Upbeat Again

IRVINE — As the young musicians play, here and there a stray violin bow slides up while the others go down. It is the first lesson of the year, and students at Brywood Elementary School are shaking the summer rust from their fingers.

Teacher Irene Kroesen keeps the 25 sixth-graders in check. They want to play faster, but she takes it slow, reminding them to sit up straight and to lower their wrists.

After the lesson is over, cellist Jimmy Shirley, 11, reflects for a moment on his love of music. Whether plucking out “Pretty Woman” or practicing Bach’s Brandenberg Concerto, he said, “Music is, like, a part of my life.”

With the reopening of schools in the fall comes the beginning of band and orchestra season, and thousands of students throughout the county flock to lessons.

In Orange County, a musical dry spell of sorts is beginning to pass. Where once music programs were constantly in jeopardy because of budget problems, the improving economy has been a boon for the arts.

What has helped also is that attitudes toward music have changed in recent years. Music lessons were once considered a frill, but a growing body of research indicates a link between musicianship and intelligence. A UC Irvine study found that listening to Mozart temporarily improved performance on IQ tests taken immediately after.

“I think there’s a resurgence of interest in instrumental music because quite a bit of information has been made available as to the value of music instruction,” said Stan Steele, fine arts director of the Irvine Unified School District.

Twelve-year-old Paul Gahng, a violinist in Kroesen’s class, believes it.

“My mom tells me stuff about that research at UCI, like if you listen to a lot of classical music you get smarter. I think it’s true ‘cause I get better grades now,” said Gahng, whose favorite violin piece--yes, violin piece--is the theme to “Mission: Impossible.”

About 2,500 students are enrolled in Irvine’s instrumental music programs, Steele said, and the district rents instruments to about 800 of them. But demand exceeds supply.

Which is why parents throughout the county have been standing in lines at instrument shops in the rush to be ready for school.

“We’ve had them standing in line 10-deep,” said Ron Leon, general manager of Costa Mesa Music. Instruments rent for $40 to $50 a month, he said, and the store keeps in close contact with surrounding school districts to keep in stock those instruments most in demand.

“The only one we’re not able to stock sufficiently is the alto saxophone,” Leon said. “It’s a popular instrument and it’s fairly expensive to buy, so there’s a big demand.”

Santa Ana Unified also has more would-be musicians than instruments, even though the school district supplies 1,000 instruments to elementary students, music coordinator Randy Coleman said.

“One of our problems is that we have so many kids that want to play an instrument, and often they don’t have the means to go out and rent one,” Coleman said. The district always is seeking donated instruments, he said.

As in other districts, in the past few years, Santa Ana’s music program has flourished or suffered according to the district’s budget. Currently it is flourishing, Coleman said.

Recorder lessons for third-graders, which introduced them to playing an instrument, were eliminated in 1992 but reinstated last year.

“We’ve seen the benefit of that now this year, because the kids who had hands-on experience now have an opportunity to play flute or clarinet or trumpet, and they know the fundamentals.”

Also, the school board added a seventh period, which allows students more opportunity to take elective courses. “We haven’t quantified it yet, but there’s a definite increase in music enrollment,” Coleman said.

About 1,200 K-8 students in Santa Ana play an instrument at school, as do 960 high school students.

For 11-year-old Jimmy Shirley though, budgets and scheduling, mental agility and intelligence tests are unimportant. He just likes music.

“I’ve been playing the cello since the fourth grade and it’s has a blues sound, a jazz sound that I just really like,” he said.

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Optimistic Note

Increased enrollment in school music classes could prove to be a boon for local musical instrument stores, where sales have been moribund through the 1990s. Stores and sales, in millions: (line charts)

* Through September; most recent information available

Source: State Board of Equalization