Starting in less than two hours! Saturday's big blow-out Music-A-Thon to save music in the Mt. Diablo schools

If you have some spare time, and want to hear some great music played by some hard-working talented young people in our community, stop by Concord High School sometime today between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m.

The Mt. Diablo Music Education Foundation is hosting a 12-hour Music-A-Thon, featuring performances by music students from various elementary, middle, and high schools in the Mt. Diablo Unified School District. The students will showcase different styles of music and vocals.

The music festival is to raise money to save music programs in the school district. Faced with last year's horrific budget crisis, and the failure of a parcel tax to pass, the district had to eliminate the 4th grade instrumental music program this school year. The budget situation from Sacramento doesn't look much better for the coming school year, and parents, teachers, and administrators worry that 5th instrumental music might be another program that will have to go.

Music teachers tell me that if the kids don't start playing instruments in the fourth and fifth grades, the middle and high school programs will eventualy be decimated. Besides that, say leaders of the Mount Diablo Music Education Foundation, "it has been shown that students who become involved in music education become better students, attend school more regularly than other students, score higher on state standardized tests than other students, and stay engaged in school.

Participating schools include Clayton Valley High School, Concord High School, Northgate High, El Dorado Middle, Foothill Middle, Pine Hollow Middle, Pleasant Hill Middle, as well as elementary students from Ayers, El Monte, Highlands, Holbrook, Monte Gardens, Westwood, and Woodside. More schools are expected to be announced soon.

The music will be playing in the Multi-Use Room at Concord High School, 4200 Concord Blvd. in Concord.