Karl Klingler and the Orange Blossom Express

As most of the music world knows by now, Mark O’Connor has in the past year presented information on his BLOG that he says exposes Shin’ichi Suzuki as a fraud. Mr. O’Connor has a deservedly high stature as a performer and composer. Therefore, many media outlets have either taken him at his word or printed his accusations as the quotes of a newsworthy person.

This, of course, has struck a deep nerve for tens of thousands of teachers, students and alumni of Suzuki Education around the world. For those of us who had the experience of knowing and working with Suzuki, the hostile nature of the charges is especially troubling.

Charles Avsharian, CEO of the SHAR Music Company, recently posted a statement on his BLOG that noted that Mr. O’Connor’s attacks, as well as some of the responses, have created a hurtful, damaging, and unproductive atmosphere. In response, Mr. O’Connor offered somewhat of an olive branch, expressing his regret at having caused the firestorm. Still, he could not bring himself to back away from his assertions regarding Shin’ichi Suzuki’s personal story. As a result, I feel compelled to present information that I consider to be definitive, due to the testimony of primary sources as well as my own personal interactions.

Before I describe the basic tenets of Suzuki Education and respond to the attacks on Suzuki the man, I do want to acknowledge the accomplishments of Mr. O’Connor. In his career as a performer and composer he has built bridges among musical genres and diverse cultures. More importantly, he has elevated the status of American roots music and inspired many to play, listen or otherwise engage with the musical art. The concept and literature of the O’Connor method could certainly do similar things for music teaching.

The success of Suzuki Education, especially with violin playing, largely speaks for itself. The most radical difference between Suzuki teaching and most other approaches to teaching the violin is the fact that Suzuki teachers believe that, without exception, every child can learn to play the violin and master the instrument to whatever level they pursue. Excellent musicianship is not reserved for the prodigies or other children who have been identified as possessing big talent.

Many professional violinists have emerged as a result of Suzuki Education, including a number of concertmasters of major orchestras. Though we are proud of these musicians, a career in music is only a happy by-product of Suzuki Education. The Suzuki philosophy is clearly more focused on developing the character of the student, cultivating an appreciation of beauty and prompting students to go forth in the world to live as noble citizens.

Pedagogically, the emphasis with the youngest students is to immerse them in the music they will soon play. The technical challenges of the instrument are broken down into hundreds of small steps which are mastered at varying speeds by each student. Parents or caregivers play a large role in providing support, creating a nurturing home environment and celebrating a student’s every achievement.

While there is no system of certification for American Suzuki teachers, there are many opportunities to learn and master both the pedagogy and the philosophy. Teachers are encouraged to register their training experiences on the website of the Suzuki Association of the Americas, a not-for-profit organization that serves as an information clearinghouse for a large and diverse learning community.

The experience of each student depends on the expertise and dedication of their teacher. This is true for every approach to teaching music. It is a fact that some teachers are better than others. The Suzuki Association of the Americas provides a large number of organized opportunities for Suzuki teachers to hone their skills, share ideas and become the best teachers they can be. Suzuki Education in America is an ever-evolving community that absorbs the best qualities of other styles of teaching and continuously introduces new ideas and supplementary material, including, for the last four decades, American fiddle tunes, to the teaching repertoire.

That said, we can finally explore the facts about Shin’ichi Suzuki’s life story. It is true that Suzuki never attended the Berlin Hochshule. He also never claimed to have been enrolled in the Berlin Hochchule. As Suzuki has written, he was not a very good violinist at this time. Nonetheless, he convinced Klingler to take him on as a student. This fact is confirmed by Alice Schoenfeld, Emeritus Professor of Violin at the University of Southern California, and a student in the Klinger studio in the 1920’s. Ms. Schoenfeld said, “Yes, Suzuki was definitely in Klingler’s studio. He was fascinated with Suzuki’s cultural background and eager to see if he could grasp the language of European music. Mr. Klinger and Mr. Suzuki became great friends. Klinger was a wonderful teacher who taught great people, and great people at heart.”

As for Suzuki’s relationship with Albert Einstein, there is no mystery as to how they connected. When Dr. Leonor Michaelis, a friend of the Suzuki family who had agreed to look after Shin’ichi in a completely unknown cultural environment, accepted a teaching appointment in the United States, Michaelis asked his friend Einstein to continue looking after the young Suzuki. Einstein later presented Suzuki with the gift of a self-portrait with the following inscription: “Herr Shinichi Suzuki in freundlichsten Erinnerung” translated as, “Mr. Shinichi Suzuki in friendliest recollection” – Albert Einstein November 1926.

