Saving the Day: The Music Education Explosion BY ALYSSA TIMIN
Music has been deliberately integrated into public school education in the United States for 175 years. The Department of Music Education was created as a branch of National Education Association in 1883. John Dewey, regarded by many contemporary arts educators as the philosophical anchor and hero of the field, published the slim Art as Experience in 1934. Dewey was a close friend of local philanthropist and visionary, Alfred Barnes, acting as the Barnes Foundation’s Director of Education as early as 1923. However, music education has boomed into a major catalyst for cultural literacy over the past fifty years, largely in response to the continued threat of extinction by restricted government spending. In light of this perceived crisis, a vast array of organizations have taken up the torch, linking great performances with communities and schools and building another generation of passionate listeners and performers. Special concerts, master classes, in-school residencies, lessons, after-school programs and summer camps give students of all ages and all abilities greater access to the wealth of musical tradition. Nationally speaking, two major institutions in the field of arts education research and practice are Project Zero, founded in 1967 by philosopher Nelson Goodman at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and the Lincoln PMP 18
Center Institute for the Arts in Education, founded by Mark Schubart in 1975. Project Zero, named for Goodman’s sentiment that “arts learning should be studied as a serious cognitive activity, but that ‘zero’ had been firmly established about the field,” has expanded to include several areas of education. Its current director, Steve Seidel, continues to lead the Arts Survive Research Study and frequently acts as a consultant for arts and education organizations, such as the Performing Arts Program for Youth in Atlanta. The Lincoln Center Institute (LCI) emerged when Schubart published a study concluding that most cultural programming around the country reached only a “very small percentage” of students. At the philosophical crux of the Institute is Maxine Greene, Professor Emerita at Teachers College, Columbia University, a “muse” who has sought to apply Dewey’s insights on artistic and aesthetic experience—or creating and appreciating art—to the activities of LCI, partnering teachers and artists in educational settings. “To this collaboration,” argues Graeme Sullivan, in “Aesthetic Education At Lincoln Center Institute: An
students. In Variations on a Blue Guitar, Greene writes, “We are interested in openings, in unexplored possibilities, not in the predictable or the quantifiable, not in what is thought of as social control.” Despite the desire to prove once and for all that art and music are necessary for society, precisely what is so valuable about them tends to evade our grasp. Without easy answers for policymakers, music has often been the mercy of budget cuts. Hence, increasingly, professional music organizations have stepped in to bridge the vulnerable gap that the mystery of aesthetic experience leaves open. This is not to dismiss the efforts of public schools, in Philadelphia or elsewhere, to educate their students about musical creation and appreciation. CAPA, formally known as the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts, offers an important history of training in both vocal and instrumental performance, and the Office of the Creative and Performing Arts supports a wealth of activities; their Annual All-Philadelphia High School Music Festival was held in May 2005 at the Kimmel Center’s Verizon Hall. That said, schools need all the help they can get. A number of organizations have formed in Philadelphia whose missions are anchored in music education, but that also have expanded to include public presenting. String for Schools (SfS), a nonprofit founded in 1974, has spent the past thirty years
Historical and Philosophical Overview” (available in the “Philosophy & Practice” section of LCI’s website), “teachers bring their pedagogical expertise and knowledge of the educational context and teaching artists contribute their authentic connection to forms of artistic inquiry.” These two organizations are only the tip of the arts education iceberg; a March 2005 symposium held by ArtsConnection, a New York organization, brought in 225 attendees. More telling, the Philosophy of Music Education Review has been published twice yearly since 1993 turning over the finer points of “The Nature of Paradigms and Paradigm Shifts in Music Education,” “Competition, Knowledge, and the Loss of Educational Vision,” and “Reconsidering Aesthetic Experience in Praxial Music Education.” All over the country, teachers and teaching artists are looking for answers on how to bring music to young audiences. Questions about how best to teach music and the arts, indelibly linked to the pesky yet evasive questions on the nature of music and the arts, haunt the steps of educators who care about making artistic ability and aesthetic literacy available to
