Paterson Music Project at the International Sistema Teacher’s Conference in Scotland

By Elizabeth Moulthroup, Paterson Music Project Program Director
Paterson Music Project

Liz and Shanna leave for Scotland from Newark Liberty International Airport

Conference Themes

We’ve all been purely saturated with information these past few days, however, a few themes keep popping up across sessions and conversations, much of which, I find relevant to Paterson Music Project and I imagine would be pertinent to any program.

Identity, Vision, and Values

The first is having a well-thought out, clear, and defined vision for your program.   In a session called, “Building an Inclusive Program”, Big Noise Director of Music, Francis Cummings, discussed the importance of having clear identity, vision and values.  Big Noise in Scotland spent six months planning, talking, and soul searching before teaching a single student.  They use their clear vision (creating social change, community transformation, and creating an orchestra) as the foundation for all the work, projects, and expansion they do.  They spent time to answer questions about what they were seeking to do and what was important to them.  Without these questions having been completely hashed out, there is nothing concrete guiding your work.

Inspired Teaching Artists

That well defined identity, vision, and set of values needs to be shared with the teachers! Teachers absolutely need to be on board!  They are the ones carrying out this vision and actually doing the work with the children! If we are not completely sure of what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, working in an El Sistema program can turn into a drag. I think that teachers need to be inspired!  Teachers need to talk to other teachers and see other programs.  We need to know what other incredible things are going on around the world and how limitless our possibilities are.  Today I saw a video of at least 500 children on stage of all levels (and I mean ALL levels) playing Beethoven 9 with choir and orchestra side by side with professional musicians in Sweden.  My jaw was on the floor. I had never seen so many people on one stage of such diverse ages and abilities making such powerful and moving music.  I had no idea that that was possible!  I’m already planning now for how our students at PMP are going to do that very same thing with 500 people in a few years.J  Teachers need to be on board not only with the vision, but also with the approach and delivery of that vision.  This permeates into the curriculum and daily interactions with students.

Actively Engage Parents and Communities

Abreu says that 50% of El Sistema is the families.  Well, if that’s the case, we have a lot of work to do! In our program we engage our community, but in a very passive way. We are always thinking of ways to engage the students more, but their family support is just as important to their success. In Scotland, Big Noise used their six months of prep time to engage their community by playing concerts, holding meetings and knocking on doors! They made a point of making sure there was a strong connection between Big Noise and their community before they even began. For every new site they have opened so far, they have repeated the process because it has been so instrumental in building support and trust for the program. Big Noise also reaches out to the community by sending their musicians to students’ homes where students and their teachers can play together and perform for their families, something they call “Take a Musician Home for Tea”. In Sweden, their program was also started with meetings – that no one attended. They persisted in having meetings every week despite the lack of participation until they had 2, then 3, then 15, then 200 people attending these meetings! They now hold a weekly “Vänsday” – a social gathering of the students and families where they sing songs, eat good food, play games, have guest artists perform and much more! I was most impressed by Big Noise’s adult orchestra called “The Noise”. This orchestra consists of adults from the community, but mostly the parents and grandparents of the students that are already in Big Noise. These participants get to play in a full orchestra with their own set of repertoire and concerts. It was unbelievable fun and exciting to watch this adult orchestra rehearse! You could just see how much more invested these adults are in Big Noise because they understand the hard work and joy that goes into music making. We need to make sure our families have this understanding as well and feel like a part of our program – whether it’s by creating more opportunities for the community to participate in musical activities or just making sure that the voices of our families are heard.

  

It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the amount of work it takes to create a successful program, however, we have the advantage of sharing our experiences and learning from each other.  As noted by Malin Aghed, Director of El Sistema Sweden, it’s easy to hear an inspirational story recapped in 5 minutes and only see immediate success. “Wow, look at that program, they tried implementing a parent orchestra and suddenly all the parents were on board and it’s great!”…The reality is that each success story and inspirational story comes with painstaking work and slow transformation.  Each aspect of our program will grow and develop with each day of focused and intentional work.