Regarding Suzuki’s honorary degrees, many teachers and students use the honorific title of Doctor in referring to Suzuki. However, Suzuki never referred to himself as a doctor, though many other noteworthy people with honorary degrees have, including poet Maya Angelou, Bluegrass artist Ralph Stanley and founding father Benjamin Franklin.

Shin’ichi Suzuki was most proud of the many children in his studio who learned to play music and engage the world with beautiful hearts. There were also students who became professional musicians. In fact, Suzuki’s very first students found success as professional violinists, Toshiya Eto, was head of the Toho Gakuen School of Music and Koji Toyoda, served as concertmaster of the Berlin Radio Orchestra. In America, many Suzuki students have ascended to musical prominence, including William Preucil, concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra and Erin Keefe, Artist member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra.

While never a virtuoso, Suzuki himself became a respected violinist in Japan. As a soloist he appeared with the New Symphony Orchestra – a precursor of the NHK Symphony and toured extensively with the Suzuki Quartet, all before World War II.

In the end, it was not his violin playing that changed the world of music; it was his pedagogy and his humanity. I hope the music world is ready to move on from the ugly rancor of the past year. The truth is that if there were another million wonderful music teachers, it wouldn’t be enough. We do what we do for the happiness of all children.

The Sound (choice) of Music

In July of 2018, The Washington Post published a story about violinist William Preucil, Jr., alleging multiple instances of sexual misconduct and abuse of power. The Cleveland Orchestra, where, until recently, Mr. Preucil served as concertmaster, quickly suspended him and retained a law firm to do a full investigation. Mr. Preucil also resigned from his teaching position at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where, a decade earlier, there had been allegations of misconduct.

The Cleveland Orchestra announced the findings of its investigation on October 24, 2018. The Washington Post reported that the investigation, conducted by the New York law firm Debevoise and Plimpton, found that 11 women had told credible stories of sexual misconduct by Mr. Preucil. The orchestra fired Mr. Preucil the same day.

Reports about the misconduct were originally reported in 2006 by The Scene Magazine in Cleveland. At the time, Mr. Preucil’s conduct was an “open secret”, about which almost no one was willing to speak on the record.  The Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) made arrangements, (AKA covered up), with one victim, a student of Mr. Preucil at the school. Mr. Preucil kept his prominent place on the CIM faculty and the student signed a non-disclosure agreement. In recent months, the institution has made strong statements condemning Mr. Preucil’s behavior but so far has not acknowledged the earlier cover-up. CIM needs to fully acknowledge what happened in 2006.

The story is disturbing, even more so, because William Preucil, Jr. also happens to be the violinist on the most widely distributed recording of the repertoire of the Suzuki Violin School.  This is the recording listened to every day by thousands of young violin students. In order to put the issue in context, it is essential to consider the distinct characteristics of Suzuki pedagogy. Dr. Suzuki called on teachers to believe in the unlimited potential of each child, placing the development of strong character on a higher plane than the development of musical skills. With the close cooperation of parents, students learn music the same way they acquire their native language, through listening, repetition, an element of group learning, and positive reinforcement.

Suzuki pedagogy utilizes a highly organized and thoughtful sequence of repertoire. It is critical that students repeatedly listen to accurate renditions of the repertoire, which are completely faithful to the bowing, fingering, phrasing and articulation notated in the books of the Suzuki Violin School. Recordings of these pieces are carefully planned, executed and reviewed by experienced Suzuki teachers. It would be counter-productive for students to listen to other recorded versions of the repertoire.

The International Suzuki Association (ISA), a non-profit entity, has the sole authority to grant rights for the use of the name and the marks “Suzuki” and “Suzuki Method”. It is the ISA that officially reviews all published recordings of the Suzuki repertoire. Alfred Music, a for-profit, multi-national publishing company, holds the exclusive rights to record and distribute the specific repertoire sequence associated with the Suzuki Violin School. It became public on October 30; 2018 that Alfred Music was planning to make a new recording of the repertoire.