sending professional musicians into underserved schools for classical, jazz, “crossover popular” and multicultural music and have developed several major initiatives for, as they put it, “giving the gift of great music.” This year, SfS is also a grantee of the Philadelphia Music Project for its public program featuring the McCoy Tyner Trio, saxophonist Gary Bartz, violinist John Blake and percussionist Marlon Simon. SfS has several new and ongoing student-oriented initiatives. “The Gift of Music” is a collaboration with, among others, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Mann Music Center, PNC Bank, Comcast, Jacob’s Music, Medley Music, and WRTI that organizes instrument donation drives for students who cannot afford to buy or rent them. To date, Strings for Schools has helped to collect over 200 instruments. “Gabriel’s Music,” an initiative inspired by a program in Venezuela that helped to found a system of 155 youth orchestras, will coordinate an after-school youth orchestra for students from nine South Philadelphia schools. The orchestra, which got underway this fall, began with a string summer camp at Settlement Music School. Strings for Schools has increasingly sought to tap into the local cultures that contribute to the neighborhoods they serve. “Immersion in Latino Music and Culture,” coordinated by Marlon Simon, one of String for Schools’ most
Left to right: Kimmel Center choral camp. Photo: Evelyn Taylor Trombone section of Kimmel Center Youth Jazz Ensemble. Photo: Evelyn Taylor Settlement Music School dance students. Photo: Sean Kardon Settlement Music School jazz ensemble. Photo courtesy of Settlement Music School Doc Gibbs leads student percussion ensemble. Photo courtesy of Strings for Schools
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active teaching artists, focuses on Afro-Caribbean music as a window into the history of Latin music in America. The program builds and implements arts curricula in Northeast Philadelphia schools, and is developing an after-school Latin Jazz Band. This program also partners with the Asociación de Músicos Latino Americanos (AMLA) to present an annual concert in AMLA’s “Cultural Treasures” series. In its “Bridge to Music” project, SfS has been asked to integrate a viable music program into four schools in the Temple University area. The selected pilot school for the project is Meade School, a school with the second-lowest income ratio in the city, but whose principal, Frank Murphy, has been described by SfS as “dynamic and visionary.” Sadly, Murphy has in turn described the school’s community as a “face of carnage.” With Temple University and the Philadelphia School District, SfS will help bring in a full-time music instructor, a string and wind teacher for one day per week, student instruments and after-school coaching, and assistance from Temple University music students. Denise Kinney, Strings for Schools’ new Executive Director, remarks on the organization’s expansion, “We started out showing children what was possible by letting them meet great professional musicians. Now our activities are much broader and encompass more accountability. Strings for Schools works on many levels, organizing both instrument donations and student orchestras, using music as a force for social change.” Settlement Music School (SMS), which has an extremely distinguished history of offering music education to a broad spectrum of Greater Philadelphia residents, has also made strides in bringing music to disadvantaged communities. In 1997, SMS began providing program, fundraising, marketing, board development and management support to the Camden School of Music Arts, which had been founded by a group of residents “out of a common concern for the growing absence of music education in the public schools.” Two year ago, the Camden school became the sixth full
centers for young musicians in the world. An exceptionally selective institution, Curtis offers tuition-free instruction to each of its—currently—163 gifted instrumentalists, vocalists, composers and conductors. These students receive coaching and mentoring from some 92 faculty members, many of whom are current or retired members of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Curtis further individualizes training for its students by allowing their stay to be open-ended; students spend as few as two and as many as twelve years at the Institute, and only matriculate when their teachers decide they are ready. In addition to preparing their exemplary student body for professional careers, Curtis has organized several opportunities for community members, young and old, to benefit from the unique institution. Student recitals, held on most Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings throughout the concert season, are all free and open to the public. Curtis’ PECO Family Concert Series, also free, features interactive performances intended for children ages five through twelve. Since 1991, Curtis has also worked with four Philadelphia schools: Bache-Martin School, Albert M. Greenfield Elementary School, the Gen. George A. McCall School and Meredith Elementary School, to give weekly private lessons to four children by volunteering Curtis students. Curtis students also perform in the participating schools. A new program, the Albert M. Greenfield Concerts, sends students to schools, hospitals, and senior centers, bringing the emerging musicians into further contact with their community. A similar program, “Inward Bound,” of Astral Artistic Services, brings young, talented musicians to perform more than forty concerts in retirement communities and senior centers each year. Astral both mentors its roster artists—many of whom are Curtis students or graduates—in the business skills needed for a professional music career and presents
Students of all ages, as well as their parents and teachers, and young music professionals honing their skills, benefit from an immense outpouring of education by performers and presenters all over the region.
