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BUILDING A MUSIC CURRICULUM WITH COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
Morgan Community College (MCC) is a small community college in Fort Morgan, Colorado-an agricultural community of 11,000 residents. Drive Interstate 76 in eastern Colorado and approach Fort Morgan from either direction and a small highway sign announces: "Fort Morgan: Boyhood Home of Glenn Miller." This famous big-band musician who was so popular during the World War II era had given Fort Morgan a rich cultural and musical heritage, but it was not well-publicized-only a struggling three-day annual Glenn Miller Festival and a Glenn Miller corner in the local museum. The boyhood home of a world-famous big-band musician was a treasure just waiting to be developed.
Community FORT (Fusing Opportunities, Resources, and Talents), a Fort Morgan community task force, includes the mayor, city manager, chief of police, a city council member, executive directors of the Morgan County Economic Development Corporation and the Fort Morgan Chamber of Commerce, president of MCC, and the superintendent and assistant superintendent of the Fort Morgan public school district. Its mission is to find action projects to enhance quality of life in Fort Morgan. The idea to capitalize on the fact that the famous big-band musician, Glenn Miller, had grown up in Fort Morgan was brought to this group implementing a Glenn Miller jazz ensemble at MCC. The program would strengthen Fort Morgan's identity, fortify its arts infrastructure by enriching the quality of life, increase tourism, and provide promotional opportunities for economic development. This was a win-win idea.
The college and the community became partners in the process and the outcomes. The college would sustain the ensemble (i.e., the Morgan Community College Jazz Ensemble) as a permanent college ambassador, creating the curriculum and implementing the ensemble as a course. The community would use the ensemble for promotional activities that would provide a closer connection between Fort Morgan and this important musical figure. The new MCC Jazz Ensemble made a CD of Glenn Miller's music, to be distributed (nationally and internationally) through the Chamber of Commerce-launching the new course and partnership. The task of initiating the project was monumental, as MCC did not have existing performing ensembles as part of its music curriculum offerings. However, there was a strong tradition of community music, and some accomplished musicians lived in and around Fort Morgan.
The most important criterion in initiating this project was to establish the highest standards for quality. Eighteen accomplished musicians from the area were recruited to enroll at MCC to participate in the new jazz ensemble, and a recording engineer was hired to record both a studio session and a live concert. Businesses, foundations, and individuals were solicited to support the project by making a financial contributions through the MCC Foundation. In return for the financial contributions, donors' names would be included in the CD brochure. There was a significant marketing benefit for the sponsors when individuals and businesses from various parts of the country considered relocating to Fort Morgan. Donations were received prior to the public inaugural concert/recording session, and more came in after the public had a chance to see and hear the quality of the music.
The CD recording costs were very modest. Some funds were earmarked for music scholarships to sustain the ensemble, by enticing talented student musicians to attend MCC and participate. The inaugural concert and recording session took place April 25, 2009. One month after the concert, funds had been raised not only
to pay the recording costs, but to sustain the ensemble with music scholarships for a minimum of five years-enough time to give this new program a healthy jump-start. The majority of the contributions to the scholarship fund were earmarked to fill out the numbers of the ensemble and ensure that the recruits came with musical talent to sustain the high standards established with the inaugural concert.
As part of the long-term objective in sustaining the ensemble in the new performing arts curriculum, high school band and choir students were invited to participate in three numbers with the MCC Jazz Ensemble during the inaugural concert/recording session-an exceptional educational opportunity for the students and an opportunity to promote public school music programs. The students and their parents experienced the hospitality of the MCC faculty and staff over dinner at the college (between the rehearsal and the concert) and had an opportunity to tour the campus. These recruiting opportunities added another component to the sustainability of the ensemble, by attracting talented future student-musicians to this new MCC jazz ensemble and MCC.
The recording was an exciting part of the initiation of this project, especially from the Chamber of Commerce's perspective. The formation of the new college ensemble as the first performing arts component was the highest public relations' priority. This college ensemble would give Fort Morgan residents bragging rights about a permanent Glenn Miller performing group in the infrastructure of the arts component of the community. Indeed, one of the first functions was to showcase the ensemble at the annual Glenn Miller Festival and supplant some of the music that had been imported for this festival in the past.
Community excitement was phenomenal. One city council member (and a local historian) remarked that she had been waiting decades for something like this to happen-as the connection between Glenn Miller and Fort Morgan had been one of the city's best-kept secrets. Some city officials, coupled with comments from the Chamber of Commerce, indicated the Glenn Miller Park in Fort Morgan needed to be revitalized with a statue, renovation of the band shell, and construction of an amphitheatre so that the MCC Glenn Miller Jazz Ensemble could perform for the community. The excitement filtered into the college. Since the launching of the initial Glenn Miller concert and recording, initiatives have expanded the performing ensembles to include a choir, and dialogue has begun about further ensemble expansion.
The connection between a world-famous musician and the community in which he grew up was unique to Fort Morgan and presented an opportunity and challenge to Morgan Community College. However, similar opportunities exist in communities all across the country. If a comprehensive community college is to meet the needs of the community better, looking in one's own backyard for a hidden treasure in the arts, history, or culture may reveal some "best-kept secrets" just waiting to be showcased.
Kerry Hart, President
For further information, contact the author at Morgan Community College, 920 Barlow Road, Fort Morgan, CO 80701
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