To my knowledge, the ISA has not taken a public position on the issue other than a generic statement on its homepage condemning sexual misconduct. The statement is dated October 16, 2018, but was not actually posted until the following week. One would hope that the ISA played a role in convincing Alfred Music to make a new recording, but that is so far unknown. While it is not clear whether the ISA has a specific legal authority regarding Alfred Music’s recording and distribution of the Suzuki repertoire, their website describes the terms of potential business relationships related to trademark and copyrights:

The ISA was designated by Dr. Suzuki as the sole authorised organisation which can grant rights to the use of his name and the marks “Suzuki”, “Suzuki Method”, and other similar terms throughout the world.

Later in the same document:

If the above, criteria are met, permission for the use of the Suzuki name, trademarks and/or use of ISA/Suzuki copyrighted materials may be granted in ISA’s sole discretion for a period of ___ years or ___ number of copies as agreed between the author or ISA by a written license agreement at a royalty rate of 8% of the retail prices of the licensed materials

The Suzuki Association of the Americas (SAA), a non-profit organization which is officially licensed to support, guide, and promote Suzuki education in North, Central, and South America, has not commented in the issue. The SAA Board of Directors released the following statement in August, referring to Mr. Preucil’s service as an honorary board member:

In light of recent allegations of misconduct, the Board of Directors of the Suzuki Association of the Americas has removed William Preucil, Jr. as an honorary board member.

As an association, working together as Dr. Suzuki intended, we will continue to aspire to the highest standards of personal conduct, professional integrity and respect for human dignity.

The SAA website contains no specific reference to Mr. Preucil and his recording of the Suzuki repertoire and has not made any particular comment on the controversy. The SAA does not appear to have a legal role in the matter. It should be noted that Mr. Preucil also appears in video recordings used for teacher training, controlled and distributed by the SAA.

The SAA does offer general statements regarding ethical behavior. Among many statements in the Teacher Trainers Aspirational Code of Ethics are:

As members, we demonstrate responsibility toward the Suzuki philosophy by:

• Recognizing the dignity and the potential of all individuals.

As members of the Suzuki Association of the Americas by:

• Carrying out our responsibilities toward the SAA in a manner that brings credit to the SAA and to Dr. Suzuki’s name.

As members, we demonstrate responsibility toward our students by:

• Setting an excellent personal and musical example for

On September 13, 2018, the SAA Violin Committee, perhaps not coincidentally, suggested other available recordings of the Suzuki Violin School repertoire. That statement is excerpted here.

…the SAA Violin Committee offers the list below of recordings which are either “vintage” recordings of the Suzuki Violin School or suggestions for numerous other recorded versions of the repertoire.

The following recordings of the Suzuki Violin School are available for download on iTunes and Amazon from Alfred Publishing (sic). Alfred Music has created a list of the links to purchase digital downloads of the Suzuki recordings. The links for the string books are active. Links to the recordings of other instruments will follow. The online address to access the list is Alfred.com/Suzuki and the exact URL for the string audio is www.alfred.com/suzukistringaudio.

There are four other recordings.  None of them include the entire Suzuki violin repertoire.  All of them differ from current editions of the Suzuki Violin School, with inconsistencies in musical notes and bowing.  Even the recording of Shin’ichi Suzuki is different from the repertoire, as it is currently evolved.

David Cerone                        Volumes 1-4

David Nadien                        Volumes 1-4

Koji Toyota                            Volumes 5-8

Shin’ichi Suzuki                     Volumes 1-3

Alfred Music profits from the sale of this material. The descendants of Dr. Suzuki also receive a share of the profits, and, as far as I know, they have not taken a formal position.

The issue is complicated. Credible allegations of sexual misconduct have been made against a musician, Mr. Preucil, who years earlier, had recorded the definitive version of the repertoire of the Suzuki Violin School. Questions abound.

• Does it matter who performs the music on Suzuki recordings? Suzuki students are not in direct contact with the recording artist.
• Is it rational, or advisable, to invalidate the musical output of musicians who have committed crimes or behaved unethically?
• Should adherents of the Suzuki Philosophy hold its associated musicians to a higher standard of behavior?
• Does it matter if the performer, the ISA or the Suzuki family is making a profit from the recordings? Are these entities somehow complicit?
• Is it possible to be associated with these recordings, and without hypocrisy, declare that sexual misconduct will not be tolerated under any circumstances in our field?

In my conversations and correspondence with parents, teachers and Suzuki alumni, I have found a large number of people who are not troubled by the recordings. They do not condone Mr. Preucil’s behavior, but see the recordings as a step or two removed from those who listen to them. However, the majority are appalled and angry that the Preucil recordings are still being promoted and sold. Teachers and parents must decide whether or not they can continue to use the Preucil recordings in their daily teaching and learning. The choice is more complicated by the fact that the existing alternative recordings are not wholly adequate.