The doorway to the music classrooms in Govanhill.

Two violin students performing for their class.

The Swedish team leading all of the delegates in an impromptu sing-along.

The Noise - Big Noise's adult orchestra. 

Paterson Music Project Program Director Elizabeth Moulthrop and Associate Program Director Shanna Lin traveled to Scotland this week to attend the International Sistema Teacher's Conference. Read more about their work and travels in the Paterson Music Project blog: www.patersonmusicproject.blogspot.com.

Wharton Music Center Community Concert Series Hosts Special Appearance by Composer Eric Ewazen

by Alice Hamlet, Associate Director of Marketing
Wharton Music Center

Kevin Dayton, clarinet; Jee-Hoon Krska, piano;
Kristen Wuest, flute; Eric Ewazen, composer

The Wharton Music Center (WMC) Community Concert Series on Sunday, October 5 at 3:00 p.m. at 60 Locust Avenue in Berkeley Heights featured the second public hearing and New Jersey premier of the chamber work Wildflowers by composer Eric Ewazen who made a special appearance at the event. Kristen Wuest, flute, Kevin Dayton, clarinet, and Jee-Hoon Krska, piano presented Modern Wildflowers: An Afternoon of Twentieth Century Works for Flute, Clarinet, and Piano with a pre-concert reception honoring Tiger Tutor and their generous donation to the recent WMC lobby makeover.

The centerpiece of the concert, Eric Ewazen’s (1954 - ) Wildflowers for piccolo (or flute), clarinet, and piano, is a lively, dance-filled chamber work composed for piccoloist Jan Gippo and clarinetist Jane Carl in 2008 and inspired by the brilliant colors of wildflowers from America’s heartland. Wildflowers opens with the joyful energy of the Dense Blazing Star, displayed by soaring melodies passed beautifully between Ms. Wuest and Mr. Dayton, followed by the poignant ballad, Missouri Primrose, and ending with an exhilarating and celebratory dance depicting the Mexican Hat, showcasing the nimble playing of Ms. Krska who propelled the three forward from the keyboard with the movement's cohesive, interwoven melodies.

Eric Ewazen was born in 1954 in Cleveland, Ohio. Receiving a B.M. at the Eastman School of Music, and M.M. and D.M.A. degrees from The Juilliard School, his teachers include Milton Babbitt, Samuel Adler, Warren Benson, Joseph Schwantner and Gunther Schuller. He is a recipient of numerous composition awards and prizes and his works have been commissioned and performed by many soloists, chamber ensembles and orchestras in the U.S. and overseas. His works are recorded on Summit Records, d'Note Records, CRS Records, New World, Clique Track, Helicon, Hyperion, Cala, Albany and Emi Classics. 

Individual works of Mr. Ewazen have recently been released by the Ahn Trio, Julie Giacobassi of the San Francisco Symphony, Charles Vernon of the Chicago Symphony, Koichiro Yamamoto of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Ronald Barron of the Boston Symphony, Doug Yeo of the Boston Symphony, Steve Witser of the Cleveland Orchestra, Joe Alessi and Philip Smith of the New York Philharmonic, the Horn Section of the New York Philharmonic, the Summit Brass Ensemble and the American Brass Quintet. His music is published by Southern Music Company, International Trombone Association Manuscript Press, Keyboard Publications, Manduca Music, Encore Music, Triplo Music, and Brass Ring Editions. Mr. Ezawen has been a guest at almost 100 Universities and colleges throughout the world and has been lecturer for the New York Philharmonic's Musical Encounters Series, Vice President of the League of Composers-International Society of Contemporary Music, and Composer-In-Residence with the Orchestra of St. Luke's in New York City. He has been a faculty member at Juilliard since 1980.

