Callista Gingrich debuts music education video

By Amy Gardner

MASON CITY, Iowa — Callista Gingrich, the wife of presidential contender Newt Gingrich, is debuting a video this week in which she pushes an issue near and dear to her heart: musical education.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlWAptKCsBg

But the video does more than reveal a likely platform for Gingrich if she becomes the next first lady; it shows how much more involved she has become in her husband’s presidential campaign.

The video will be promoted and distributed by the campaign to give voters a more intimate look at Callista Gingrich and her interests — something the campaign has wanted to do for some time.

This week, Callista Gingrich, 45, is traveling across Iowa with her husband on an eight-day bus tour that will end in Des Moines on Tuesday, when voters turn out for the state’s first-in-the-nation caucuses.

The bus tour actually began in Wisconsin, at the home Callista grew up in, so that her mother, Bernita Bisek, could see the bus. Bisek, 79, was going to join the tour for a few days but decided against it because of the rigors of the campaign. But Callista Gingrich said that she is watching the campaign closely and that Newt Gingrich is “a very good son-in-law” who e-mails Bisek regularly.

Callista Gingrich also introduced her husband at a stop in Decorah, Iowa, on Tuesday — in the pizza joint, Mabe’s (which serves delicious thin-crust pizza, in the middle of the Iowa heartland), that she lived above during her senior year at nearby Luther College.

Campaign officials say they believe that deploying Callista Gingrich on the trail helps humanize the former speaker and move past the story of how the couple’s relationship began (as an affair, while Newt Gingrich was still married to his second wife).

Gingrich plays the French horn and the piano and sings professionally in the choir of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. She has been working on the two-minute video for weeks, putting it together with Gingrich Productions, the multimedia production company her husband turned over to her when he launched his presidential bid.

In the video, Gingrich laments the decline in musical education in public schools. She doesn’t offer specifics about the decline — or specific solutions. Instead, she explains the value of music in her own life as footage unfolds of children playing the piano, violin and guitar and of her playing the French horn and singing.

“Music is a lifetime gift,” she says in the video. “To eliminate music from our schools is to diminish a large part of our cultural experience. Together we can work to support music education in our nation’s schools and preserve our cultural identity.”

By: Jenny Jelen

Music education starts long before learning how to read notes or discovering how to make certain sounds. Clapping out rhythms, dancing and simply taking time to listen to music can help young minds develop an appreciation for music, as well as an aptitude for it.

Ginny Good Wold, owner of the Good Music Studio, knows this first-hand. She’s been teaching Music For Young Children for about seven years, helping kids develop fundamental music skills.

“Kids are like sponges at an early age,” Good Wold said. “The sooner they listen, sing and enjoy rhythm, the better they will develop with an instrument, with dance, and with academic activities.”

Along with teaching kids, Good Wold also leads babies and pre-schoolers through age-appropriate activities.

She said she believes any age is a good age to begin exploring music.

“It helps kids with discipline and it helps them with social skills,” she said. “(Music education) programs enrich children’s social development and learning skills, improves memory and problem-solving and bolsters confidence and self-esteem.” 

It’s a logical fit, as far as she’s concerned.

“Children naturally have the ability to enjoy music,” she said. “If it’s fostered at a young age, it can develop all of their life.”

Because her classes are taught with parents present, it also helps foster relationships. Good Wold said parents benefit as much as kids do by engaging in her classes.

“It gets them comfortable communicating with their children,” she said. “The kids mirror the adults.”

Of course, Good Wold is sensitive to her audience’s needs. Teaching youngsters is nothing like teaching musicians climbing the ranks, or adults, for that matter.

In her kids’ classes, she said she uses lots of activities comparable to what children are learning about in school, with a more artistic twist. Things like letters, patterning and counting are all transferable skills.

Part of the reason Good Wold was interested in teaching youngsters was because of her lifelong connection with music.

“I’ve loved music from the time I was very little,” she said.

The other part of the equation is her feelings towards kids.

“Part of who I am is just loving children,” she said.

Outside of her children’s programs, Good Wold also teaches piano and violin lessons.

The money will be used to purchase musical instruments for students at the Nashville school. The first annual fundraiser for the Bob Mercer Memorial Fund is being planned for the fall and will take place in Nashville.

(L-R): Katie Gillon, Rising Star Music Fund board member, W.O. Smith School ED Jonah Rabinowitz, Margie Mercer.

Jennette McCurdy Tour Benefits St. Jude
Capitol Records Nashville recording artist and star of Nickelodeon’s iCarly Jennette McCurdyvisited St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis over the weekend where she presented the hospital with a check for $139,643. McCurdy collected the money while on her cross country mall tour, Generation Love Tour for St. Jude.

(L-R): Jennette McCurdy, St. Jude patients Elise, Anthony, Dawson, and Emily Callahan, chief marketing officer for ALSAC, the fundraising organization for St. Jude.

Jennifer Nettles

Nettles Boosts Music Education

Jennifer Nettles helped raise over $50,000 for the Attic Community Playground through an online auction she recently hosted on CharityBuzz. Up for bid were items from Katy Perry, Carrie Underwood, Sheryl Crow, Jon Bon Jovi, Keith Urban, Kid Rock, Kenny Chesney, Reba McEntire, Martina McBrideand Sugarland. The money will benefit Atlanta-based charity Attic Community Playground, which helps provide music education opportunities for kids.