CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The bands at Richwood High School and Richwood Middle School in Nicholas County will play on after the June flood thanks to a $108,000 donation in the form of instruments from Music Rising, the music industry’s disaster relief fund created after Hurricane Katrina.
“The charter of Music Rising is to be a kind of Red Cross for musical instruments, if you will,” said Bob Ezrin, a legendary music producer who co-founded Music Rising in 2005 with U2’s The Edge.
“One of the things that we’ve learned at Music Rising, starting with Katrina in the Gulf South, was that wherever the music played, people had a sense of hope and a sense of optimism and community,” Ezrin told MetroNews.
“It helped them to rebuild, so we think we’re helping to put the heart back into Richwood.”
The replacement instruments were delivered to the schools in July and put to use by the Richwood High School Band in the recent Cherry River Festival Parade.
The initial assessment from the Federal Emergency Management Agency estimated flood damage to Richwood Middle was 100 percent of market value, while damage to Richwood High was 77 percent of market value.
Both determinations go beyond FEMA’s 50 percent threshold requiring new school facilities.
Teachers are scheduled to return to Nicholas County’s schools on Monday, Aug. 15 with students to follow on Friday, Aug. 19, according to the latest calendar available from the West Virginia Department of Education.
Until modular classrooms are placed, Richwood Middle School students were scheduled to attend Cherry River Elementary while Richwood High School students have classes at the Nicholas County Career Technical Center and Gauley River Elementary School.
The music programs at the two schools are one portion of the much larger recovery effort and they’re valuable, Ezrin said.
“We move in to at least ensure that kids in music programs in public schools can carry on their studies, that they have instruments to play to do so,” he explained.
A member of the Canadian Music Hall of of Fame, Ezrin has worked over the years with a list of musicians that includes Alice Cooper, Lou Reed, Peter Gabriel, Phish, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple and Kiss.
“You live in the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen,” he said Thursday of West Virginia after a recent drive through the Mountain State en route to Toronto from Nashville.
“Going through the mountains, I can’t tell you how many times I kept saying, ‘Holy smokes, this is unbelievable.'”
Ezrin’s organization, Music Rising, is administered by the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation.
In a statement, The Edge called the West Virginia donation “another remarkable milestone for Music Rising.”
After Katrina, Music Rising provided $250,000 in aid to musicians and students affected in the Nashville, Tn. flood of 2010. In 2012, the organization assisted schools devastated by Hurricane Sandy. Music Rising also responded to Detroit following its financial problems.
For West Virginia, “We’ve got trombones and trumpets and bass drums and marching snares and cymbals. We want to get that (Richwood) band back on its feet,” Ezrin said.