branch of Settlement, and it will soon move to a new central facility at 531-535 Market Street, across the street from City Hall. SMS was founded in 1908, when students at the College Settlement House in South Philadelphia began paying a nickel for piano lessons. Six years later, SMS had 250 students and a waiting list 100 hopefuls long. In 1924, the Curtis Institute of Music was founded as an outgrowth of Settlement’s Conservatory Division. Albert Einstein was a member of Settlement’s Advisory Board and played chamber music at the school weekly. Now the largest school of its kind in the country, SMS currently serves 15,000 students—both children and adults—and is the largest employer of musicians in the tri-state area. Settlement offers individual lessons, group classes, ensemble playing, and music therapy programs at their six branches in the region, not to mention teacher training and faculty concerts, as well as outreach concerts in schools. Merit- and need-based financial aid is provided to forty percent of its students, totaling more than $1.7 million annually. In 1998, SMS’s Kaleidoscope Pre-School Arts Enrichment Program—a partnership with ARAMARK—which provided free arts instruction for children from the Courtyard Apartments at Riverview, a public housing development, received one of the first ten national Coming Up Taller Awards from the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities and the National Endowment of the Arts. Alumni of SMS serve on every major symphony in the United States. In preparation for the school’s centennial anniversary, it has initiated a Distinguished Alumni Series, this season featuring pianist and composer Leon Bates, soprano Karen Slack, jazz pianist Orrin Evans, and Philadelphia Orchestra oboist Peter Smith. Current SMS students will have the opportunity to take master classes with each of these alumni on the day prior to each concert. Robert Capanna, Executive Director of Settlement and a composer, sums it up, saying, “Settlement Music School has opened the door to the world of music and the related arts to more than 300,000 people over the past nearly 100 years. Settlement’s unique role is to bring together a committed, credentialed and qualified faculty with eager and engaged students. Settlement’s program of financial assistance to all who demonstrate need and its high professional standards have enabled generations of students to participate in music making at an extraordinary level.” That once-Conservatory Division of SMS, the Curtis Institute of Music, stands now as one of the finest training PMP 20
a number of public concerts both in Philadelphia and New York. Emerging musicians receive guidance, performance experience and increased opportunities to audition for and collaborate with major institutions and artists, all at no cost. In addition to these activities and “Inward Bound,” Astral facilitates “Classroom Classics,” a program in which Astral artists conduct more than one hundred presentations for elementary and middle school students around the region annually. A number of PMP’s 2005 grantees are hybrids of professional presenting organizations and institutions for music education. The Academy of Vocal Arts, this season producing concert versions of two rare operas, is a tuition-free training program for young opera singers. The Doylestown School of Music and the Arts is the largest community school of the arts in Bucks County and this season receives PMP support for a series of concerts and workshops led by collaborating folk guitarists. Montgomery County Community College is cooperating with Bryn Mawr College to enable both student populations to take advantage of Meredith Monk’s Vocal Ensemble’s November visit with a workshop familiarizing participants with Monk’s unique extended vocal technique. Other groups including Latin Fiesta and the Philadelphia Classical Symphony incorporate workshops, lectures, and demonstrations into their programs. Latin Fiesta’s driving force, Maria del Pico Taylor, has performed and taught as a Strings for Schools roster artist and professor of piano at Temple University for years; in 1994 she was honored as Distinguished Teacher of the Year by the State of Pennsylvania. Taylor has planted “building cultural bridges through musical performances,” directly into Latin Fiesta’s mission. During their PMP-funded Hispanic music festival coming up in May, the ensemble will host a family workshop on “The ABC’s of Latin Music,” complemented by collaborator ALO Brasil’s specialized percussion workshop. Karl Middleman, Artistic Director of the Philadelphia Classical Symphony, describes his group’s educational efforts as “crucial” and has recently implemented the “Sound Awakenings” project to teach “the essentials of music composition throughout Philadelphia.” The Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia will host a special master class for six emerging choral conductors as part of Dale Warland’s residency with the chorus this season. This intensive version of music education offers focused professional development for emerging choral leaders by one of the best-respected figures in the field. At the same PMP 21