Kristen Wuest, a New Jersey Youth Symphony alumna who served as principal flute in Youth Symphony for the 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 seasons, holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Flute Performance from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and a Master of Music degree in Flute Performance from The School of Music, Dance, and Theater at New Jersey City University. While at Rutgers University, Ms. Wuest was a member of the Grammy-nominated Rutgers Wind Ensemble and attended master classes with world-renowned flutists Julius Baker, Jan Vinci, Jeffrey Khaner, Bart Feller, and Paul Edmund Davies. Ms. Wuest appeared with the New Jersey Youth Symphony at Alice Tully Hall in May 2003. She has served on the faculty of Wharton Music Center since 2007.

Clarinetist Kevin Dayton holds a Bachelor of Music degree and a Master of Music degree in Performance from Rutgers University-Mason Gross School of the Arts. Mr. Dayton studied under clarinetists Maureen Hurd (Rutgers University), Alan Kay (Orpheus Chamber Orchestra), Miriam Adams (Imani Winds), and Ayako Oshima (SUNY Purchase). He has participated in international music festivals including The Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival, The Sarasota Music Festival, and received invitation to the Banff Performing Arts Center in Canada.  He has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Sarasota Opera House, and Riverside Church in New York City. Mr. Dayton regularly performs with Sinfonetta Nova and the Monmouth Winds Quintet featuring members of the Monmouth Symphony.

Pianist Jee-Hoon Krska was born in Malaysia where she gained national attention with performances on Radio Malaysia and before the Sultan. Upon immigrating to the United States, Ms. Krska entered the Juilliard Pre-College Division and continued her studies in piano with David Deveau at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology while earning a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering. Ms. Krska’s performances include appearances at Lincoln Center, Boston Symphony Hall, and as a soloist with the Boston Pops in June 2014.

Wharton Music Center, where creativity and expression converge with exploration, provides a diverse range of classes and programs as New Jersey’s largest independent non-profit community performing arts center. Serving nearly 1,200 students with high quality instruction in all instruments and voice, musical theatre, drama, and dance, Wharton and its esteemed faculty of talented professionals offer instruction for beginners of all ages, as well as an in-depth, sequential course of study through its Achievement Program, and orchestral and ensemble training with the New Jersey Youth Symphony, its orchestral and ensemble affiliate. New Jersey Youth Symphony features fourteen ensembles, available by audition for students in grades 3 – 12. Its premiere ensemble, Youth Symphony, was awarded first place in the prestigious 2014 Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival and has appeared in such internationally renowned concert halls as Carnegie Hall in New York City and Musikverein in Vienna.

Innovative programming and over 500 classes taught weekly, from Early Childhood Music, music theory, and audio recording to Introduction to Instruments, ensures that there is something for all ages and interests.

Part of our mission as a community school for the performing arts is to engage, educate, and enrich our community with a broad spectrum of accessible programming. Dedicated to serving the community, WMC provides instruction at local public, private and charter schools in after-school settings and during the school day. From an assembly program to a full-year residency, our outstanding faculty collaborates with school principals and staff to offer customized curriculum to meet the needs for music, drama, and musical theatre instruction for each school or organization. One of the highlights of our community programs is the Paterson Music Project, an El Sistema-inspired program that provides intensive music instruction to elementary school students attending the Community Charter School of Paterson.

Wharton Music Center builds personal connections in the community through an array of faculty and student performances, many of which are free and allow community members to become more involved with WMC. These often interactive Community Concerts include classical, jazz and family programs and are held at a variety of venues throughout the region. New Jersey Youth Symphony ensembles, both large and small, perform throughout the community.

Located in Berkeley Heights and New Providence, New Jersey, Wharton Music Center and New Jersey Youth Symphony serve students from thirteen counties.

A Musical Fix for American Schools

from The Wall Street Journal: Life & Culture

American education is in perpetual crisis. Our students are falling ever farther behind their peers in the rest of the world. Learning disabilities have reached epidemic proportions, affecting as many as one in five of our children. Illiteracy costs American businesses $80 billion a year.

