The East Oakland School of the Arts at Castlemont High School and the Elmhurst Middle School music department have been selected to receive proceeds from the second annual Oakland Music Festival on Sunday, organizers said Monday.

The festival will be at the Ruby Sky, 420 Mason St., San Francisco, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

There's also a campaign to secure donated instruments or instruments at wholesale prices from Bay Area music stores. Contributions are also being sought for a van for the Castleers, a choir at the high school, and those donations can be sent directly to the school at 8601 MacArthur Blvd.

On Monday, Lance Hyde, the music festival's executive producer, and Oakland recording artist D'Wayne Wiggins of Toni! Tone! Tony! visited a music class at Castlemont. Wiggins and his brother, Raphael Saadiq, will be the headliners Sunday, and both are alumni of Castlemont and Elmhurst.

Tickets are $39.50 for general admission and $75 for VIP seating, which includes food. Tickets are available at Marcus Book Stores, 390 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland.

Sponsors include the Oakland Tribune, BART, Borders Books, KPIX-TV, KMEL-FM, KISQ-FM and Comcast.

Educators and community leaders say music and athletics keep many minority students interested in school, and music students often fare better in standardized test scores and have higher graduation rates than other students.

But many young people from low-income households cannot afford to purchase musical instruments or pay for private lessons, and public funding for music programs has been rolled back due to budget deficits.

"Music is a very important part of today's educational curriculum," Wiggins said. "And we have to step up and do our part to help students who want to study music."

Hyde said the festival has shifted from last year's focus, which was to help all schools. This year the focus is to get "more resources to a few schools with the greatest needs."

Last year's festival was held at the Dunsmuir House. An Oakland venue could not be secured this year; however, the festival's mission still is focused on Oakland, said Hyde.

"We are only going to help these two schools," Hyde said. "We are also making an effort to go to Bay Area music stores and either get them to donate instruments or allow us to buy them at wholesale rates.

"I also grew up in this community, and these students have the least opportunity to pursue careers in music because they come from low-income households. When I visited Castlemont the conditions were deplorable: students needed instruments and the Castleers (choir) don't even have a van, so they have missed performances."

For more information, call the festival at 367-5411.

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