The Music Resource Center will be closed Thursday, Dec. 22 – Monday, Dec. 26. We will re-open Tuesday, Dec. 27 through Thursday, Dec. 29. Our hours for those days will be 2:30 – 7pm.

We will close again Friday, Dec. 30 and Saturday, Dec. 31 for New Year’s. We will re-open on Monday, Jan. 1 with a normal schedule.

Have a safe and happy holiday!

Thanks to everyone who came out to the End-of-the-Year Jamboree on Thursday night. We had an amazing and eclectic night of music with performance ranging from classical guitar, to hip-hop dance, to piano, to hard rock, and everything in between. A huge thank you to our performers: Aimee Moody, Elie Butoyi, Bea Morales, Harli Saxon & Amina Hodzic, Jerzey Boyz Ent., The Barps, Allie Eichelberger, Darius Johnson, Liam Rowland, Hunter Bruton, Olivia Langan, and Poe Raskin.

We’d especially like to congratulate Elie Butoyi on being named MRC’s Member of the Year. The Member of the Year award is given each year to a student who exhibits extraordinarily positive actions or behaviors that set the member apart and demonstrate a genuine desire to help others, both at the MRC and in the community at large. Congratulations, Elie!

A research review by Northwestern University scientists shows that music training has a profound impact on skills such as memory and attention, speech and learning, and the ability to articulate emotions.

Children who have had music lessons tend to have better reading ability and a larger vocabulary than those who have had no music training. The study also showed that the brain’s ability to adapt and change is positively impacted by work with musical sounds.

A piano lesson at the Music Resource Center

Further evidence to come by the Music Resource Center and check out what we’re doing! Fill out a membership application today. Check out the full article on naturalnews.com.

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The Music Resource Center will offer a new DJing workshop beginning Tuesday, October 4. The workshop will be held from 5-6 p.m. at the MRC and will run through mid-November. CHS teacher and MRC volunteer, Matt Henderson, will lead the workshop. Call the MRC for more info, or just come by next Tuesday to check it out! The workshop is free and open to all MRC members.

The MRC is currently recruiting community members who are interested in mentoring students and teaching music lessons in our fall session which runs Sept. 19- Nov. 12. Volunteering at the MRC is a fun way to use your musical skills to impact youth in our community.

We welcome volunteers with all musical backgrounds, though, at the moment, we are most in need of volunteers who can work with students on vocal coaching (both male and female volunteers are sought), intermediate and advanced guitar and drums. Volunteers do not need to be professional or classically trained musicians, however, volunteers should feel comfortable teaching and explaining their instruments.

There will be an open house and information session for anyone interested in volunteering on Monday, August 29 at 6 p.m. at the Music Resource Center. To RSVP for the info session, please e-mail Maria Gall, our Volunteer Coordinator. More information can be found on the Volunteer page of our web site.

Our second annual Virginia Wine Crush Golf Tournament at Keswick Hall is over and was a great success! We would like to take this opportunity to thank our incredible sponsors:

MRC members in front of Carter Beauford’s drum kit.

While Dave Mathews Band was in town playing two sold-out shows at John Paul Jones Arena this weekend, a group of 10 students from the MRC got the once-in-a-lifetime chance to tour JPJ and learn about all phases of production that go into creating a DMB show. The tour was led by DMB lighting designer, Fenton Williams.

The group got to try their hands at running the lights, learn about live video content and video recording, hear about sound engineering and show archiving, and was able to ask questions of Dave’s guitar tech and the stage manager. The group was even able to tour the stage and check out Dave and Tim’s guitars and see Carter’s drum kit up close.

Thank you to all members of the DMB crew that gave their time and participated in the tour.

MRC members running the light board with DMB Lighting Designer, Fenton Williams.

Fenton Williams explaining the creative process of designing lighting and video for a major touring artist.

MRC members with DMB crew member, Joe Lawlor, learning about show recording and archiving.

Everyone stopped to marvel Carter’s drum kit.

Soaking up everything they can from Dave’s guitar tech, Craig Baker.

Walter even got to sit behind Carter’s kit!

The whole crew. Awesome tour! Thanks DMB!