Many solutions have been tried, but few have succeeded. So I propose a different approach: music training. A growing body of evidence suggests that music could trump many of the much more expensive “fixes” that we have thrown at the education system.

Plenty of outstanding achievers have attributed at least some of their success to music study. Stanford University’s Thomas Sudhof, who won the Nobel Prize in medicine last year, gave credit to his bassoon teacher. Albert Einstein, who began playing the violin at age 6, said his discovery of the theory of relativity was “the result of musical perception.”

Until recently, though, it has been a chicken-and-egg question: Are smart, ambitious people naturally attracted to music? Or does music make them smart and ambitious? And do musically trained students fare better academically because they tend to come from more affluent, better educated families?

New research provides some intriguing answers. Music is no cure-all, nor is it likely to turn your child into a Nobel Prize winner. But there is compelling evidence that it can boost children’s academic performance and help fix some of our schools’ most intractable problems.

Music raises your IQ.

E. Glenn Schellenberg, a University of Toronto psychology professor, was skeptical about claims that music makes you smarter when he devised a 2004 study to assess its impact on IQ scores. He randomly assigned 132 first-graders to keyboard, singing or drama lessons, or no lessons at all. He figured that at the end of the school year, both music and drama students would show bumps in IQ scores, just because of “that experience of getting them out of the house.” But something unexpected happened. The IQ scores of the music students increased more than those of the other groups.

Another Canadian study, this one of 48 preschoolers and published in 2011, found that verbal IQ increased after only 20 days of music training. In fact, the increase was five times that of a control group of preschoolers, who were given visual art lessons, says lead researcher Sylvain Moreno, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. He found that music training enhanced the children’s “executive function”—that is, their brains’ ability to plan, organize, strategize and solve problems. And he found the effect in 90% of the children, an unusually high rate.

Music training can reduce the academic gap between rich and poor districts.

The Harmony Project in Los Angeles gives free instrument lessons to children in impoverished neighborhoods. Margaret Martin, who founded the program in 2001, noticed that the program’s students not only did better in school but also were more likely to graduate and to attend college.

To understand why, Northwestern University neurobiologist Nina Kraus spent two years tracking 44 6-to-9-year-olds in the program and then measured their brain activity. She found a significant increase in the music students’ ability to process sounds, which is key to language, reading and focus in the classroom. Academic results bore that out: While the music students’ reading scores held steady, scores for a control group that didn’t receive lessons declined.

Prof. Kraus found similar results in a 2013 study published in Frontiers in Educational Psychology of 43 high-school students from impoverished neighborhoods in Chicago. Students randomly assigned to band or choir lessons showed significant increases in their ability to process sounds, while those in a control group, who were enrolled in a junior ROTC program, didn’t. “A musician has to make sense of a complicated soundscape,” Prof. Kraus says, which translates into an ability to understand language and to focus, for example, on what a teacher is saying in a noisy classroom.

Music training does more than sports, theater or dance to improve key academic skills.

Last year, the German Institute for Economic Research compared music training with sports, theater and dance in a study of 17-year-olds. The research, based on a survey of more than 3,000 teens, found that those who had taken music lessons outside school scored significantly higher in terms of cognitive skills, had better grades and were more conscientious and ambitious than their peers. The impact of music was more than twice that of the other activities—and held true regardless of the students’ socioeconomic background.

To be sure, the other activities also had benefits. Kids in sports also showed increased ambition, while those in theater and dance expressed more optimism. But when it came to core academic skills, the study’s authors found, the impact of music training was much stronger.

Music can be an inexpensive early screening tool for reading disabilities.

Brazilian music teacher Paulo Estevao Andrade noticed that his second-grade students who struggled with rhythm and pitch often went on to have reading problems. So he invented a “game” in which he played a series of chords on a guitar and asked his students to write symbols representing high and low notes. Those who performed poorly on the exercise, he found, typically developed severe reading problems down the line.

