Last week, in our blog on the financial impact of the
arts in our society, I ended with the question, why should we care about
this? The answer, in part, is because of
the perception that the arts are a frill, not really important. This may be a contributor to the decline in
choral singing in the school system, this in spite of the fact that children
who sing in choruses clearly do better academically than non-singers—see my July
6 blog. And it may contribute to the
difficulties involved in funding the arts at all levels.
One way to counter the “frill” idea is to point to the
financial impact of the arts, and choral music, on the economy. Certainly choral music’s primary reason for
existence is not to make money, and on a personal level I tend to cringe when
the arts are justified via dollar signs, but it is a tangible way to talk about
the benefits of this very intangible subject matter. It’s something we can grab hold of, sink our
teeth into!
Another way to counter the “frill” idea is to point to
the impact of the arts on children’s development. Several months ago I read a remarkable book, Changing Lives: Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema,
and the Transformative Power of Music.
It’s about the music education system in Venezuela, El Sistema, and I
was so inspired I read it twice! El
Sistema has been in existence for probably 30 years or so, and it is targeted
to poor children and middle-class children, mainly in the barrios where
opportunities are few and crime, drug and gang problems abound. They give free instruments to children, and
provide free hours—and I mean hours, often all evening of each day, and all day
Saturday—of rehearsal and performance time in choirs and orchestras for these
kids. And they blossom, find purpose,
learn to make fabulous music, learn to know and love classical music, play with
passion, and become citizens. They learn to cooperate with one another, and
that music making is best done in community, with people who work toward a common
goal. In fact, El Sistema considers
itself a social program, a nation-building and citizen-building program. And
it has renewed an interest in their own folk music, and created a cornucopia of
dynamic orchestras and choruses—made up of young people!
Here is a link to their Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra playing Leonard
Bernstein’s Mambo from West Side Story.
It takes less than 3 minutes to watch, and it will have you dancing in
your chair! Keep in mind, these are
young people.
So how is music and choral education doing in our schools? In some schools it is healthy, but unfortunately, it is in decline in an
alarming number of school districts. According
to the Chorus America Impact Study which I blogged about several weeks ago, 19%
of parents and 28% of educators say there is no children’s chorus in their school. But 19% of parents who have non-singing
children say they are very interested in enrolling their children in a choir if
they could. 28% of educators say their
school used to have a choral program, but no longer does. Schools with strong choral and music programs
have much higher parental involvement than schools that don’t, and parent
involvement in those schools is central to keeping the music program strong. Are we making a mistake in undervaluing the
arts? Yes! Some American music teachers are
bringing El Sistema-style “nucleos” as they are called to America, and that’s
good news. Watch this 5-minute video about El Sistema U.S.A. It is inspiring!
There are many, many choirs in our nation. And yet at least some of our children don’t
have an opportunity to participate in this wonderful art form. That means they have nothing to counter the
flood of commercial music that fills the airwaves. These are our future singers and audiences, future
citizens, and they need food for their souls as well as their bodies and brains, as do we all.
Ah, “soul.” But that means we have to talk about the intangible, spiritual impact of music! More on that next week!
Ah, “soul.” But that means we have to talk about the intangible, spiritual impact of music! More on that next week!
Dr. Linda Gingrich
Conductor and artistic director
Master Chorus Eastside
No comments:
Post a Comment