Within the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum of our nation’s capitol, there is a gallery dedicated to a very interesting subject: tracking the history of music education in the public schools of the nation’s capitol of Washington, D.C.

“Arts and music are the soul of education,” wrote Gwendolyn Hankerson, an early advocate of school band programs within that school system. This powerful quote greeted a delegation of NAMM Members at the entrance to the gallery, and no words better crystallize the association’s position on the importance of music and arts education within America’s public schools.

Mary Luehrsen, NAMM’s director of public affairs and government relations, calls the association’s ongoing interest in music education for all children “a moral, social and cultural as well as a business imperative” for the music products industry.

For this reason, each spring for the past decade, NAMM and its growing coalition of allies have trekked through the bustling halls of Congress to meet with elected officials on behalf of music education.

And March 2007 was no different. Converging on the capitol was a collection of NAMM Members—current and previous members of the Board, the Executive Committee and partners—who joined NAMM staffers in greeting the new Congress and beginning to find our industry’s place in the changing political landscape.

But before they could embark on this mission, the group met in an office building in the shadow of the Capitol for a full day with NAMM’s lobbying firm, Nelson, Mullins, Riley and Scarborough, and the association’s general counsel, Jim Goldberg. NMR&S’ Leo Coco and team planned an aggressive schedule of meetings that would allow the group to visit with more than 30 key legislators collectively in the short time they were in town. Splitting into three groups with various segments of the industry well represented, the participants knew what they had to do.

The purpose of the Capitol Hill meetings was to:

1. Inform key legislators about NAMM and the music products industry.
2. Discuss research findings linking the core curriculum subjects of music and arts education in public schools to children’s improved academic performance and development.
3. Ask for their continued support during the next year to ensure that music and the arts remain core curriculum subjects in the reauthorization of the “No Child Left Behind” Act.

These meetings ranged from desk-side briefings with such political heavyweights as Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) to informal stand-ups in the halls of Congress with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Chairman of the committee that will reauthorize NCLB, Congressman George Miller (D-Calif.).

“One key difference between NAMM and every other association representing businesses here today, is our industry’s intense passion and belief in music,” said Luehrsen. “That is our best asset.”

Adding to that passion, the group was joined by singer/songwriter Tony Orlando and pop singer and GRAMMY award-winning artist Mya. Both spoke at a reception hosted by NAMM and the VH1 Save the Music Foundation in the Mansfield Room, just steps away from the Senate chamber in the U.S. Capitol building.

“I beg you elected officials here today to please make sure the next generation of children, no matter where they live or how much money their parents make, have equal access to music and the arts, so that they can reach the full potential of their spirits,” said Orlando.

Mya also spoke eloquently about the benefits of music education in her life. “Music taught me how to solve problems, think creatively and basically rounded me out as a person, and I happened to choose it as career as well,” she said.

After an exhaustive week of Washington activities, NAMM President and CEO Joe Lamond summed up the mind-set of the group best when he said, “One day we hope there will no longer be a need to save music education in thousands of schools across the country, but until that day comes, we will do what every group with a clear mission in front of them has done—we will work.”