I asked some of my professors why? Their reply was, " the African American students are not sufficcient in Music Theory." So, I'm petetioning all of my fellow Black Music Artist to really help our black youth in the areas of Music theory.

If you have any suggestions or comments please post it.

With the advent of easy electronic music it is a
challenge to engage primary school age children in
the pursuit of musical literacy. As a teacher, I
am constantly confronted with "why bother--I just
press this button on my $199 keyboard and it does
all the work". Obviously, this isn't the whole problem but it is a contributing factor.

I've not noticed that music theory is covered in the public schools. In my case, the choral director offered it in my high school for the first time during my senior year, which really helped me when I entered college.

We do need to encourage students, especially voice students, to not only hear pitch and chordal relationships, but to understand the theory, too.

Good luck!!

Randye J.
(who still *loves* Picardi thirds)

I'm looking for a little biographical infomation on a great voice teacher - Frederick Wilkerson. He taught in Washington, DC, later in NY where he died. Would appreciate any bio data you can share
kv

Please get in touch with me and find out about an organisation that is concerned about this.

Mike Wright

Chair - International African to American Music Society

e-mail - is-aam-uk@fsmail.net

Monique Thomas African American age 18 sings Classical Music. This young lady was one of the recipients of the National Music Scholarship for Vocal Performance-$7,000. She will compete for the National Music Foundation for Advancement of Art in January 2002. This scholarship is worth $25,000.00 Monique sings German, French, and Italian Opera. She can also sing pop, jazz, broadway, and spirituals. She has had experiencec in Broadway Musical and twice she was cast as one of the soloist. Forty Second Street she played "Roxy" Monique can tap but not like the tappers in forty second street they kept her they could hide her inability to tap but they would not have been successful in voice she was the best singer and her voice is very powerful and she was able to go over the not so refine voices.