The VH1 Save the Music Foundation held its 10th Anniversary Gala at the tent at Lincoln Center on Thursday, September 20th, 2007. Save the Music is a nonprofit organization that has provided music grants for musical instruments to 1500 public schools across the nation in over 100 cities.

The impetus behind this push is based on research that music study helps develop a child’s critical thinking skills, math abilities, and spatial reasoning.

The brainchild of this organization is John Sykes, President of New Development for MTV Networks and the man whom Mariah Carey credited that evening for discovering her talent when she was just a teenager with a demo tape of her songs. John got the idea when he discovered a school in Brooklyn was cutting its music program. Knowing that education is the greatest ticket out of poverty and believing that music education was an important component to that formula, he almost immediately went to enlist the support of heavy hitters such as Sumner Redstone of Viacom. President Bill Clinton, who claimed during his award speech that he wouldn’t be president had he not been able to play an instrument starting at the age of nine, volunteered to help when he heard about the organization. President Clinton also quipped that politics was a lot like jazz because one had to improvise as one goes along.

The evening was replete with star wattage taking turns on stage. In addition to the presence of Mariah Carey and Bill Clinton, Conan O’Brien was one of the presenters early in the evening. John Mayer and Jon Bon Jovi also did a duet together along with the VH1 student orchestra. The evening ended with Roger Waters, co-founder of Pink Floyd, singing with a student chorus the lyrics to Another Brick in the Wall.

The one item that was auctioned off was one of Sir Paul McCartney’s concert guitars with his autograph. The opening bid was $30K, but it was only sold for $45K. Apparently, they did not have enough hedge fund managers and Goldman Sachs employees present. So all of you reading this, please make it a point to attend next year. You won’t be disappointed.

The other gala event held at Lincoln Center was the Opening Gala for the Chamber Music Orchestra on Wednesday evening. While I was unfortunately unable to attend, I was told they successfully raised over $1M to kick off their 2007-2008 season.

Ann Lee

9/24/07