Non-profit raises funds with Fab Four cover album on Owatonna

OWATONNA — In a time of widespread budget cuts, a local non-profit hopes to use the Fab Four’s musical legacy to save music and art programs in Minnesota’s public schools. In the next month Vega Productions will release the Minnesota Beatle Project, Volume 1 — a compilation of Minnesota artists covering the Beatles’ most famous songs from “Eleanor Rigby” to “Sexy Sadie.”

“The music and arts programs are the first to get cut because they don’t fall into the No Child Left Behind Act, which places more importance on reading, writing and arithmetic,” said Mark Gehring, president and executive director of Vega Productions. “We felt it was very important that music and art weren’t lost. Studies show that an education that includes music and art lends itself to a more productive and successful citizen.”

The album started as an idea at a Vega board meeting. The Beatles were a natural choice, Gehring said.

“As a group we all loved the Beatles and the majority of people are Beatles fans. We thought it would be something that would appeal to a good cross section of the general public,” Gehring said. “(The Beatles) also have a huge catalogue with plenty of material to choose from without repeating.”

Soon some high-profile players got invovled — among them 89.3 The Current, the McNally Smith College of Music and Pachyderm Studio. In February, Vega and its partner organizations began pulling together a CD.

A fair number of students contributed to the album. The final track is a rendition of “Sgt. Pepper’s Medley” as performed by the Anthony Middle School Concert Band, an 80-piece group that received more than 30 free instruments from Vega this year. Students in Minneapolis and St. Paul also created artwork for the album.

“They were really excited about it and it turned out wonderful,” Gehring said. “It really brings our work full circle.”

Vega plans to press 5,000 to 10,000 copies of the album initially. All proceeds from the album’s sales will go to “rebuild and enhance” music and art education in Minnesota’s public schools.

The extra help is greatly appreciated, said Deb Hannu, president of Art Educators of Minnesota. Hannu, for instance, only gets $2. 67 per child to buy art supplies for her middle school students — enough for a Sharpie marker and a few pieces of paper.

“It’s bad right now. When Gov. Tim Pawlenty unalotted money to schools, that caused us to drop art teachers to the bottom in terms of supplies,” Hannu said. “And our program has never been funded to the degree it should be. We would never expect our reading teachers to teach out of old phone books — why should we expect art students to learn from what their teachers can scrounge from rummage sales and dumpster diving? We’re asking for basics.”

To distribute the money across the state, Vega Productions joined forces with AEM and the Minnesota Music Educators Association. Schools will be able to apply for grant money through web sites run by the MMEA and AEM.

The first grants will go out in spring or fall of 2010.

Vega Productions, Inc. is headquartered in Owatonna. Vega started up in March of 2005, when the non-profit kicked off with a three-day concert series at Harmony Park outside Geneva called the Yggdrasil Festival. Since then Vega has raised thousands for schools through concerts, music festivals, art events and CDs.

Recently, students in Owatonna School District 761 have benefited from the non-profit’s largesse. In September, the Music Boosters of Owatonna accepted a donation of $10,000 worth of new and gently used musical instruments from Vega.

Vega plans to produce at least three Beatles Project albums in years to come.

The non-profit will host a release party Dec. 8 at First Avenue in Minneapolis. The Minnesota Beatle Project, Volume 1 will be available at all Schmitt Music locations, and both Borders and Barnes and Noble bookstores. The album will also be sold online through iTunes, Amazon.com, Rhapsody and CD Baby.

In Owatonna, the album will be sold through the Music Boosters.

Clare Kennedy can be reached at 444-2376.

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