Intrigued, he joined with Nadine Gaab, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, to follow 43 students over three years, and they found that the test predicted general learning disabilities as well. Why? Mr. Andrade notes that the brain processes used in the music test—such as auditory sequencing abilities, necessary to hear syllables, words and sentences in order—are the same as those needed to learn to read. Prof. Gaab says the test, which is simple and inexpensive to administer, has great potential as a tool for early intervention.

Music literally expands your brain.

In a 2009 study in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers used an MRI to study the brains of 31 6-year-old children, before and after they took lessons on musical instrument for 15 months. They found that the music students’ brains grew larger in the areas that control fine motor skills and hearing—and that students’ abilities in both those areas also improved. The corpus callosum, which connects the left and right sides of the brain, grew as well.

Ellen Winner, a Boston College psychology professor and co-author of the study, notes that the study doesn’t show a rise in cognitive abilities. But she argues that music shouldn’t have to justify itself as an academic booster. “If we are going to look for effects outside of music, I would look at things like persistence and discipline, because this is what’s required to play an instrument,” she says.

Yet music programs continue to be viewed as expendable. A 2011 analysis in the Journal of Economic Finance calculated that a K-12 school music program in a large suburban district cost $187 per student a year, or just 1.6% of the total education budget. That seems a reasonable price to pay for fixing some of the thorniest and most expensive problems facing American education. Music programs shouldn’t have to sing for their supper.

— Ms. Lipman is co-author, with Melanie Kupchynsky, of “Strings Attached,” published last month in paperback by Hachette Books. She is a former deputy managing editor of The Wall Street Journal and former editor in chief of Condé Nast Portfolio.

Mozart's A major piano sonata K331 manuscript found

from BBC News

The head of the Hungarian National Szechenyi Library's music collection, Balazs Mikusi, has stumbled across a rare discovery.

As he looked through a folder of unidentified music scores, among the many copies and unremarkable scores he suddenly noticed a page that made his heart jump.

The four-page score looked like the original Piano Sonata in A Major, K.331, one of the most well-known sonatas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Mikusi cross-checked his finding with Mozart experts, and says they confirmed his discovery.

Grammy-winning violinist Joshua Bell delights masses at DC subway concert

by Victoria Fleischer and Anne Davenport
from PBS Art Beat


Back in 2007, pedestrians hurried by without realizing that the busker playing at the entrance to a Washington D.C. Metro stop was none other than the Grammy-winning Joshua Bell. Gene Weingarten wrote about the Washington Post social experiment (“In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?”) and later won a Pulitzer Prize for his story.

In 2007, Grammy-winning Joshua Bell donned a baseball cap and played Bach on his violin during rush hour in a D.C. Metro station as part of a Washington Post social experiment.

Today, Bell set up at the entrance of Union Station. Seven years later, he held a very different kind of performance; this time, he was anything but ignored.

“Music — you need the give and take from the audience, the feeling of attention. It’s not about me its about the music itself,” Bell told senior correspondent Jeffrey Brown after the concert. “Today, I was a little bit surprised at how many people came. I was a little worried that when I agreed to do it that there might be only a handful of people and it might be embarrassing, so this far exceeded my expectations. I was so happy.”

Situated in the main hall, Bell, one of the most acclaimed classical musicians in the world, played Bach and Mendelssohn for a 30-minute performance to promote music education. He was accompanied by nine students from the National YoungArts Foundation. These young musicians are featured alongside the violin virtuoso in his HBO documentary special “Joshua Bell: A YoungArts MasterClass,” which will premiere on Oct 14.

“Where we need to work on is getting is making sure [music] is a part of everyone’s educational diet in the school. Music and art is part of what it means to be a human being and to be make it just an extra curricular thing is sad because most kids will not get any musical experience if they don’t have it in their school.”

Joshua Bell spoke to senior correspondent Jeffrey Brown about the important of music education just after his train station concert. See an excerpt from the interview below.

With more than 30 years as a celebrated violinist, Bell has recorded more than 40 albums. Today, in conjunction with the train station concert, the violinist’s newest album was released.