Convocation: Brenda Brenner

Brenda Brenner, associate professor of music (music education) at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, drew international interest with her ground-breaking work with underprivileged and underachieving elementary students in Bloomington.  Through an outreach program supervised by Brenner, first-graders at Fairview Elementary in Bloomington are taking violin lessons three times a week throughout the school year.  Fairview Elementary serves low-income Bloomington neighborhoods; approximately 90 percent of its students qualify by family income for free or reduced-price school lunches.  Brenner’s research through this program is looking at whether kids are more likely to attend school when they have violin class; parental involvement in school and attitude toward school improves; WISC (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children) cognitive test scores taken at the beginning and end of the year (compared with a control group from Bloomington's Highland Park Elementary School) improve; participation in the program has an effect on cognitive development.  The title of her presentation is "Finding Our Shared Humanity: Cross-Cultural Connections in Music."