hungryformusic.org.

Here’s is what a typical donation could buy for Perquin’s House of Culture: $20, cowbell/percussion; $75, acoustic guitar; $100, violin; $150, electric guitar, $200 electric bass, $200.

During the last week in July, Leggett, former U.S. Rep. Connie Morella, Delegate Ana Sol Gutierrez and County Council member George Leventhal are leading a 65-person delegation to return to Morazan, a rural department (the equivalent of a state) in eastern El Salvador, formalize the Sister City relationship.(Is this correct?? A check for musical instruments will be presented at that time.

The independent, nonprofit Montgomery County Sister Cities Inc., chaired by former Town of Chevy Chase mayor Bill Hudnut, was established to connect the county to the world by encouraging and fostering friendship, partnership and mutual cooperation through educational, cultural, social, economic, humanitarian and charitable exchanges. The organization’s objectives include encouraging the people of Montgomery County and those of similar communities in other nations to acquire information about each other and to understand one another as individuals, as members of their community, as citizens of their country, and as part of the family of nations. It also hopes to foster a continuing relationship of mutual concern between Montgomery County residents and the people of similar communities in other nations. The Sister Cities group also plans to participate as an organization in the fostering and publicizing of local, state and national programs of international cooperation.

Diamond Cuts Project UPDATE!
So far, 74 donors and $3,500 was pledged, and we will be very happy that you follow through on your pledge!

Since the project was not fully funded with the Kickstarter campaign, the Kickstarter website will not charge anyone for the donations. To follow through with your pledges, please donate directly to Hungry for Music through PayPal. If you do not have a PayPal account, then you can simply use a credit card or debit card at the PayPal page.

Just like before, all donations will receive a code for a free music download!
Please follow through on your pledges, and please help us raise the last $1,500 so that we can create and release the new album! Thank you!

Get Your Hungry For Music T-Shirt!

Every shirt you purchase will help suppport Hungry For Music to help put more musical
instruments into the hands of deserving underprivileged children!

Sizes:
Small, Medium, Large, X-Large, XX-Large

Colors:
Royal Blue, Yellow, Red, Black, Grey

Cost:
$20 (S, M, L, XL)
$23 (XXL)

Hungry for Music T-Shirts

Large $20.00 USD Medium $20.00 USD Small $20.00 USD X-Large $20.00 USD XX-Large $23.00 USD

Colors

Royal Blue Yellow Red Black Grey

Helen White was just trying to spice up a music class.

She was the elementary school counselor for Allegany County, N.C. She also is an avid musician – guitar and fiddle – who frequented the fiddle competitions and music festivals of the mountainous area where she lived. Through her job, she knew every kid in the county, and she knew those kids weren’t attending those events.

So one day, she saw the music teacher in one of her schools showing pictures of instruments to his class to teach them about the instruments. She convinced him to let her bring in some instruments the next week and let the children spend 30 seconds playing the instrument of their choice.

There was a learning-disabled girl in the class. She was in third grade but old enough to be in fourth – she had been held back a year. “She was bigger than me … heavier, too,” White recalled.

The girl was from a musical family – several of its members had formed a string band years ago, before she was born. She made the most of her 30 seconds. “She hunkered over his bass and began to play,” White said. “She pulled these tones out of it nobody had heard before. The class went silent. Then, it erupted in applause.”

That moment changed Helen White’s life. She determined right then she had to bring this music to these kids. It was theirs after all – their heritage, their tradition, their community. She wasn’t so much looking to create master musicians as to introduce them to the music community of relatively healthy role models and maybe, in some cases, reawaken some dormant DNA.

And that’s how Junior Appalachian Musicians – or JAM – was born. What began with one program in one school has grown to 22 programs in three states that serve more than 900 kids – about 60 percent of whom qualify for free and reduced-cost meals in their schools.

