Generous Phish fans fund music lessons for Milwaukee children

Jim Higgins | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Fans of the jam band Phish hope that the music will never stop. Now, thanks to their generosity, the music will continue for Milwaukee-area children whose parents could not otherwise afford to pay for lessons.

The Mockingbird Foundation, a volunteer nonprofit founded and managed by Phish fans that promotes music education for children, has given the Civic Music Association of Milwaukee an $8,000 grant to support music lessons for local children in grades four through nine whose families cannot pay for them.

Through the CMA program, the students will be able to take private lessons from such local masters as Milwaukee Symphony bassist Laura Snyder, jazz trumpeter Eric Jacobson and cellist Ravenna Helson.

The Mockingbird grant, combined with other grants, allows CMA to expand its private lesson initiative from a single year per student to a three-year program, CMA Executive Director Nancy Herro explained. The family copay for lessons will gradually increase each year a student is in the program.

The Mockingbird Foundation grant process is ultracompetitive: This year the foundation selected 12 recipients, including CMA, from a list of 955 applicants.

CMA asked for $4,000 for the program. The Mockingbird Foundation doubled that amount by lining up matching funds from Phish's own Waterwheel Foundation and from the Kristy Anastasio Manning Memorial Fund, started in memory of the sister of Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio.

The Civic Music Association, founded in 1918, provides and supports music education to young musicians in the greater Milwaukee area.