[From the 5/24 www.sfcv.org] HUSAVIK - A runaway iceberg of phantasmagorical shape from Greenland is floating majestically into the nearby fjord as the schoolhouse atop the windswept plateau between flat, volcanic mountains resounds with vital, pulsating sound. Freckled Icelandic seventh graders with upturned noses and bright, mischievous eyes are raising the roof on marimbas and mpiras (thumb pianos), playing and singing African songs so authentically and passionately that it takes the listener's breath away. "It's not just a `bit of world music here and there,' explains school music director Robert S.C. Faulkner (who came from the Royal Music Academy two decades ago to visit... and never left), but he and Hafralaekjarskoli School specialized in the art of Zimbabwean music, purchasing the instruments and starting up the program at a cost of a million kronur ($16,000). In the past few years, the children have played for Iceland's top politicians, visiting royalty, and participated in cooperative productions with local theater and choral groups. This one-time whaling center of the world is not an exception to the rule. Although Iceland's population is a meager 280,000 (against Oakland's 400,000), the country funds 90 music schools, up to 400 bands and orchestras, and more than 400 choruses. Reykjavik's symphony (lead by Rumon Gamba, with both Vladimir and Dmitri Ashkenazy as frequent visitors) and opera company (Kurt Kopecky, music director) have substantial seasons, the latter with Britten's Noyes Fludde, Verdi's Otello and Aida, and - so help me - Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen in its recent repertory. How is it possible, asks the visitor from California - the world's sixth-largest economy, where music education is a pale shadow of what it once was - to have this level of government- and community-supported music life in this tiny, isolated country in the North Atlantic? What's both frustrating and incomprehensible is that Faulkner and others not only cannot answer the "how is it possible?" question, they don't really understand what is being asked. Is music a priority, do you pay what is required? Of course. "It's obvious that the little money we spend on music education pays for itself in a hundred ways," says a school administration. There is no real answer to a question that doesn't make sense. Notwithstanding the bright, invigorating sound of African rhythms around me, the beaming musicians, the enthusiastic audience, I feel sad, contemplating the unanswered question - why not do the obvious in California, why not invest in music, a low-cost, high-return proposition? Janos Gereben/SF www.sfcv.org [log in to unmask]