Music is high these days on Ashanti Montgomery's list as a life goal.

"It's fun," the Wilkinsburg boy said. "I'll take it as far as I can."

He couldn't stop smiling and his round face was bright and animated as he briefly recounted a 2004 trip to hear the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at Heinz Hall, touching on the sound of the violins and the piano.

	Lake Fong, Post-Gazette Julius Magwood, 12, a sixth-grader at Kelly Elementary School, and his classmates learn to play piano at Mrs. Lois Clark's class Oct. 19. Click photo for larger image.

Ashanti, 12, was standing outside Lois Clark's music class. He and 12 other pupils had just, for the first time, plunked out "A Mellow Melody," a three-note tune centered on middle C. It was the prelude to re-establishing an instrumental music program in Wilkinsburg schools.

The class is part of a new keyboard project.

For several years, the Wilkinsburg School District had been without such a program at the elementary level. The curtain came down on specialized instruction in music, art and physical education during a teachers strike in 1982. In an effort to stretch dollars and because of poor achievement test scores, the district chose to concentrate on academic basics that year.

Band instruction resumed a short while later at the middle and high schools, but remained unavailable to Wilkinsburg elementary pupils until the keyboard project debuted in mid-October.

Andrew Yalch, a 25-year veteran music teacher at Wilkinsburg's Turner Elementary School, said his school had instruments and a band instructor, but still could not get a program off the ground.

Common perception might be a factor.

"Music is one of the subjects that's not [measured in standardized tests]," Ms. Clark said. "Some think it's not important. Some consider it fluff. But if that's your niche, you want a chance" to develop the talent.

Enter the keyboard project supported by Carnegie Mellon University and the Grable Foundation of Pittsburgh. The nearly 7-year-old project moved into Wilkinsburg late this summer when Kelly Elementary School received 20 electronic keyboards through a grant from the foundation, a Pittsburgh-based philanthropic organization, whose mission is to improve educational opportunities for young people.

Dr. Natalie Ozeas, associate head of the Carnegie Mellon music school and the project coordinator, said the program had been going strong in Pittsburgh schools for 6¹/₂ years. Ms. Clark's, however, is the first class outside the city to become involved.

"I knew what a really fine music teacher Lois is and that she had [space in her classroom]," Ms. Ozeas said.

The keyboards with connecting electric cords and music books took abut $5,500 from the overall grant.

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has offered support, too. Symphony musicians performed their second benefit concert at the high school Saturday. They hoped to raise more money for instruments and to help pay band instructors. By Oct. 19, they had garnered $39,000, Ms. Clark said.

Also, Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park, has funneled a few grants toward the district for the same purpose, Ms. Clark said.

A West Virginia University graduate who said she was "nearing retirement age," Ms. Clark has played the piano since she was 7. She taught music for 16 years in Newport News, Va., and has worked in the Pittsburgh area 10 years.

Most of Ms. Clark's pupils fingered the electronic pianos for the first time Oct. 19.

Twenty black Yamaha keyboards with accompanying vinyl-covered stools stood near each other, taking up nearly half of her music room. Still, the room already was bursting with ways to make or think about music.

Orange African drums were stacked atop each other. A spinet piled with recorders stood near the front of the room; an electronic rhythm set sat off to the side. Posters of famous music-makers -- Ray Charles, Mozart and Beethoven -- festooned the wall.

First, the pupils practiced on two-octave plastic keyboard replicas at their tables. Then, after about 10 minutes, they moved to the real thing.

"Now, I want you to find the 'Y' in Yamaha," Ms. Clark told them as they sat at the instruments. "See where the Y is? That's the center of your piano."

Those who followed instructions found middle C, the place to begin. But a tiny ripple of discomfort inevitably bubbled up among others.

"Miss Clark, which one is the thing?" asked a boy with headphones askew. "I messed up."

Soon, however, all nine boys and four girls were settled in with headphones in place.

Then Ms. Clark moved from child to child, sometimes singing.

"One, two, three-e-e-e -- ho-o-o-ld it -- four."

She admonished them often. "Don't look at me. Look at your book," she said. But she complimented them, too.

"This is the quietest they've ever been. That's because they're concentrating."

The silent interlude between Ms. Clark's voice and the intermittent tones of the instruments didn't diminish the emotions of the children. Quiet crescendoes rose up in smiles and tentative expressions of pleasure.

"I like it a lot," India Thurman, 11, said, breaking into a shy grin as she left Ms. Clark's class.