Advocacy resources: U.N. conference and music organizations promote music's benefits - Music in the Community - United Nations - Brief Article

From the United Nations to the local school board, law- and policymakers are heeding the advocacy message of music teachers and related experts in the field.

Several of the world's leading authorities on music and wellness addressed a U.N. conference on December 6, 2001, to advance the study and use of music making as a tool for wellness around the globe.

"Each culture has rhythm, which with today's knowledge can improve the quality of life and become a medical tool in developing countries," said Conference Coordinator Dianne Davis, founding president of the International Council for Caring Communities, one of the event's sponsors.

"Music is a universal, innate language; you are born with it," noted Conference Chair Dr. Matthew Lee, Howard A. Rusk Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at New York University (NYU) School of Medicine and adjunct professor of music and music education at NYU. "It is not acquired like language. It has no national boundaries. Your body is composed of a box of rhythms: cardiac, sleeping, endocrine, menstrual, movements, etc. When these rhythms are altered, you have illness or disease."

Before the assembled experts and U.N. delegates began the four-hour conference, actress, singer and arts advocate Kitty Carlisle Hart greeted conference participants at a special luncheon addressed by Andre Erdos, the U.N. Ambassador from the Republic of Hungary, who discussed music and diplomacy.

The conference, titled "Music, Culture, Technology and Healthcare," was funded by the American Music Conference (AMC) and sponsored by the International Council for Caring Communities and the Rusk Institute as part of the United Nations "Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations 2001."

Several presentations included direct calls to action. Neurologist and author Dr. Barry Bittman proposed a series of U.N. resolutions that would recognize music making as "an inalienable right of all people worldwide" and to add music to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Professor, author and music therapist Dr. Joseph Nagler offered his own set of proposals, calling on the U.N. to promote the creation and sharing of new scientific research into the uses of technology for therapeutic music making. "We have much to teach each other in our shared dialogue," he said. "New opportunities for sharing our unique cultures abound. Perhaps one of the most exciting new developments of our time is the advent of new technologies."

Davis concluded the proceeding with a call for the people of the world to embrace the healing power of music and technologies that may foster it, to use music to create a dialogue among children and to encourage new avenues of research. Davis indicated her organization would formulate these various proposals into a formal slate to be put before the U.N. for action.

The groundbreaking event took place in an atmosphere of heightened awareness concerning the demonstrable link between musical activities and a person's physical well-being. Studies in recent years have found that music making has effects such as increasing melatonin levels in patients with Alzheimer's Disease, for example, or increasing levels of "natural killer cells" in the immune system. Effects such as these have particular relevance in a global context, since music can cross national, cultural and economic boundaries more easily than traditional medicine or pharmaceuticals.

"This is a place where we can make history," Bittman told the assemblage. "Music has to become a basic element of what people do."

To learn more about the International Council for Caring Communities, visit www.international-iccc.org. The Rusk Institute for Rehabilitation Medicine can be reached online at www.msnyuhealth.org /ri/rusk/homepage_rusk.jsp.

On the local advocacy scene, NAMM-International Music Products Association and AMC offer resources to help music teachers and other music education supporters.

The Music Education Advocate's Toolkit, also known as "The Einstein Kit," is available from NAMM and AMC. Providing teachers with pointers and resources for lobbying and advocacy efforts, the Toolkit is making a big difference for music programs nationwide.

Included in the kit is a comprehensive, step-by-step guide on how to get started, along with the "Music & The Mind" video, presenting an irrefutable case for the benefits of music education to brain development. You'll also find a CD-ROM for Macintosh or PC with a PowerPoint presentation to help you sell and win over your local school or other community organization. The CD features handouts, press releases, fact sheets, posters, "Learning to Play" brochures and celebrity radio Public Service Announcements (PSAs).

NAMM members can order a free kit by calling NAMM's Market Development Department at (800) 767-6266, or write to NAMM International Music Products Association, 5790 Armada Dr., Carlsbad, CA 92008.

A web-based version of the Toolkit is available through AMC at www.amc-music.org/atk.html. AMC provides a guidebook, in downloadable PDF format, to accompany the Toolkit. The aforementioned PowerPoint presentation, press releases, PSAs and research summaries are available online. The AMC website also has bullet points listing "what teachers can do" to become advocates for community music education.