FAME and Community Outreach Programs

FAME, Free Access Musical Education, is an SCCM program that provides music appreciation classes at schools and institutions throughout Southern California. Students, teachers, faculty and staff at Frances Blend Elementary School, Joaquin Miller Career and Transition Center, Widney High School, Blind Childrens Center, Junior Blind of America, and other institutions have enjoyed our unique approach to group music classes.

The programs are centered around a curriculum of attentive music listening, active discussion, and musical games and interaction. Students are introduced to a wide variety of music including classical, jazz, pop, and traditional music from many cultures and countries. The music is expertly selected to be engaging while providing opportunities for focused listening. Once fundamental distinctions such as high/low, fast/slow, happy/sad are established, students are encouraged to listen deeply and discuss the instrumentation, the quality of various performances, and their personal opinions of each piece.

Most often, we use recordings in our classes, but we incorporate live performance as well. Our instructors are capable musicians, and we regularly invite guest performers to join our classes. We also encourage the students to participate in group rhythmic and melodic exercises and sing-along games utilizing toy instruments, simple percussions, and voices.

As its name suggests, FAME classes are provided with no charge to the schools and institutions that enjoy them. FAME is funded through the generous contributions of individuals and institutions including:

Ahmanson Foundation

Avery Dennison Corporation

B.C. McCabe Foundation

California Arts Council

Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation

Dr. Scholl Foundation

George Hoag Family Foundation

Gonda Family Foundation

Karl Kirchgessner Foundation

Kenneth T. & Eileen L. Norris Foundation

Leslie & Susan Gonda Foundation

Mattel Children’s Foundation

Max & Victoria Dreyfus Foundation

Sidney Stern Memorial Trust

Skirball Foundation

S. Mark Taper Foundation

Walter Lantz Foundation

Weingart Foundation

William H. Hannon Foundation