BMTL In the News

A partnership between Rocky Mountain Music Repair and Bringing Music to Life is getting instruments into the hands of all students.

By BYRON REED, 9News

BROOMFIELD, Colo. — A collaboration between Rocky Mountain Music Repair and the Bringing Music to Life instrument drive is bringing melodies to students across the Front Range.

9NEWS partners with Bringing Music to Life, which asks people to donate their used instruments to benefit students in struggling music programs across Colorado.

Brian Stevenson, co-owner of Rocky Mountain Music Repair, located at 2150 W. 6th Ave. E. in Broomfield, said the instrument drive helps meet the needs of the students.

“The schools help fill that gap, but there’s always kids that need instruments but don’t have them,” Stevenson said. “Every year, we get kids that might not have had the opportunity to be in band if the schools didn’t have the instruments to give to them.”

Read or listen to the full story by clicking here.

Story By KELLY HAYES and Photos by PARKER SEIBOLD, The Gazette

When Melanie Hawthorne Long started teaching at Horizon Middle School nine years ago, there were about 50 students in the band program.

Over the next few years, that number rose to over 200. As the band grew, so did the need for instruments.

“All of a sudden, we needed a lot more instruments, and for my socio-economic area, not all families can afford to buy or rent their kid’s instruments,” she said.

But that didn’t deter Long.

“I’ve made a really strong effort to make sure that I tell every kid money will never be a reason that you don’t get to do band,” she said.

With some help from Bringing Music to Life, a statewide nonprofit, the school has received nearly 50 instruments since 2017 for students to use in orchestra and band, alleviating much of the financial barrier.

To read the full article, click here.

Music teachers want people to donate “endangered instruments.”

By NELSON GARCIA, 9News

The success of any band starts with the instruments. But sometimes those instruments are really hard to find.

“When I first got here, I didn’t even know what a tuba was,” seventh grader ZayDen Frerichs Walker said.

ZayDen is learning to play tuba in concert band class at Jefferson Junior/Senior High School in Edgewater.

“The fact that he never heard a tuba doesn’t surprise me at all, because it’s not in his world. But now it is,” Jefferson Music Director Nathan Prismon said.

ZayDen has a tuba to play thanks to the Bringing Music to Life instrument drive.

9NEWS partners with Bringing Music to Life, which asks people to donate their used instruments to benefit students in struggling music programs across Colorado. Prismon said his program relies on these donations.

“That’s how our program lives and breathes, and it grows or dies based on how many instruments we have given on any year,” Prismon said.

To access the entire feature article click here.

By CLAUDIA GAROLFALO, Colorado & Company

Steve Blatt of Bringing Music to Life and Brian Stevenson of Rocky Mountain Music Repair work together for the success of the Bringing Music to Life Instrument Drive and, more importantly, for the success of young students learning to play an instrument.

By TINA CARTAGENA, KUVO Jazz

The statewide donation locations are the hub of the Bringing Music to Life community. They are the meeting point, the gathering place.

• They are thanked for being our link to our instrument donors.
• They are thanked for schlepping and storing our instrument donations.
• They are thanked for collecting and cataloging our instrument donations.

Visit the KUVO website for the full post and accompanying interview with Steve Blatt.