There's over a billion of you out there in more than a hundred and eighty countries. You're the fans, you're the music lovers, the main reason that we're all here tonight. . . So from all of us here, to all of you, our partners, a great big thank you. This partnership between you and the arts grows stronger every year in new and exciting ways. Recent groundbreaking scientific research astounds us, building upon a compelling body of evidence that music is fundamental.
Music is magic.
Music therapists prove every single day that music is powerful medicine. Tearing down the walls of silence and affliction of Alzheimer's, depression, Parkinson's and autism. And that music education is superior to even computer instruction in enhancing early childhood mental capacity and spacial intelligence. Soon the academy is going to be announcing a groundbreaking nationwide program in support of early childhood development. Seeing to it that mothers of newborns leave the hospital with a very, very special resource kit.