Take Note Colorado

A highly inclusive and student-centered approach to creating access to music for K-12 students in Colorado

Tuesday, October 15, 2:00pm – 4:30pm

Organized by Bryce Merrill, music programs manager, Bohemian Foundation.

Presented by Stephan Brackett, co-founder, Youth on Record; Margaret Hunt, executive director, Colorado Creative Industries; and Jamie Van Leeuwen, board member, Take Note Colorado.

Take Note Colorado is a statewide initiative to provide all students in Colorado K-12 access to musical instruments and instruction. Founded by former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper and Isaac Slade of the Fray, Take Note is supported by foundations, state government, and the private sector, including Colorado’s robust music industry. Take Note is charged with reaching students statewide in a variety of settings, including schools, libraries, community organizations, hospitals, and residential treatment centers. This student-centered initiative deploys culturally-relevant and student-centered resources that represent the broad diversity of the state. In the first two years of this ten-year effort, Take Note will reach over 50k students and invest over $1 million in Colorado. Take Note has purchased traditional instruments, trained hundreds of teachers in culturally-responsive and student-centered pedagogy, and outfitted a converted school bus with turntables to create a mobile lab for student learning. The next eight years will be more of the same – meeting students where they are physically and culturally to ensure that the power of music is accessible to all students in the state.