School and community-based string programs and the value placed on them have increased steadily since Will Earhart started a school orchestra in Richmond, Indiana in 1889.1 During the last several years the developments have been particularly dramatic with a rapid escalation of numbers of students and numbers of programs that have been established. Stringed instrument sales have increased 12 percent per year for each of the last seven years.2 Recent studies and anecdotal information exist that substantiate a trend of growth.3
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References
1.
AbelesHarold, HofferCharles, and KlotmanRobert, Foundations of Music Education, 2d ed. (New York: Simon and Schuster Macmillan, 1995), 17.
2.
The National Association of Music Merchants publishes annual reports showing annual increases in instrument sales. For more information contact NAMM at 5140 Avenida Encinas, Carlsbad, CA 92008-4391; tel. 619-438-8001; fax 619438-7327.
3.
See studies by Louis Bergonzi, Robert Gillespie and Donald Hamann, and Camille Smith published in the Journal of Research in Music Education.
