BCSD Partners With Community Foundation, Parents, Casio, and SoundTree to Revitalize Music Labs

Matt Vanacoro Department Coordinator, Bedford Central School District, Bedford, NY

The Bedford Central School District was able to collaborate with The Foundation for Bedford Schools, the Samalin family, Casio, and SoundTree to bring new electronic keyboards to all 3 Music Technology labs in the school district.

The BCSD Exploratory Music and Performance Technology program is widely known for its unique approach to teaching modern music. Students can learn guitar, piano, drums, bass, vocals, and more in this program over the course of 7 years from 6th to 12th grade. The keyboards in the labs were aging and replacing them all at once would have resulted in a large blow to the music department budget all at once.

Department Coordinator Matt Vanacoro was able to meet with Casio and SoundTree at a professional conference and arrange for a significant discount to help make the dreams of the BCSD music technology students a reality. Working directly with the manufacturer and vendors, Mr. Vanacoro put together a proposal to replace all keyboards and wiring in all 3 music tech labs that was approachable for the school district to take on with their community foundation partners.

The BCSD Music Labs now utilize keyboards that are made for educational settings. The Casiotone CT-S1 keyboards are incredibly simple to use, rugged, reliable, have built in sounds and speakers, and work perfectly with the computer systems already in place. Students are able to practice piano immediately without software, and the lab now offers group piano at an extremely high level.

Students shared their anecdotes and observations about the upgrade:

“I love being able to just sit down, turn up the volume, and play. The old keyboards needed, like, a lot of software and stuff just to get started.”

“The keys feel great, a lot nicer than what we had!”

“They’re so red! That’s our school color - so cool!”

The students reacted extremely positively to the new tech in the labs, and they were enthusiastic to help set everything up. From unpacking to plugging everything in, the students took ownership of the new lab setup with pride.

Mr. Vanacoro said, “This would not have been possible without the partnership of our incredibly arts-supportive community. The Foundation for Bedford Schools never hesitated to help us raise the funds to take this on. The Samalin family helped clear the way with some great matching funds and a passion for piano. Casio and SoundTree worked with us to find the right gear and get the price point to where we could afford it. This entire process was a win for everyone, most especially the kids.”

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Matt Vanacoro is the Performing Arts Program Coordinator, Exploratory Music & Applied Guitar teacher at Bedford Central School District, Bedford, NY. mvanacoro1114@bcsdny.org