I call on the ISA and SAA to make, the now long overdue, strong and explicit statements about the issue. Alfred Music made the sound choice in planning to make new recordings. They undoubtedly sensed both a public relations disaster on the horizon, and a fresh opportunity to promote their product.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if these three organizations embraced the growing diversity of the Suzuki movement in the Americas, and selected a woman and/or person of color to record the new version of the Suzuki Violin School repertoire? We can only hope.

Mark George

Young Musicians in Training, Part 1

This is the first in a series of essays which will explore the purpose and methodology of musical training in the United States. While there is general agreement that music training is essential, there is no such agreement on the specific purpose and goals attached to the training. There are many contexts where musical training is relevant – early childhood and K-12 education, private teaching, community music schools, colleges and universities, conservatories, senior centers, etc. But even within each of these contexts, there is little agreement on the “why” and “how” of musical training.

I view this confusion as a threat to the long-term viability of the musical art.

Defining a musician is a surprisingly difficult task, one that produces many more questions than answers. By musician do we mean those who earn a substantial portion of their income from musical activities? Do we include anyone who self-identifies as a musician? Do we stipulate that a musician is someone who produces art? (Of course, art is another difficult thing to define). Charles Ives was example of a musician who (in my opinion) created art, but he did not earn his living substantially as a musician or composer.

The Future of Music Coalition (FMC), a non-profit research and advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., provides a wealth of data relating to how musicians earn money. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that in 2013 there were a total of 62, 450 musicians, singers, composers and music directors. According to FMC, there are an estimated 42 revenue streams within seven broad categories:

• Performer, Session Musician
• Performer and Recording Artist
• Songwriter and Composer
• Knowledge of Craft: Teaching and Producing
• Brand-Related
• Fan, Corporate and Foundation Funding
• Other: Arts Administrator

There are many organizations that represent various segments of the field, not one of them remotely comprehensive. Moreover, in most cases membership does not correspond to the data from the BLS. For example, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) claims 540,000 members. Membership criteria have a low threshold i.e. having at least on musical work available to the public by any means, including live performances and You Tube postings.

Therefore, there are many hundreds of thousands of people who view themselves as musicians, but don’t necessary earn any money as a result. For many, music is an avocation which enables artists, dabblers and everything in between. There are many more people who engage with music at live events and through recordings, and as casual participants in the making of music. With the population of the United States approaching 325,000,000, with most having broad access to music, this is a bloc that deserves our attention. For working musicians, these millions are the source of all earned income.

Music is also more than a commercial enterprise. Significant engagement with music is the norm in American society. In a letter to his wife, John Adams, the second president of the United States wrote, “….I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.” Engagement with the arts can easily be viewed as the right of all Americans.

Musicians can serve themselves, serve society, serve the art, or serve all of the above. It is the responsibility of music educators to figure out how best to train them to do all of it.

Musical Sport

The role of music at sporting events has always fascinated me. As in other parts of life, music has a tangible effect on people. The primary objective for music at sporting events is to excite the crowd and prompt them to participate musically, or simply make noise. Who hasn’t been tempted to do the stomp-stomp-clap of Queen’s We Will, We Will Rock You?

There are other roles for music. Teams often have music associated with their identity. Sometimes the music is expressly connected to the team. College football teams often have fight songs, whose words and melodies are known by students and alumni, and repeated with Pavlovian furor after each score. Professional teams can have uniquely composed music, often a legacy of a time when their might have been live music at a game, or drawn from past promotional campaigns.

Of the many musical fragments meant to encourage fan participation, some are particularly ubiquitous. Ta-ka-tata, tata…….charge! – is borrowed from a military bugle call. Another bugle call, though without participation, is appropriated from the summons to the starting gate in horse racing. Many other simple and repeatable tunes and rhythms are led by an organist, or triggered electronically by an audio director. Occasionally, full-fledged songs inspire singing, dancing, clapping, or all three, in the case of YMCA by the Village People.

The Star Spangled Banner is almost always performed before a professional sporting event begins. It is considered an honor to sing the national anthem before the biggest games. The brightest stars from every musical background put their unique stamp on the song, not always to the wide approval of the fans and television audience. Renditions during times of war or national tragedy are received with much more solemnity, as are performances of Irving Berlin’s God Bless America.

