Our Mission
Access to music affords people the opportunity of a positive experience from which they may previously be excluded. This exclusion may be due to many factors, including geographic location, economic or education disadvantage, disability, age, or lack of previous musical experience or exposure.
The Community Music Network, Inc. is an all ages, all access community music organization serving the Western Catskill Mountains of upstate New York since 2005. We provide community music programs in our local nursing homes, preschools, arts centers, schools, and libraries, in addition to music and arts in education resources.
The organization received 501c3 non profit status during the pandemic of 2020 and we began developing online and digital programs to reach more people living in isolation.
We offer private lessons in voice, piano, woodwinds, guitar, drums, theory, songwriting, and music competency, community music facilitation, early childhood parent/child and preschool classes, after school music programs, and sometimes a summer camp.
In addition, we provide musical outreach services to special needs populations and those residing in economically challenged and geographically isolated areas, as well as arts in education support for local school districts, home schooled, and preschool students.
We are a certified provider of the national Music and Memory Program (www.musicandmemory.org) through the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function. We have digital programs and resources available globally to promote music education, music research, and therapeutic music for the disabled or elderly.
Founder/Director Pamela West-Finkle holds a Masters in Music, two New York State teaching certifications, and has been developing community music in the Catskill Mountains of New York for twenty years.
The Community Music Network is a certified provider of Music & Memory (www.musicandmemory.org)
Our Mission Since 2001:
- Develop the provision of live music and promote music education and the appreciation of music in local communities, including the establishment of pilot community music & arts programs.
- Provide performance and teaching opportunities for musicians and composers to reach a wider audience, to include school children, elderly, hospital, hospice, correctional facility, and community service outreach.
- Create a research and development network to explore new and appropriate models for community music development and to share advancements in the fields of community music facilitation and education applications for music. Develop a collaborative line of educational children’s music.
- Advocate cooperative music initiatives by partnering with agencies that seek the same goals.
Who are we?
Board:
Kari Haugeto, President
Karl Raacke, Vice President
Solveig Comer, Secretary
Donna Ward, Treasurer
Board Emeritus: Holly MacDonald
Interns:
Katy Eklund, SUNY Oneonta
Robert Disbrow, SUNY Herkimer
Akasha Finkle, SUNY New Paltz
Founder/Director:
Pamela Sue West-Finkle
“To read our Founder/Director’s full bio and music links, click here.”
Our Founder/Director, Pamela West-Finkle (aka “Miss Pam”) holds a B.S. in Education, a Masters in Music Education, and holds Professional NYS Teaching Certifications in K-12 Music and 7-12 English Language Arts. In addition, she has received over fifty hours of early childhood music training through Music Together® and was a registered teacher and center director with the program from 2002 to 2022. She taught vocal and general music in the public schools for seven years, and has worked as a community music facilitator and teaching artist in every community she has lived in since the mid-1990’s.
In addition to her rewarding work as a music educator, she has been a professional musician for thirty years. Miss Pam and her husband, Theodore Finkle, have five children and three grand-children.
For her full musical biography, read on….
Our Partners
Over the last twenty years, Pamela West-Finkle has created and implemented community music programs and workshops through the Andes Public Library; the West Kortright Center; Noah’s World; the Foothills Performing Arts & Civic Center; CANO (Community Arts Network of Oneonta); Chestnut Park Nursing & Rehabilitation Home; YMCA Jumpstart Program in Oneonta, NY; the Oneonta Nursery School; Kiddie Corner Preschool, Stamford Central School, and CAMP HERE in Stamford, NY; Pink Elephant Preschool and the Roxbury Arts Group in Roxbury, NY; Early Head Start – Opportunities for Otsego; the Robynwood Assisted Living Center in Oneonta, NY; Project Independence in Hobart, NY; Robinson Terrace Assisted Living Center and Nursing Home; Delaware County Department of Social Services; the Pine Hill Community Center in Pine Hill, NY; the Catskill Mountain Artisans Guild; Kids in the Kaatskills; Saugerties Art Club & Library; Red Bank Preschool and the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, NJ; the Highlands, NJ Community Center; the Monmouth County Parks System in Monmouth County, NJ; Whitmore Lake Public Library in Whitmore Lake, MI, Girl Scouts of America/Camp Innisfree in Howell, MI; Ann Arbor Hospice in Ann Arbor, MI; and the Village of Burbank Park in Burbank, Ohio. She is also a vendor for Springbrook, providing inclusive opportunities for exceptional individuals.
Employment
We are currently accepting inquiries from college students and graduating seniors going into music education or community music for internships. We have some paid internships available to help with our Music and Memory Project.
Volunteer musicians are always welcome and we are always looking for new musicians who are interested in performing and facilitating sing a longs in area nursing homes, or via a digital bedside concert.
Currently seeking early childhood music apprentices. Must love young children, be able to facilitate and lead an active participation music and movement class, communicate with parents/caregivers, sing in tune, have good rhythm, and be able to keep a steady beat independently. Contact Pamela West-Finkle if interested.