Music Empowers Foundation celebrates "Music In Our Schools Month" with "Music Teachers Matter" Video Contest and a grant to Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation

Music Empowers Foundation celebrates "Music In Our Schools Month" with "Music Teachers Matter" Video Contest and a grant to Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation

NEW YORK, March 7, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Music Empowers Foundation revealed its plans today to celebrate "Music in Our Schools Month", an annual celebration, spanning the month of March. Activities include new grants and a video contest celebrating school music programs and teachers.

As part of the celebration, Music Empowers today announced a first time grant to the Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation. The Foundation is a California-based not for profit that, to date, has provided musical instruments to over 1,300 schools nationwide, benefiting hundreds of thousands of students.

"We're very grateful to Music Empowers Foundation for giving us this opportunity to put instruments into more kids' hands so they can experience the benefits of playing music," said Felice Mancini, President & CEO, The Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation. "The music education community is fortunate to have the support of Music Empowers and together we can keep music alive for all children in school."

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION! Music Empowers also announced the kick off of the "Music Teachers Matter" video contest. For this event, music education supporters can submit short videos, explaining why their local school's music program and its teachers are important and special to them.

All video submissions will be reviewed by a panel of representatives from prestigious music education not for profits including Little Kids Rock and Berklee College of Music's City Music Program. The school music program selected for the top video will receive a $2,500 grant from the Music Empowers Foundation.

The "Music Teachers Matter" video contest is open to all music education advocates, ages 18 and older. Videos can be submitted through March 31(st) and the top video will be announced in early April.

To enter and learn more about the "Music Teachers Matters" video contest, visit http://musicempowersfoundation.org/music-teachers-matter-2013.html.

ABOUT MUSIC EMPOWERS FOUNDATION

Music Empowers Foundation is a 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit that provides financial support to nonprofits that offer music education programs to communities with limited or nonexistent programs. Since its inception in early 2010, it has awarded over half a million dollars in grants to organizations such as: Little Kids Rock, Berklee City Music, DonorsChoose.org, Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation, Artists Corps of America and Blackbird Academy of Arts. For more information on Music Empowers please go to www.musicempowersfoundation.org, become a fan on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter.

ABOUT THE MR. HOLLAND'S OPUS FOUNDATION

The Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation donates new and refurbished musical instruments to underserved schools in an effort to give youngsters the many benefits of music education, help them to be better students and inspire creativity and expression through playing music. Hundreds of thousands of students across the country have benefited and thousands of instruments have been donated to more than 1,300 school music programs across the country. More information can be found at www.mhopus.org

Contact: Andy Davis, andy@musicempowersfoundation.org

SOURCE Music Empowers Foundation

Music Empowers Foundation

CONTACT: Andy Davis, andy@musicempowersfoundation.org, +1-908-647-1484

Web Site: http://www.musicempowersfoundation.org


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