There are other examples of music which seem to unify people and build a sense of community. For reasons sometimes unknown, certain songs bring certain communities together. In recent years, Boston Red Sox fans have poured their hearts out in unifying performances of the 1960’s hit Sweet Caroline. After several months of this phenomenon, Neil Diamond himself showed up to sing it. Chelsea Dagger, an obscure song by the rock band The Fratelli’s, became the exuberant victory song of the Chicago Black Hawks. Other songs are associated with teams and cities for more obvious reasons. A recording of John Kander and Fred Ebb’s New York, New York, as sung by Frank Sinatra, is played at the end of most Yankee’s home games.

For me, one of the most annoying musical expressions associated with a team is the so-called Tomahawk Chop. Originally chanted by fans of the Florida State Seminoles, the song was adopted by the nearby Atlanta Braves in the early 1990’s. Aside from the questionable faux Native American and racist overtones of the chant, my annoyance is deeply personal. When the Braves played my beloved Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1991 National League Championship Series, the ‘Chop’ was chanted incessantly. After a heartbreaking Pirate’s defeat to lose the series, the sounds and gestures of the chants were relentless on the television broadcast. I was living in Cleveland at the time, and as I escaped my house, stewing in defeat, after the game to walk my dog, I could hear a few displaced Atlanta fans howling the chant in the distance. Ouch.

The use of classical music is a remnant from a time when people generally knew more about it. The level of knowledge decreased from the early twentieth-century, when people learned about classical music in school, to mid-century, when knowledge, or at least familiarity, was gleaned from radio broadcasts and cartoons, to the present day, where there is but a vaguely disconnected recognition of the genre. Still, a use of certain pieces persists in sporting venues. The notion of charging forward is evoked with a section of Rossini’s William Tell Overture or the horse galloping regularity of the Light Cavalry Overture by Franz von Suppe. You will also still occasionally hear Bizet’s Can-Can, Strauss’s Redetzky March or a Hungarian Rhapsody of Franz Liszt.

It is now much more common to hear the classics of rock-n-roll in ballparks or stadiums, We Are the Champions, another hit by Queen, Twist and Shout of the Beatles, Centerfield by John Fogerty, and many more. In baseball at present, players get to choose their entrance music when they come to the plate. The selections here are usually more contemporary, a collection of rap, reggae, and grunge or metal rock. It would be surprising, and hilarious, if someday, someone came out to the finale from Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.

By far for me, the most interesting use of music in sports is when the organist or music director plays a song which associated meaning with a situation or personality on the field. More often than not, the selections are predictable. During a rain delay you will hear songs like Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head by Burt Bacharach or Rainy Days and Mondays by Paul Williams. However, there are more clever applications.

Vince Lascheid was the organist at Three Rivers Stadium for thirty years beginning in the 1970’s. He practically invented the art of musical punning and commentary. Sometimes the puns were absolutely groaning, such as when Benny Ayala came to the plate, and the organist would play the hit by Tony Orlando and Dawn, Tie a Yellow Ribbon ‘Round the Old Oak Tree. Get it? Ha.

The commentary songs could be much more biting. Steve Garvey, a decidedly vain first baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers entered to the organist playing Here She is, Miss America. When the Dodgers complained to Pirates management, Mr. Lascheid switched to Stevie Wonder’s Isn’t She Lovely.

When an opposing player of awesome stature appears, he might hear the Imperial March (Darth Vadar’s theme) by John Williams. Of course, the commentary could also be complimentary. Roberto Clemente would often walk out, perhaps to his embarrassment, to Jesus Christ Superstar.

However, it is the fans that are often the most poignant performers. There was the relentless, mocking minor third refrain of Da-ryl, Da-ryl which greeted Daryl Strawberry in visiting stadiums. At home he heard the Beatles’ Strawberry Fields Forever. And finally, when a pitcher is taken from the mound, or a team is eliminated from a series, the dishonored players can expect to hear the classic Na-na-na-na, Na-na-na-na, hey-hey-hey………Goodbye.

Music and Social Responsibility

Do musicians have a special responsibility to serve their community? This is a question I have asked myself throughout my more than thirty year career as a musician, music teacher and arts administrator.

Music is a language that is at once abstract and entirely accessible, endlessly fascinating to the brain and capable of provoking profound emotional response.   With or without awareness, humans are extremely sophisticated in taking in, processing, and interpreting sound.