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time, singers in Choral Arts Society will receive coaching from Warland, and their new Artistic Director, Matthew Glandorf, will get his own shot in the arm working alongside the Maestro. With its two-year residency by the American Composers Orchestra (ACO), the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts will also provide enrichment opportunities for local musicians, with master classes for student composers and musicians, ensemble coaching, and a competition for emerging composers that result in selected works being rehearsed, discussed, and recorded by the ACO. Looking beyond the ACO project, the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts facilitates a wealth of educational activities for both students and the general public (See our “Grantee Spotlight” for information on some dance and theater highlights this season). The Philadelphia International Children’s Festival, now in its 22nd year, is unlike anything else in the city and will span a full week—April 30 to May 5—with almost forty indoor performances in four theaters, another sixteen to twenty outside, craft fairs, and international food. Likewise, the International Performing Arts for Young People Showcase, held every other year at the Annenberg, is the only North American gathering specifically for the arts education field. Opening on January 11, 2006 with a day of professional development, the four day event helps make Philadelphia a major center for arts education. The Opera Company of Philadelphia, supported by PMP this season for the co-commissioned Margaret Garner, has streamlined its educational offerings through the Sounds of Learning TM program, which donates reading-focused lesson plans and activity books for each opera the company performs. Dennis W. Creedon based the program on the Curriculum Frameworks of the School District of Philadelphia and the Commonwealth Academic Standards, anchoring the curricula on each opera’s libretto. Students read and act out the libretto, and then attend the final dress rehearsal of the opera they’ve studied, to which fifth through eighth graders are provided transportation on behalf of the Company. Along with the Opera Company, the Kimmel Center’s resident companies’ educational activities are charted out comprehensively in a document available in the Education section of its site. The Kimmel Center itself supports a wide range of music education. Open houses for educators provide information on what’s available at the Kimmel, as well as complimentary tickets to selected shows. School matinees and subsidized tickets for concerts also help to bring in young audiences, while churches, social service groups, and community organizations can all take advantage of $10 tickets. The Kimmel’s adult education program gives classes and tours on specialized topics. Curious about the pipe organ? Modern dance? Music software? Steel drums? Gospel? The Kimmel’s got it. For teens, there’s a free, eleven day summer camp for choral, jazz, and chamber music. In addition, free performing arts classes are starting up this fall for middle- and high-schoolers, with four-unit programs emphasizing American musical culture; they focus on musical theater and jazz, including, appropriately, “The Jazz Heritage in Philadelphia.” Last but not least, the Philadelphia Orchestra pursues an impressively developed music education vision, headed up by their Director of Education PMP 22
and Community Programs, Sarah Johnson. “Our goal is to provide a wide variety of opportunities for people of all ages to engage with the symphonic repertoire,” she comments. “We offer a wonderful mix of tried and true programs, such as our Family, Sound All Around, and Neighborhood concerts, and new programs, such as our School Partnership Program and College Performance series. We’re also launching our revitalized four concert Access series this season. All of our programs are designed to cultivate a love and understanding of classical music, to offer people different entry points into the music and to feed their curiosity about the music in new and different ways.” Some of the Orchestra’s school concerts for this season are already sold out, and the PMP-funded commission work by Bright Sheng will be featured in one such concert, “Chinese Zodiac,” in February (“Were you born in the year of the dragon? The tiger? The rabbit?”). Teachers looking for preparation going into the concerts can attend workshops. These concerts are also made available to families. “Sound All Around,” for our youngest listeners—ages three to five—introduces the youngsters to the orchestra’s instruments with storyteller Charlotte Blake Alston. You may be happy to know that the program is endowed in perpetuity by the Garrison Family Fund for Children’s Concerts. Older students can benefit as much from the Orchestra’s education endeavors as children. High school and college groups can attend open rehearsals of the Orchestra, and for only $8 the extraordinary “Master Classes for All” offers students, parents, and educators of all abilities the