News Releases

The fourth annual “Best 100 Communities for Music Education” survey is underway, and supporters of music across the country should take note that the American Music Conference (AMC) and its partners have moved up the annual timetable to make it easier for more people to participate.

Continuing its long history of success, the 101st NAMM Show opened today, bringing together a record 1,309 exhibiting companies, a record number of international attendees and thousands of retail buyers for the music products industry’s largest annual event in the United States.

A new and exciting element to enhance NAMM’s upcoming Music Edge teen initiative is its partnership with the USA WEEKEND/John Lennon Songwriting Contest for Teens. Today at 5 p.m., there will be a press reception to announce and kick off the second annual Teen Contest at the 2003 NAMM Show at the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus in Hall E of the Anaheim Convention Center. Vanessa Carlton, one of this year’s Teen Songwriting Contest celebrity judges, will be a special guest. Other surprises are anticipated.

Emmy Award winner Eric McCormack (NBC’s “Will & Grace”) will host The 2003 NAMM Concert Honoring Sir Elton John: A Benefit for Music Education, presented by Yamaha. The benefit will be held on January 17 at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, Calif.

The executive committee of the American Music Conference (AMC) today announced the appointment of Robert Walker as the nonprofit organization’s new executive director. Walker follows in the footsteps of Joe Lamond, Pat Page, Bob Morrison and Karl Bruhn as he takes the AMC reigns as executive director.

With support from NAMM, the International Music Products Association and its nonprofit affiliate, IFMR, the International Foundation for Music Research, The Institute for Music and Neurologic Function will present a full-day conference called Dialogues Across Disciplines: Cognitive Neuroscience and Music Processing in Human Function on December 2, 2002, at the Hudson Theatre and the Millennium Broadway Hotel.

Some of the world’s most popular performers will participate in The 2003 NAMM Concert Honoring Sir Elton John: A Benefit for Music Education, presented by Yamaha. The benefit will be held on January 17 at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, California.

In an effort to make the 2003 NAMM Show experience more convenient and enjoyable for participants, NAMM today announced the availability of a new shuttle bus system with special discounted rates for NAMM Members.

On behalf of her son, recording artist Justin Timberlake, and parents across America, Lynn Harless of Tennessee visited Capitol Hill today to deliver a petition in support of music education.

NAMM, the International Music Products Association, recently received a $100,000 Educational Improvement grant from the U.S. Department of Education to support its “MusicVentures in School” program, a project that aims to provide music-making opportunities in north San Diego County public school districts where access to arts and music education is limited.

NAMM, the International Music Products Association, recently announced that Patricia Lynch Martin joined the organization as its new director of events.

NAMM’s Oral History program added the 100th interview to its archives at the recent 2002 NAMM Summer Session, a milestone that took place on July 19 with the interview of Seymour Duncan, a master of guitar and bass pickup design. “It is an honor for me to be included in such an important project,” Duncan said.