Stephanie Klein-Davis | The Roanoke Times

De'shaun Hunt, a third-grader at the Roanoke Academy for Math and Science, plays a djembe, a drum rooted in Africa. About a dozen students are preparing for a Christmas presentation.

Maybe you've seen the commercials for cable music network VH1's Save the Music Foundation: Alicia Keys, John Mayer, Sting, Mary J. Blige and other music stars tell us to help them fund music instrument education programs in public school systems.

The nonprofit foundation has given $43 million worth of new musical instruments to at least 1,600 schools nationwide since its founding in 1997, according to its Web site, vh1savethemusic.com.

Add Roanoke city schools to that list.

VH1 Save the Music Foundation program manager Rob Davidson was in town Thursday, meeting with school officials. After the closed meeting, Roanoke schools arts coordinator Cyrus Pace said Davidson confirmed to him that the foundation is committed to giving what could over the next five years amount to $600,000 worth of new instruments for the city's 20 elementary schools.

"That is so exciting," said school board Chairman David Carson, who was in the meeting.

Complete details were unavailable Thursday. But according to the foundation, school systems it works with must hire a certified music teacher and provide classes in a dedicated room in order to receive the grants, so school officials will have to work that out.

Roanoke school officials haven't decided what type of instruments they want -- strings, horns or pianos. And while the VH1 foundation has historically granted $30,000 each to four schools per system per year, it will have to analyze its endowment and the school system's needs before deciding on the final amount, Pace said. Those decision should be made by Dec. 19, the beginning of winter break.

The money will bring a big change for young students. It would allow them to begin learning instruments beginning in fourth grade. That kind of learning now begins in sixth grade, but among the system's priorities is enhancement of arts programs, which are linked to school success, Carson said.

"The main thing is education, but it's also important to find those hooks that get them interested in school and staying in school ... and for lots and lots of kids, it may very well be music," he said.

Developing musical talent at younger ages fosters reading and math skills and deepens understanding of different cultures, Pace said.

Roanoke schools also recently began a partnership with the Metropolitan Opera, in New York, and Opera Roanoke. That partnership is designed to help elementary-age children create and perform their own opera.

Next spring, educators from the Metropolitan will come to Roanoke to work with music teachers to update the music curriculum. Later, Opera Roanoke will become involved, helping children to write and perform a show.

Both the one-time project with the Metropolitan and the longer-term VH1 grant happened via business and personal connections of Pace's.

Pace said he had been e-mailing the foundation in hopes of getting a meeting about the grant when he mentioned the subject to John Robertson, co-owner of Salem-based Robertson Marketing Group. Robertson said his two sons take guitar lessons from Pace.

It turns out Robertson Marketing built e-commerce sites for some of Viacom, VH1's parent corporation, and maintained contacts there. Robertson met with Davidson, the foundation's program manager, on Pace's behalf.

"I just relayed to Rob, that if he meets with Cyrus one time, he'll see the energy and passion he has for wanting music to transform kids' lives," Robertson said.

Pace, a jazz guitarist and an opera buff with a master's degree in performance from Manhattan School of Music, had a friend connected to the Metropolitan Opera, so he arranged a meeting there, too. But he needed financing for the trip. Enter Ed Walker, a property developer who is another of Pace's guitar students.

"As is often the case, you put seeds in the ground, water and a little bit of light, cool things happen -- that's Cyrus Pace," said Walker, who donated the money for the New York trip.

Robertson said he spoke again with Davidson after Pace's trip to New York: "He said he definitely sees that Cyrus has that type of passion."

'Pat-a-Pan'

A visit on Wednesday to the Roanoke Academy of Math and Science revealed that the young talent exists to take advantage of the gear. Teacher Lisa Brooks led a group of about a dozen third-graders through music they're preparing for a Christmas presentation.

The children played simple, two-note melodies on small sets of bells and xylophones in alto, bass and soprano ranges -- each with a slightly different rhythm to play. They worked their hands over djembe drums. Brooks accompanied them on piano as they went through a song called "Pat-a-Pan."

Brooks switched groups of children between the bells and the drums. They were eager, and they were relatively orderly for a group of third-graders.

As she assigned their parts, she pointed to the quarter- and eighth-note rhythms, asking the children to identify the applicable musical range.

"Which one is this?" she said as she pointed. "Alto," children answered.

"Who thinks they can try [playing] that?" she asked. Lots of hands went up.

Pace, watching the 35-minute class unfold, said that this should be just the beginning of what these children can do.

"The dream for me," he said, "is that every fourth- or fifth-grade child in this school system has the opportunity to pick up a violin and play some Bach."