chance to work for two hours with percussionist Colin Currie, saxophonist Branford Marsalis, pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, violist Roberto Díaz, violinist Christian Tetzlaff, and bassoonist Daniel Matsukawa. And educators themselves have a number of options for assistance and development, with the “Tuesdays Are For Teachers” 20% subscription discount and workshops that draw musical ideas and history together from a concert given by the Orchestra. So, despite the funding crunch felt by schools around the county, the picture of music education in Philadelphia doesn’t seem so bleak after all. Students of all ages, as well as their parents and teachers, and young music professionals honing their skills, benefit from an immense outpouring of education by performers and presenters all over the region. Organizations and ensembles increasingly challenge themselves to reach students, to give them more access to music in schools and out. Between affordable concerts, thematic curricula, master classes and festivals, passionate music-making and rich appreciation are being modeled and taught to our youngest generations. Alyssa Timin
ANNOUNCING :
Introducing the PCAH
Beginning mid-November, the Philadelphia Music Project will be housed in the new Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage, along with The Pew Charitable Trusts’ six other Artistic Initiatives: Dance Advance, the Heritage Philadelphia Program, Pew Fellowships in the Arts, Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative, Philadelphia Theatre Initiative, and the Philadelphia Cultural Management Initiative. The new Center is located at 1608 Walnut Street, on the 18th Floor, and is administered by The University of the Arts. “The Pew Charitable Trusts is delighted to work with the University of the Arts once again to promote creative artistry in Philadelphia,” said Marian Godfrey, Director of Civic Life Initiatives for The Pew Charitable Trusts. “Philadelphia’s rich heritage and accomplished arts institutions have helped the city become a national and international cultural destination. Thanks to the Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage—and our collaboration with The University of the Arts—we can look forward to even more exciting, innovative and high-quality cultural offerings and the region will see its reputation as a premiere cultural venue grow.” Rebecca W. Rimel, President and CEO of The Pew Charitable Trusts, commented, “The Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage is an idea whose time has come. Philadelphia has shown the world that when you support artistic creativity and preserve your heritage positive things happen for the region’s citizens and the economy. The Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage is a testament to the accomplishments of the region’s artists and cultural organizations that enrich the lives of residents and visitors alike.” The Center houses more than twenty employees and offers an unprecedented opportunity for discussion and creativity for these discipline-specific funding agents dedicated to supporting and invigorating Philadelphia’s cultural landscape
Between (Or Outside?) the Lines: Pew Advocates for Interdisciplinary Creativity Whether the metaphor is talking, reading or coloring, The Pew Charitable Trusts has recently taken some bold steps in supporting interdisciplinary creativity in the Philadelphia arts community. The Trusts’ Culture Program has earmarked funds for two avenues of advocacy: first, modest Interdisciplinary Professional Development Grants enabling past and current Pew Initiative grantees to explore disciplines outside their primary area of practice, and second, occasional field trips for area arts professionals across disciplines to see quality interdisciplinary productions. According to Greg Rowe, Assistant Director of the Culture Program, “When we look across the various disciplines The Trusts supports through the Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage, we note that both artists and institutions are devoting increasing energy on work that defies easy categorization as theatre, music, or the visual arts. We are hopeful that these new resources will be additional encouragement to those who are exploring these multifaceted new directions and maybe eventually result in exciting new programs for local audiences.” To date, PMP, in partnership with its sister program, the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative, has organized small groups of arts leaders to attend performances of the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival. Focusing primarily on local performers, the groups attended Leah Stein Dance Company’s site-specific Bardo, New Paradise Laboratories’ ensemble-driven Planetary Enzyme Blues, Pig Iron Theatre Company’s sarcastic Pay Up, the rowdy paean To the Dogs by Lone Twin, and Miro Dance Theatre’s gothic Hurdy Gurdy.
Left: Marian Godfrey, Director, Civic Life Initiatives, The Pew Charitable Trusts Right: Greg Rowe, Assistant Director of Culture, The Pew Charitable Trusts
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