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Beautiful music will be made tonight at children’s museum

Tonight’s a very special evening at the Upper Peninsula Children’s Museum.

UPCM will be hosting students in the pre-kindergarten through eight-grade music programs at the AuTrain-Onota Public School in Deerton, the Wells Township School in Arnold, and the Powell Township School in Big Bay for an evening of music starting at 6 p.m.

The event is intended to raise funds to help support these very small rural music programs.

Emily Vaughn, the music teacher at the three schools, said, “The Children’s Museum is offering the space free of charge as well as suspending all admission fees for the day of concert in hopes that people can donate to our programs instead. This is an amazing opportunity for my students.”

This is a wonderful chance to hear some local talent while supporting three small schools in their efforts to keep music education alive.

Study upon study have shown that music has the ability to enhance lives. USA Today reports music can reduce stress, relieve depression symptoms, elevate mood and improve cognitive performance. Children’s Music Workshop states: “Music affects the growth of a child’s brain academically, emotionally, physically and spiritually.”

A PBS story reports: “A study published in 2007 by Christopher Johnson, professor of music education and music therapy at the University of Kansas, revealed that students in elementary schools with superior music education programs scored around 22 percent higher in English and 20 percent higher in math scores on standardized tests, compared to schools with low-quality music programs, regardless of socioeconomic disparities among the schools or school districts.”

Plus, music is fun.

We hope the Upper Peninsula Children’s Museum is packed with folks not just from Deerton, Arnold and Big Bay, but from all around the region. The students performing tonight deserve an enthusiastic audience.

They also can be shown that music is something everyone can get behind as a positive force in this world.

The evening is billed as “Small Schools, Big Sounds!” We hope big support will be part of the event as well.

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