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REVIEW
Established 1879
CARLETON CHACE, Editor
Alex H. Kolbe, Publisher
V. T. Costello
Associate Editor
NATIONAL
ASSOCIATION
OF MUSIC
MERCHANTS
Alexander Hart
Technical Editor
Mary Louise Kauffman
Circulation Manager
Published monthly at 510 RKO Building, Radio
City, 1270 Sixth Avenue, New York 20, N. Y.
Telephone: Circle 7-5842-5843-5844
Vol. Ill
JUNE. 1952
No. 6
Business - As We See It
I
T became our privilege on May 27th to attend a
piano festival, which we hope may be duplicated
some time in every city and hamlet throughout
the country. 150 children from kindergarten age up
to junior high school participated in this festival
which took place in the Daniel
Webster elementary school in New
Rochelle before an auditorium
packed to standing room only.
We hope that every dealer in the
country will take time out to read
the story which appears on Pages
5 and 6 of this issue, because we
consider this effort a very forceful
illustration of not only what can
he done in other localities, but
what has been done in a school
CARLETON CHACE
system where there are approxi-
mately 7,000 pupils. It was over thirty years ago
that piano lessons were started in the schools in New
Rochelle, N. Y. Since then the interest in learning
how to play the piano has grown to the extent that
10
Mrs. Fay Templeton Frisch, now Supervisor of Piano
Instruction in the schools, has 450 pupils annually,
who are taking group piano lessons. In a recent sur-
vey which she made, she found that 85 % of the pupils
who got along to the point where they couldn't take
piano lessons in the schools any longer continued
their music studies. Another very pointed illustration
of what can transpire and can occur to a pupil in
piano classes in schools, is the success of Mrs. Frisch's
assistant, Miss Loretto, who several years ago having
only studied in group classes under Mrs. Frisch en-
tered a contest in which many students of private
teachers participated and won the contest, with the
result that she received a scholarship in musical edu-
cation, which brought her up to the standard required
by the Board of Education of New Rochelle, with the
result that she is now assistant music supervisor to
Mrs. Frisch. No one who reads this Editorial needs to
ponder much regarding what such a promotion can
do to create piano sales from generation to generation,
but piano merchants throughout the country should
not think that they should sit back and "let George
do it" without putting their shoulder to the wheel
and doing their part, by finding ways and means of
getting their Boards of Education and music super-
visors interested enough so that the American Music
Conference can step in and help prove through these
governing bodies that piano lessons in the schools
are as highly important as any other method of music
instruction.
The Untimely Passing of Dr. Raymond Burrows
T
HE untimely passing of Dr. Raymond Burrows,
Professor of Music Education in Teachers Col-
lege, Columbia University, who without a doubt
in the past five years has stimulated more interest in
piano learning than any one man we know of, was a
distinct shock to the entire music world, including
the piano industry. We do not know how much the
tremendous efforts of Dr. Burrows has been appre-
ciated by the rank and file of the piano industry,
but it is certain that if the retail division of the busi-
ness has not realized what he did for their benefit,
we certainly think that they should have. Dr. Bur-
rows was the man who inaugurated the Group Piano
Lesson idea. Not only did he confine it to the curric-
ulum in Teachers College, but he went from state
to state teaching teachers how to teach the pupils,
and under the auspices of the American Music Con-
ference over 2,000 teachers now know how success-
fully this project can be carried on. When Dr. Bur-
rows started this effort five years ago, private piano
teachers were skeptical; they criticized the method;
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, JUNE, 1952