New From Barry

Hi everyone!

I’m recuperating and doing fine.

Thanks for all good wishes.

The Hollywood Bowl show was a fantastic experience for all of us. The crowd was amazing and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra was magnificent. Hearing those beautiful arrangements and orchestrations made me want to stop singing and just listen to them!

The music was definitely a highlight of the night, but a close second was the knowledge that we were raising money to buy musical instruments for kids in the L.A. schools.

As you know, because of budget slashes, the Music and Arts departments of the public schools all over the country are being cut.

And even the schools that still have music departments are struggling to keep them going. They’re running out of instruments and the ones that they do have are in terrible shape. They need music stands, sheet music, band uniforms – you name it, they need it.

Music classes aren’t just for playtime. Music keeps the kids in school. Really. It keeps the kids coming back to school.

Ask any music teacher and they all say the same thing: when kids are in music classes their grades go up, they learn how to interact with other students and they stay in school.

The thought that the schools don’t have musical instruments or worse, that they may not have Music classes at all is just killing me.

I would like to ask you all to dive in and help me if you possibly can.

It would be so great if you could call your local high schools or middle schools and ask them what instruments they needed and if you could spring it, get the instruments for them.

I’m not suggesting anything near as large as what we’ve been doing of course. Just a trumpet or a clarinet or maybe even one of those Casio or Sony keyboards.

Maybe you’ve got some old music stands in the basement or a set of drums that no one is using anymore up in the attic. Just dust off Aunt Bessie, push her out of the way, and drive the set of drums down to the school!

If you guys could begin to help your local schools by keeping their music classes going, it would be the greatest Get-Well gift you could ever give me.

Once again, thanks for all the get-well wishes.

See you soon.
Love,
Barry

PS……If you don’t have an Aunt Bessie…..and want us to get instruments to schools in need…..you can also go to: www.manilowfund.org then hit Donate Now………..

Barry, that was too funny, and I'm glad you are doing well and getting some much needed rest. As for me, I've been contributing to my school for years, and have a portable keyboard (plugs into the macs at school) that the music teachers use every year with my blessing.

First things first, though, there's an election coming up for a school bond that will rebuild my school. The school needs instruments, but we also need an updated school. We need the local citizens of Tempe to vote yes on the school bond. My school (K-8) is 40 years old and is having some major problems that are getting more and more costly to keep the school a safe learning environment.

My love to you, I'm looking forward to seeing you in December for one of your benefit concerts at the McCallum Theater.

Dawn