News of $50,000 Award Music to Ears of Department Director

Oxnard High School’s under-funded music program hits the big time tonight during its spring concert with a $50,000 award from the Grammy Foundation and a guest appearance by R&B; singer Brian McKnight.

Selected from nearly 500 public schools nationwide, Oxnard High is the first recipient of the foundation’s Grammy Signature School Enterprise Award.

“We are absolutely thrilled,” said Bruce Edmiston, acting head of the school’s music department. “I am rarely at a loss for words.... I was stunned.”

With a school-provided budget of about $2,700 per year, Edmiston said, things as simple as having enough sheet music for all 250 musicians have been a challenge.

“If we want to buy something new, we’re out washing cars or selling cookies,” he said. “We’re not in an area that’s financially affluent. It’s really a challenge for some of these kids.”

Edmiston said he almost passed on applying for the award last fall because all his previous efforts to win such grants had failed. And when the charitable arm of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Science sent him a note this spring saying Oxnard had not been selected as one of its “signature” schools, which receive $1,000 each, the mention that it was still eligible for the Enterprise award didn’t mean much.

The 6-year-old program chose 41 schools across the country for recognition this year; six of them -- including Long Beach’s Poly High and Irvine’s Northwood High School -- each received “gold” status and $5,000. The school judged to have the nation’s best program is Davidson Fine Arts Academy, Augusta, Ga., which won $25,000.

“Just like the Grammys honor professional music excellence, we wanted to honor excellence on the high school level,” said David Sears, the foundation’s senior director of education programs.

The foundation and its corporate partner, Seven Up, decided to add a needs-based category this year to make a difference in an otherwise struggling music program.

“This is a school with a decent program, but it has certain financial challenges that an infusion of cash could help them overcome,” Sears said of Oxnard High. “We were looking for a school not only looking to expand its current program, but also to expand programs to reach kids who hadn’t been involved before.”

Oxnard High’s plans seem tailor-made for that mission.

Edmiston said he had tried for years to begin a guitar curriculum to appeal to students who wouldn’t consider learning more traditional instruments, such as violin, clarinet or trombone. When he posted a signup sheet this semester to gauge interest, more than 100 students signed up for a class that hadn’t yet been designed. Now he can buy dozens of acoustic and electric guitars with amplifiers.

The award money also will go to create a separate computer lab with specialized software to allow students to compose and analyze music and to establish a recording studio where teens can train as audio engineers and sound technicians.

“What they’re planning to do with this money is exactly what we were looking for,” Sears said. Oxnard Mayor Manuel Lopez, county schools Supt. Charles Weis and Oxnard High Principal James Edwards planned to attend the award presentation.

Edmiston said every student in the music program was expected to perform at tonight’s show -- an eclectic two-hour mix of vocal and instrumental classic, jazz, soul, rock and mariachi music beginning at 7:30 p.m. Although crooner McKnight, whose 1999 hit “Back at One” sold more than 2 million copies, is set to sing only one song, the instructor thinks he will probably do more.

The final song on tonight’s program, Earth Wind and Fire’s “Sing a Song,” has some vocal parts ideal for McKnight’s style, said Edmiston, suggesting that the multiple Grammy nominee might care to join in.

More important, his appearance guarantees the school’s 574-seat auditorium will be filled. And at $10 a ticket in addition to refreshment sales, the award presentation will benefit the struggling department.