Guitar and voice share a common bond in many genres of music including most pop styles, blues, jazz, country, and many others. We have brought a guitar teacher on board with the Institute and we began offering the lessons in May; we already have 11 students taking lessons for guitar, and several others taking guitar and voice lessons concurrently. We are very excited for these new opportunities for the Institute.
The Kansas City Vocal Institute is also a sponsor for the Battle of the Bands 3 in the Point Bar and Grill in Kansas City on Saturday, June 25th. We will be offering free lessons to the winners of the event. This is yet another way that we are both crossing music genres and providing music education to the community.
Also in a bit of quirky news, the Kansas City Vocal Institute was contacted by Pilgrim Films and Television, http://pilgrimfilms.tv/, to help advertise in the metro area their auditions for a new talent show. Pilgrim films produces many of the television shows that air on the Discovery Channel, TLC, the Science Channel, the History Channel, the Travel Channel, and as for this yet unnamed show, A&E. So in addition to letting them use our advertising platforms, they made a contribution towards the John Williams and Eric Whitacre scholarship funds.
As for scholarships, demand is incredibly high for our music education assistance programs. All of our scholarship funds have now been allotted to children and families in financial need, to cover their lesson fees through the end of the year, and a waiting list has been created for those who have applied for assistance. We are now asking for donations again from our sponsors to help continue our current scholarship funds and for the creation of new funds.
As for donors to the Kansas City Vocal Institute, I currently am trying to acquire video updates from all of our scholarship students so you may receive an update on how they are doing in their lessons.
Looking to the future, I anticipate that several of our teachers will be leaving the area, but we are looking to fill those studio positions as soon as they are available. Amazingly, there is a large number of highly educated musicians that are interested in our job opportunities. The Kansas City Vocal Institute is as much an assistance to musicians as it is to those wanting an education. Music careers are difficult to come by and maintain, but hopefully our services will be a significant help for those wanting to continue in music education. To those who are interested in working with KCVI, please email info@kcvocalinstitute.com with your contact information. You may become as involved as you wish; there are no obligations other than to your students.
I am also excited to announce the launching our new mobile site today. Students will now be able to enroll by our traditional enrollment form, by email, and even by text message. This will help our efforts in making music education more available, easier to access, and up to date with the pace of technology.
Finally, we celebrated our 1 year anniversary on June 14. In one year, we have provided lessons for 579 students (136 of whom were awarded partial scholarships; 23 were awarded full scholarships). The enrollment figures amount to providing just under $280,000 to our 21 teachers (17 currently) who have all received Master's or Doctorate degrees all during such a difficult economic time. We created 23 scholarship funds from world renown celebrities and musicians, outranked nearly every music school and university website in the region on Google without spending on penny on advertising with nearly 16.1 million links, gained international attention with students who are taking lessons as far away as India and Australia online, and have offered unique education mediums in guitar, composition, diction, theory, and early childhood education.
Thank you to everyone who have made this all possible! Keep singing!
Bryan Pinkall
