Tuning In to Mozart, Bach and All That Jazz : Education: Music appreciation class at a Thousand Oaks school is opening youngsters’ eyes and ears.

Twelve-year-old Tony Luna likes head-pounding, guitar-screeching heavy metal music that makes his bedroom walls shake.

But since he enrolled in the new music appreciation class at Los Cerritos Intermediate School, Tony has refined his musical taste.

“I love jazz,” the seventh-grader said in amazement. “I was excited to learn something new.”

Tony is one of 32 students in Los Cerritos’ music appreciation program, an elective course being piloted this year. It has been nearly two decades since the Conejo Valley school district offered such a course, officials said.

Thousand Oaks teacher Carol Alexander created the program last fall to enrich students’ cultural literacy by teaching them about the origins of American music, born in blues and jazz more than a century ago.

“The obvious reason is enrichment,” Alexander said. “It is an opportunity that they may or may not have had.”

Her course covers the musical greats--Mozart to Mendelssohn, Bach to Beethoven--and introduces students to different genres, such as musical theater.

To teach her students about orchestral music, Alexander makes all 32 of them play simple folk tunes on recorders, small vertical flutes that were popular instruments in the 16th and 17th centuries.

“I’m just trying to give them a great variety of things,” said Alexander, who divides her time as music director between Los Cerritos and Redwood intermediate schools. She is also the director of the Conejo Youth Symphony.

If her new course is well-received by students this school year, the school district may choose to expand it to other campuses, Assistant Supt. Richard Simpson said.

“There is an emphasis on trying to keep the arts in front of kids,” he said. “The leadership within the district believes the arts are a basic skill, not a thrill.”

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Music and visual arts programs have become endangered species in most California public schools, but in the arts-conscious community of Thousand Oaks, those programs have been protected from cuts.

During the past three years, the Conejo Unified School District has slashed $9.5 million from its budget.

“I don’t believe a dime was cut from the visual-performing arts programs,” Simpson said. “I don’t think this is a community that would allow you to cut the arts.”

Conejo school leaders have traditionally put an emphasis on the arts. Thousand Oaks third-graders journey to the Civic Arts Plaza for at least one performance during the school year, and sixth-graders trek to the Getty Museum in Malibu twice yearly to study Greek and Roman art.

But Simpson said there is still room for improvement, including expanding now-Spartan instrumental music programs.

“I know this district does more for the arts than almost any other in California,” Simpson said. “Is it enough? I don’t think so.”

Adding music appreciation to the list of course offerings is a step in the right direction, officials said.

“The intermediate schools have much more exploratory electives,” Simpson said. “This adds one more sampler of something they might want to know more about.”

Just two weeks into the new course, music appreciation students say they look forward to the class and are eager to learn.

“I thought it would be like band, but it wasn’t,” said 13-year-old Adam Liebling, who plays the clarinet. “In band, we just learn how to play our instruments. Here we learn history and the culture of music.”

Tony Luna never touched an instrument before enrolling in music appreciation. Now, he knows how to play a recorder--sort of--and has broadened his musical palette.

“I think it helps you appreciate different types of music,” Tony said. “And it helps you get tuned in more to other little noises. I think I’ll stop and listen more.”