A new study (http://www.chorusamerica.org/about_choralsinging.cfm) has research to support that participation in a chorus - regardless of age - yields much more than artistic benefits alone. Citing improved academic performance for students as well as higher volunteer rates, better leadership skills, greater philanthropic involvement and increased patronage of the other arts, the study's implicit conclusion is that musical skills are directly translatable into everyday, non-musical life.Working at DePaul Community Music Division I see these same findings, albeit in a much less quantitive way. Young students too shy to talk often blow me away with their expressive playing during end of the semester recitals and some of our adult students, in no uncertain terms, have told me how much it means to create music with their friends or how their involvement in music got them through a particularly hard time. As a musician who grew up with music, it is hard for me to imagine what I might be doing now if I hadn't gone to my fair share of lessons and orchestra rehearsalsDo all of these benefits adequately explain why jobs in the concert hall seem to become more and more scarce while enrollment for musical instruction is on the rise? What skills and traits do you think that music has fostered in you or your students?