White’s role has evolved as well. She took an early retirement from her job as school counselor and now serves as the regional director of Junior Appalachian Musicians, Inc. The programs are autonomous and must raise their own money. But she wants them to observe standards – criminal background checks for the adults who interact with kids, community-based boards of directors to oversee operations and some assurances the teachers know their craft. Since JAM, Inc. doesn’t fund the groups, it gains some leverage in part from its ability to distribute instruments to start-ups or those struggling financially or growing rapidly.

And that’s where Hungry For Music comes in. A few times each year, the Hungry For Music van rolls into Galax, Va., in the far southwestern corner of the state, with instruments to donate to JAM. Fender guitars and banjos are the most common donations, but other instruments are donated as well. White has two new groups – one with 65 kids, another with 80 – and they are growing thanks in part to a large donation of instruments by HFM in May.

“Instruments are a huge expense for groups when they start up,” White said. “The cost is a real barrier to entry, and we don’t want it to be.”

Now, one of White’s biggest challenges is to keep groups from hoarding instruments. “It’s a big problem, They want to save instruments so they can improve on what they have,” she said. “So we ask if you don’t use an instrument for a year to please return it so we can it into the hands of someone who will.”
Which meshes nicely with the mission of Hungry For Music, which also seeks to get instruments from people who don’t use them anymore into the hands of people who do.

“We’re trying to get these kids into this big surrogate family, this big community where they can hang out,” White said. “Hungry For Music has been great to us. They call and say, ‘Here’s what we have. What do you need?’ It’s been terrific to be associated with them.”

regionaljam.org

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Please consider a donation to Hungry for Music today and help put a music instrument into the hands of a deserving child.

Win A $5000 Custom Guitar!
Donate $50 Get Free T-Shirt Or CD

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If you donated $50 or more, please choose a gift, and enter it into the field where you donated. If you forgot to tell us which gift you wanted, then it’s ok – just send us an email here and we will get you your gift! If you didn’t give your address in PayPal then please give us your address in the contact form so we know where to send your gift!’

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Choose between one of the following gifts ($50+ Donations Only):
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Ticket purchase through eventbrite.com here:

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Press Release: Local Artists Create Art From Old Musical Instruments Donated To HFM

At Hungry for Music, our mission is to get instruments into the hands of kids who are eager to learn but can’t afford to buy their own. We collect a lot of donated instruments. Some are lightly used. Some never have produced a note of music. But many have exhausted their usefulness – as musical instruments.

We get asked frequently, “What do you do with the instruments that don’t work anymore?”
What if they could be used for something else? It turns out they can. In fact, it turns out they can be transformed into remarkably striking art.

We plan to throw a party with great music, food and drink, and show and sell that art to benefit Hungry for Music. The event will be Nov. 8 at the Gibson Guitar VIP Showroom, 709 G Street NW, Suite 400, in Washington, D.C.

We teamed with local artists Ellyn Weiss and Richard Dana, old friends from our days at the Millennium Arts Studio in Southwest D.C., to find artists to transform old musical instruments into works of art.

Some 20-30 artists will participate. They will create artwork that will be sold in a silent auction that will take place during the event.

Who?
DC artists come together to support Hungry for Music with fundraiser art auction & Bluegrass, Blues, & Jazz trios providing entertainment throughout the evening
First Set – Bob Perilla’s Big Hillbilly Bluegrass
Second Set – Rick Franklin & Charles Solomon Blues
Third Set – Bohemian Caverns Jazz Trio

What?
Musical Visions:
Live Music & Art Auction
Bluegrass/Blues/Jazz & Instruments Altered by Artists

When?
Thursday, November 8
7 pm – 11 pm (doors 6:30)

Where?
Gibson Guitar VIP Showroom
709 G Street, Level 400
Washington, DC

Across from National Portrait Gallery
Door to elevator, next to Redline Restaurant

How Much?
Tickets (option to donate more): $30.00
If you donate $75.00 or more you receive HFM Chanukah or Christmas CD, HFM t-shirt, and an opportunity to win a $5,000.00 guitar.

Tickets available at
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1227109317/?ref=esfbenivtefor001

Questions? email hungryformusic@att.net