Music is also unique in that it exists only in a singular temporal environment. No two music performances are the same. Each performance, whether conveyed live or electronically, has its own frame-of-reference….the acoustic environment, the mood of the musician, the prior experiences of the listeners. There is always a necessary negotiation between the musician and the listener. Music is a participatory activity for all parties.

Herein lays the special power of music to motivate, inspire and console. Musicians create music by representing their ideas and feelings with sound, which is then physically transmitted to listeners as vibrations. However, at its best, the transmittal transcends the physical. A special relationship is forged between musician and listener when the interaction occurs in close proximity. In a live and in-person performance, sustained attentiveness can elevate the musical experience to a level of profound significance.

Individuals are enticed to feel something more deeply because of their direct contact with the music. In a mostly involuntary negotiation, a depth of communication can occur, with references to past musical experiences, contact with present feelings, or by recognizing a glancing similarity to some other experience.

The communication can be quite direct. A song is connected to an earlier experience and comes to represent it…Your Smiling Face for my first love. An anthem comes to signify the solidarity of a group…We Are Family for a baseball championship. Sometimes the communication stems from a simple loss for words. I had to teach a conservatory music theory class the morning after 9/11. All I could do was play a recording of Pablo Casals performing Bach. It helped.

I have come to believe that this deep level of communication is a kind of super-power, and with it comes a responsibility to use that power for good in the world. When musicians embed themselves in places where there are emotional needs, and there are few places that don’t, they have an opportunity to make a difference. They can help someone to feel better.

It happens that the act of connecting through music is also very good for the musician. In my career, I have performed throughout the world in formal settings large and small, winning praise, awards, (and at least a modest amount of remuneration). But my most meaningful performances, by far, have come in hospitals and nursing homes, connecting with people whose lives were mostly behind them. In the end there is music….and love.

Why do we learn music? Why do we become musicians? The life of a musician is almost certainly not the road to wealth. The connection with the art form and the highest achievements of humanity is heady and rewarding. The adulation that comes with professional success is undoubtedly a boost to self-esteem. However, I prefer to think that making music is simply a gift, not a rarefied gift of the talented, but an accessible gift that needs to be shared. Musicians have a place in the world and that place is wherever someone needs them. And if I have learned nothing else in my life, it is that the need is great.

Music in Time

My father Edward George (standing with the sax) performing at a USO show in 1944 with the late Mickey Rooney (pretending to play the clarinet). 54 years later I played in the pit orchestra for a touring Broadway production of the Wizard of Oz, starring……Mickey Rooney as the Wizard.

How to Get Into an Ivy League School

Have you heard the one about the 17-year old high school student who was accepted to all eight ivy league schools? Kwasi Enin, a senior at William Floyd High School, “ran the table” so to speak, with superior grades, high-test scores and a fantastic essay.

Last week the New York Post (unfairly) obtained and published a version of Mr. Enin’s common form essay. While the release of the release of the essay attracted enormous attention, some of it negative and hurtful, it also highlighted the eloquence with which Mr. Enin expressed his thinking about the role of music in his life.

In one paragraph Mr. Enin wrote, “Music has become the spark of my intellectual curiosity. I directly developed my capacity to think creatively around problems due to the infinite possibilities in music. There are millions of combinations of key signatures, chords, melodies, and rhythms in the world of music that wait to become attached to a sheet of staff lines and spaces.  As I began to explore a minute fraction of these combinations from the third grade onwards, my mind began to formulate roundabout methods to solve any mathematical problem, address any literature prompt, and discover any exit from an undesirable situation. In middle school, my mind also started to become adept in the language of music.  Playing the works of different composers, such as Kol Nidrei by Max Bruch and the Coriolan Overture by Ludwig von Beethoven, expands my diverse musical vocabulary, my breadth of techniques and my ability to practice in order to succeed in solo performances.”

Mr. Enin, a violist for the past nine years, went on to say, “although I hope my future career is in medicine, I love that I still have much to learn about and from the world of music.”  For those of us who believe that music has the power to transform lives, Kwasi Enin provides powerful testimony.  His study of music transcends the common notions that music is only for the talented or music is not a worthy pursuit within the academic curriculum. He may even put to rest the relentless sport of viola jokes…

 

 

LEARNing to love music

This past Saturday I visited a very impressive school in the City of Chicago. The Campbell Campus of the LEARN Charter School Network educates about 400 children Kindergarten through grade 5 in the neighborhood of East Garfield Park. LEARN schools believe in an inquiry and project-based approach to teaching. As I walked through the building with Principal Nikole Laskof, I noticed scores of pennants hanging high on the walls, representing colleges and universities. When I mentioned that it seems they want all their students to get into college, Principal Laskof corrected me saying, “No, we want every student to graduate from college.”

