1994 - Music educators serving with the Vermont Arts Assessment Design Team pondered how to meet the new national standard specific to composing and arranging music. Consultation with Peter Tavalin, a Vermont composer, resulted in a request for funding to the Vermont State Legislature for a Distance Learning grant. Funding granted.
January 1995 - Initial meeting and training session for the MIDI Distance Learning Project. Gathered together at the Neighborhood School in Brattleboro for the session were our composer mentor, Peter Tavalin, Arts Assessment Design Project Coordinator, Fern Tavalin, twelve teachers and one principal representing ten Vermont schools: North Country Union Junior High, Mary Hogan Elementary, Main Street Middle School, JFK Elementary, Founders Memorial, Charlotte Central, Lincoln Elementary, Westminster Central, Neighborhood School and Proctor High School. At this point, E-mail accounts were set up for the members of the project for communication and sharing. Standard MIDI files were attached. Software used was Music Time and Trax (the earlier version of Master Tracks).
October 1995 - A US Department of Education Innovation Technology Challenge Grant awarded to the WEB Project. The Vermont MIDI Project (a slight shift in the original name) was one initiative folded into this new five-year grant. Directors for the WEB Project were Fern Tavalin and David Gibson. Vermont MIDI Project activities continued and new funding brought in additional teachers and schools.
January 1996 - Sandi MacLeod named Vermont MIDI Project Coordinator. Discussions began about exploring the use of the World Wide Web for sharing of files and discussions.
May 1996 - The first web site for sharing of compositions was unveiled. Phone bill for the dial-up connection for this one-hour demonstration was $186.00!
July 1996 - Making Connections, the first summer institute organized under the WEB Project with a variety of offerings. Music Composition offered as a workshop or course. Participants learned to compose and to use the technology. First instructor Peter Tavalin. Co-instructor, Sandi MacLeod.
July 1997 - Making Connections summer institute continues. Music composition expands from one beginning session by adding a second, more experienced level. Instructors for beginning level, Tony Pietricola and Sandi MacLeod. Advanced level instructor, Peter Tavalin.
September 1997 - ARTT (Art Responding Through Technology), the first replication of Vermont MIDI Project, utilizing online mentoring is organized for visual art instruction in the schools.
July 1998 - Making Connections summer institute. Peggy Madden joins project as composer/mentor. Guest composers visited the summer institute. Dennis Bathory-Kitsz and David Gunn taped their radio show from the institute. Instructors, Peter Tavalin for advanced group, Sandi MacLeod and Anne Hamilton for beginning composition.
October 1998 - A new three-year grant, the Vermont Millennium Arts Partnership sponsored by the Vermont Arts Council, is funded by TIIAP (Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program) through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), a division of the US Department of Commerce to expand the work of online arts mentoring using the models from the Vermont MIDI Project and ARTT. Read an article about this project that appeared in the NTIA publication, How Access Benefits Children, Connecting Our Kids to the World of Information. http://www.ntia.doc.gov/top/publicationmedia/How_ABC/How_ABC.html#vermont
Throughout the years from 1995-2000 , hardware, software, and training was disseminated to new schools throughout the state for all the initiatives. Most new schools to the project received one computer, a music keyboard, MIDI translator, and software for composition. Equipment for any one school was limited to providing what they didn't have. If a school already had a computer in the music classroom, then the school only received software and the keyboard to supply a working MIDI station.
The Summer Institute has continued since 1996, now sponsored by Vermont MIDI/ARTT Project, Inc. The focus is on the Arts and Technology with different levels of courses in music composition as well as a variety of offerings in other areas such as movie making, website design, Photoshop for the classroom, and other visual arts technology tools.
January 2000 - National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Bill Ivey visits Barre City Elementary and Middle School with Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords to observe John Tisbert and Larry Solt's students in the classroom. 7 th and 8 th graders demonstrated their original compositions and how they reflect and critique their own compositions and the work of others shared online with the Vermont MIDI Project.
March 2000 - Project coordinator Sandi MacLeod and teacher/trainer Anne Hamilton scour the MENC National Conference Exhibit Hall for more sophisticated notation software for the project. The Sibelius Scorch webscore technology and ease of use of Sibelius convince the project to purchase one copy for teach teacher and composer/mentor. Subsequent project training sessions and the annual summer institute use Sibelius for notation software in courses.
April 2000 - National Symphony Orchestra string quartet performs original student work in a live performance at Montpelier High School. The first Opus concert.
May 2000 - Linda Roberts, Director of the Office of Educational Technology , US Department of Education visited Founders Memorial School to view the arts and technology projects associated with The Vermont MIDI Project and ARTT. Students demonstrated their own work, and Sandi MacLeod, teacher and project coordinator, conducted a group critique session with her 5th grade class using a composition from another school shared on the password protected project website.
September 2000 - The WEB Project was one of seven programs designated as exemplary or promising out of a total of 134 educational technology programs submitted to the U.S. Department of Education's Educational Technology Expert Panel. Selections were based on the following criteria: (l) Quality of Program, (2) Educational Significance, (3) Evidence of Effectiveness, and (4) Usefulness to Others. http://www.ed.gov/offices/OERI/ORAD/LTD/newtech_progs.html
November 2000 - Vermont MIDI Project and ARTT join forces to create the non-profit organization -Vermont MIDI/ARTT Project, Inc. With all grant funding coming to an end from the WEB Project and MAP, self-sufficiency is essential. The project immediately addresses fund-raising and sustainability.
November 2000 - Opus 2 featuring the Constitution Brass Quintet performs for the 2nd annual Online Arts Gathering sponsored by the Millennium Arts Partnership.
Opus concerts featuring professional performers playing student compositions have continued every fall and spring since April 2000. More information on this motivating aspect of the Vermont MIDI Project is available.