Welcome back to a new year! My name is Sofi a Fojas and I am the new Multicultural Representative on the CMEA Bay Section Board. Incidentally, my Bachelor’s degree is in Anthropology, the study of cultures, and I am excited to be in this position! I have taught mariachi in the public schools for several years and have many years’ experience as a classically trained violinist and violist. I have been both an Area Representative and Orchestra Representative as well. It is an honor to be a member of such a dedicated group of music teachers again!

Why is so important to shine a spotlight on non-Classical music? Well, for one thing, the State Board of the California Music Educators’ Association has a multicultural representative and it seemed important to serve in the same capacity in one of the most culturally diverse areas of California, if not the United States. I hope to work closely with other board members to highlight some of the music found amongst the diff erent cultures of our student populations. So many of our schools don’t provide general music classes in the elementary grades in which music of other cultures is usually explored. The ‘alternative music’ movement has gained great momentum in the United States and it included bluegrass, Celtic fiddling, Latin jazz, jazz, fiddling as well as hip-hop and reggae and music from non Western areas of the world. The editors of Strings Magazine, for example, make an eff ort to highlights alternative (non-classical) string music in each of its youth supplements. Berklee School of Music is famous for its studies of jazz, rock and other forms of commercial, non-classical, music. A Google search of ‘multicultural music’ yielded 2,260,000 entries alone! Let’s keep music education fresh and exciting by studying music that speaks to the students in our schools in addition to the music we all know and teach.

Please send me ideas for sessions for this and future Winter Conferences if you have a desire to see a specific group or music. I welcome any of your comments, ideas and inquiries as we go along in the year! Have a wonderful start of the school year!