I was visiting the school on the occasion of a community music celebration. Dozens of musicians, teaching artists, and a throng of volunteers from the William Blair Company had come to teach, perform and inspire students and families. Performances included a trumpet soloist, woodwind quintet, jazz trio, jazz vocalist, and a young violinist named Emelia from New Trier High School in Winnetka. In fact, Emelia Suljic had visited the school three years earlier and was astonished to find that the school did not have a music program. She actually could not imagine any school without a music program. This is the kind of naiveté or über wisdom that absolutely warms my heart. So for the past three years, Emelia has volunteered her teaching and performing skills AND her fund-raising skills to support a fledgling music program at LEARN Academy.

Emelia is a violin student at the Music Institute of Chicago (MIC) and once the school found out about her passionate volunteerism, it through its weight behind her. LEARN Academy became one of a dozen Chicago schools for which MIC provides teaching artist residencies and professional development for teachers on how to integrate the arts into the daily curriculum. Earlier this year, William Blair and Company, a private investment bank, signed on as a major supporter of MIC’s Arts Link program, which oversees the outreach work in the Chicago schools.

With the many successes of the program at LEARN Academy, a community music celebration was definitely in order. In addition to four hours of performances,including one by the newly minted LEARN Academy band, there were many other activities…a display of heartfelt quotations from students expressing why music is important to them (to be shared in a subsequent post),continuous hand-drumming workshops and a musical instrument petting zoo – a place where students and their parents could explore many kinds of musical instruments with guidance from experienced musicians.

The joy of music was plainly evident on the faces of the LEARN Academy students. Perhaps someday they will walk into a school and be appalled by its lack of a music program…

Dimitri Shostakovich, Edward Gorey and Trey McIntyre

The Trey McIntyre Project (TMP) performed last night at the Harris Theater in downtown Chicago. The program included a new work, co-commissioned by the Harris, entitled The Vinegar Works: Four Dances of Moral Instruction. As a musician, it is very exciting to see the work of a choreographer who understands both the emotional import and musical details of a work. McIntyre had decided last year to base the commission on the work of Edward Gorey. A Chicago native, Gorey created a unique ouevre which tread the line between macabre and humorous. His illustrated books included The Gashlycrumb Tinnies and The Beastly Baby. Many are familiar with his animated illustrations featured in the title sequence of the PBS series Mystery!.

As part of the commission, the Music Institute of Chicago was asked to suggest music that could be performed live with the dancers. Even before I knew the work was about Gorey, I suggested the Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, for violin, cello and piano, Op. 67, by Dmitri Shostakovich. I have a special affinity for the piece, based first on hearing an incredible performance of the work in 1980 by the Borodin Trio. Later, as a graduate student at Indiana University, my ensemble played the work and was coached by Luba Dubinsky, the pianist from the Borodin Trio.

The Borodins learned the Trio under the tutelage of Shostakovich himself. One story told to me by Ms. Dubinsky has haunted me ever since. Shostakovich had told her what he had imagined when writing the 3rd movement of the work. The seven chords played be the piano at the beginning and throughout the movement represent the clanging of two large metal poles. This was the sound that prisoners would hear in a concentration camp when the guards wanted everyone to gather. The call to gather almost always related to something horrible. For me and many others, the Trio is imbued with a tremendous emotional power. When Trey heard it he immediately saw that it would be the perfect partner for his Gorey-based choreography. And so, the creative process began.

The result was a spectactular work of art, performed by the amazing TMP dancers. Three students from the Music Institute’s Academy program played the Shostakovach Trio brilliantly and movingly. The combination of the visual – which included puppetry by Michael Curry, well known for his work in Disney’s The Lion King – and the musical was absolutely stunning – tragic, funny, profound, beautiful.

The experience of collaborating with a a group like TMP was phenominal for our students. They all have aspirations to have a life in music. Last night they got a wonderful start.

I write a piece for the Chicago Sun-Time last week on the importance of apprenticeship, a reflection on the process of working with the Harris Theater and TMP. The link is below:

The Importance of Apprenticeship