A Capella : A Gift Exchange

Yesterday when I hopped out of my car to check the MYO mailbox, a tall muscular man approached me, reaching out with a hand holding what looked like a postcard. I thought he might be asking for money--an unfortunate feature of this post office. I always feel bad because I have no money to give--every penny goes to MYO.
The man said, "Tell me about your free music lessons!" So I did. He began to tell me about how all the churches in the area are hungry for musicians. The congregation and choir are singing a capella because the church can't afford to pay $350 a service for accompaniment. He asked for details on Cave9 and I gave him a stack fliers from the Nutcracker performance. He asked how many people we could take at one time. I told him that we have the occasional vanload arrive. He was almost shaking with excitement, asking if he could make copies of the flier. He said he'd bring his 9 year old son down to Cave9 this weekend to check it out. He shook his head and said it was wonderful news. I told him that, yes, it was wonderful and that we'd welcome him, his son and anyone else who walks in the door.
The gifts passing between us were intangible, but as fulfilling and meaningful as any under the tree.

In the holiday spirit

I believe

Jimmy as hRom: Dance or Die

Jimmy Hrom, Director of Programs and Administration, Scrollworks 'enforcer' and guitar teacher extraordinaire, performs music of his own composition on the Nintendo game system.

Stand by Me

From Playing for Change via Idealist.org

'Stick a fork in me, I'm done!' -- a unique graduation announcement

(Click to see a larger image.)
Kim is the creator of Music Snob Trivia at Bottletree--which donates almost weekly to our programs.
Notice who she directs donations to at the end. Thanks, Kim!!

We're Trying!

From the Baltimore Sun via the AfriClassical blog:

Although the classical music arena enjoys a reputation for being a color-blind meritocracy, few blacks perform in the nation's orchestras. Just 1.9 percent of the nation's orchestra musicians were African American during the 2006-2007 season; the most recent report available from the League of American Orchestras; the figure was 1.3 percent in 1994-1995. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has one African-American full-time player among 92.

The lack of diversity is increasingly a sore point as barriers come down in other areas, from corporations to Hollywood to the White House. And as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and other music institutions push to attract broader audiences in a difficult economy, the need to improve diversity has become more critical.

Brian Eno Believes

Brian Eno speaks about singing, but I believe it applies to instrumental ensembles, too:

When you sing with a group of people, you learn how to subsume yourself into a group consciousness because a capella singing is all about the immersion of the self into the community. That’s one of the great feelings—to stop being me for a little while, and to become us. That way lies empathy, the great social virtue.

Scrollworks at Cave9

Some photos from yesterday's lessons at Cave9. Thanks so much to Craig Hultgren for teaching our strings! And Jason has proven invaluable on drums, guitar, and winds. I can't believe I've known this fine young man since he was in grade school!



The Sigler twins are also real assets to MYO and Scrollworks. Yesterday they looked so handsome in their concert clothes. We appreciate their help teaching sax and trumpet.

YouTube Symphony: You can audition

From the LA Times:

Want to apply? Go to YouTube's symphony channel and download the sheet music for your instrument for the Internet Symphony No. 1 "Eroica," a new work by Chinese composer Tan Dun. Then make a video of yourself playing your part -- and another playing a different composition -- and upload them to YouTube. If you need tutoring, there's a clip of the London Symphony Orchestra performing Tan's piece as well as video master classes from individual players.

Semifinalists will be chosen by judges from some of the world's major orchestras. The final picks will be selected by -- you guessed it -- YouTube viewers. A performance at Carnegie Hall, led by San Francisco Symphony conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, will take place in April.

Are you a Pusher or a Placeholder?

Placeholder. We've all had that kind of job. There's lots of work, perhaps critical work, but it doesn't matter that it's YOU who is doing it. Maybe it matters that you show up every day or work overtime or help plan the office Christmas party, but it doesn't matter if you are doing the work--or the person who submitted the next resume in the pile. Perhaps when you took the job you thought you could add some special touch, make some changes. But that didn't happen and now you're just that mythical cog in the machine.

Years ago I was rushing to the kids' school with a car full of tie-dye supplies. It had taken longer than I expected to prepare t-shirts and mix dyes for the class, so I was running late. As I flew down the straight-away of Broken Bow Circle, my way was blocked by a pick-up truck across the road. Two ladies were trying to push it into their driveway, but couldn't get it over the bump of the gutter and up the slight incline--they repeatedly lost momentum and the truck rolled back into the street. I could have gone around on one of the passes when they had it almost up the hill, but I turned off my car and helped them push it out of the street for good. Even with three of us, it took several tries.

There are no placeholders here. Everyone involved with MYO and Scrollworks is a pusher, from Craig, the chairman of the board, to Dion, who pretends to take drum lessons just so he can have brownies. We are pushing the world to a better place. If you think that's too idealistic, too ridiculous to associate with music lessons and youth orchestra, you haven't seen what is happening here.

Our organization is small, so every action, every dollar, has an impact. Entering student registrations in a database is cog-like, but at this point you can design the database or change the registration forms. A single dollar buys a clarinet reed or a cake of rosin for one of the strings. Fifty dollars pays for a month worth of lessons for one of our students.

Feel like a placeholder? Become a pusher with MYO. You can volunteer--just come to Cave9 on Friday or Saturday afternoon. You can push right here, right now by donating.

Push the world to a better place! Donate to MYO--a 501(c)3 organization!

Visions

(This is a blurry photo of our appearance on Ms. Tripp's show 'The Almighty Eyes', Brighthouse Channel 4 on November 15.)

We've been in a huge transition over the last month. It's proving to be a very good thing. There's an undercurrent of excitement and the new watchword, 'Excellence', is already producing results.

I'm getting good at explaining what I don't want to do, while realizing that what I am trying to do is impossible for one person. So many have come to my rescue and I greatly appreciate it. The board, the staff, the parents and the students: Craig, Rick, John, Edwin, Dwight, Harry, Jimmy, Janet, Jenny, Cindy, Leslie, Carrie, Claudia, Brian, and many more. Thank you!

In the process, I've discovered that so many didn't know the big picture. So I wrote out my vision:

Cave9 was an accident. I think all real innovation is. Our original intent was to duplicate El Sistema, with Hill as a model school. Cave9 was just going to be another node or 'nucleo' as they are called in El Sistema. But Cave9 has turned out to be something so important that I can't find words for what happens there. I wish I could convey it. The teachers see it. The students and their parents see it. The ensembles have to be a product of this. We need 9000 ensembles--ensembles for adults, ensembles for  piano and guitar, whatever will bring people to sit side by side, make music and communicate. But it all begins with that chaos at Cave9, the core tenet of which is free music lessons for anyone who walks in the door. It is unique and Birmingham needs to exploit that in all sorts of ways.

I want to take Cave9, figure out how to make it possible for anyone to duplicate with their own resources, distill it into a 5 page brochure and distribute it to everyone. I want someone in Hale County to do it at their church, someone in Mississippi to take it up at their school. Molly's already doing it every Thursday at a Unitarian church in Louisville. Maybe they can do it under our umbrella, maybe they have to do it independently.The Julia set is my mental picture of how that would look. I want the students to feed into ensembles that start local and become regional. (That IS like El Sistema.) I want those ensembles to represent a true cross-section of the underlying community.