It has been said that by playing a musical instrument it make one smarter, teaches a person discipline, relieves stress, gives an individual a sense of achievement and is just a fun thing to learn and know how to do.

For Toni Reineke, head teacher and ensemble coach for the Seattle Public School's 55th Annual Summer Instrumental Music Program at West Seattle High School, her love and knowledge for music was reintroduced to her after a 25-year hiatus.

Reineke walked away from her passion and knowledge for music at the time of unrest, when civil rights, anti-Vietnam War and antidisestablishmentarianism were hot topics in the community.

Earning her bachelor of arts in music education and going on to earn her masters, she went on to teach music in schools in the 1970s. However, it was when she along with several other people in her building were assaulted that she decided, "I'm out of here and I'm never going to teach again."

Putting her talent for music behind her she went on to earn her Ph.D., got married and had a daughter.

"For 25 years I didn't associate myself with music. I had a piano in the living room and didn't play it for the longest time," said Reineke.

But it wasn't until she and her daughter joined the West Seattle Orchestra where she played the trombone and her daughter the viola, that she once again was excited and was lead right back into teaching music.

An advocate for the importance of music in schools, Reineke began by teaching beginning instruments to fourth and fifth graders in the fall of 2000. It was her excitement to see the progress each child was making as she taught, that she felt she wanted to continue on and teach over the summer.

The foundation of the music program in Seattle Schools is that a group of 12 to 15 music teachers cover all 65 elementary schools in the city. Due to the uneven ratio of teachers to schools, kids only get 30 minutes of instruction a week leaving them with the rest of the week to practice on their own.

"I estimated the amount of instruction they get during the school year is approximately 30 lessons of 30 minutes a year which is only 15 hours," said Reineke.

The Southwest Community Center in 2001 offered to provide the space and summer music class as part of their program while dozens of kids signed up for an hourly session for two weeks and enjoyed being able to learn and have more practice time.

That same year Reineke had heard about the school district's official summer music program and attempted to get kids to attend at Eckstein middle school in North Seattle. Unfortunately only one child signed-up as it was time-consuming, not very cost -effective and not fair for kids commuting from West Seattle.

To get a handle on things, Reineke decided to teach at the Eckstein program the next summer so she could "find out up close and personal how it was run" with the notion of applying her research in West Seattle.

That fall she lobbied for the school district to open a West Seattle site, arguing, "that the district discriminated against kids in West Seattle and the south part of the city."

To her delight her lobbying was successful and they started a sanctioned but not official part of the summer music program at Roxhill Elementary for the next two years.

The program at Roxhill brought in about 21 kids in 2003 and 35 kids in 2004, where they had concerts each week, presented 20 pieces of music each week for three weeks and again she was amazed by the kids accomplishments.

Their program outgrew Roxhill and moved to Chief Sealth High School in the summer of 2005, but due to a plan to remodel Chief Sealth, the program moved again in 2006 to West Seattle High School, where its located today.

Ever since the pilot program at Roxhill, Reineke and her colleagues have built their program to about 40 to 45 students a year. Wanting to give kids more time outside of school to learn and play more music, each school year they all get together and persuade kids to sign up for the summer program. Reineke said each school doesn't really have enough kids for a band or orchestra, so the program gives them a first time experience to play in a whole group.

Kim Seater, a parent who has had a 16-year-old son attend the program for two years and who helped teach for a week one summer, currently has a sixth grade daughter attending the program in her first year.

"I think especially for the younger kids if they've never really played in a group they don't have very much experience and this kind of gets them use to it. It's an adjustment for a lot of kids," she said.

The Summer Instrumental Music Program was designed to pull kids together and get them introduced into the middle schools and the idea of how to work with members. The music is focused on classical, band and strings music.

"In the program you learn music a lot more quickly, but I like that. I'm also excited because the program gives me more playing time during the summer," said first-timer Catie Tennie, a viola and string bass player.

A three-week program from June 23 to July 11 is a first session opportunity to enroll at West Seattle High School and the remaining two sessions are held at Eckstein Middle School. Students should have had one year of instruction and can enroll for all three weeks for $220 or $90 per week.

Classes provided are Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced band, Beginning and Intermediate String Orchestra and Jazz Band at Eckstein and Combined Band, Combined Strings, Beginning Jazz Ensemble, and Solos/Small Ensembles at West Seattle.

Activities include technique classes, small ensembles, assemblies, recess time with choice of activities, field trips, small ensembles, improvisation and composition.

Each week a concert of 15 to 20 pieces will be presented every Friday at 11 a.m., each session is concluded with an evening concert featuring all performing groups and a final concert to conclude the three-weeks will take place July 10, at 7 p.m.

"Kids get the growth (from the program.) We have a couple of kids where the first day their eyes are like 'Oh my god!' So I talk to their parents and tell them they might have a melt down at home but to reassure them that it will get better and that they will have fun by the end of the week. But I get feedback saying, 'No, they think this is a great chance to play,'" said Reineke.

There is still an opportunity to sign-up for the third week of the music program at Eckstein Middle School. For more information call 252-0051 or 252-0050 or e-mail Paris Heart at paheart@seattleschools.org. To enroll visit http://www.seattleschools.org/area/arts/music/summer/summer_music.htm.

Allison Espiritu may be reached at 206-932-0300 or allisone@robinsonnews.com.