Articles
Music in Schools, Changing Lives
By Joan Murray, San Francisco Classical Voice
In 40-plus years as an inner-city orchestra teacher, I saw many examples of classical music's influence on young lives. For those who claim that music is "elitist" or "irrelevant" in today's world, I say, here in San Francisco is evidence to the contrary. Venezuela is not the only place to recognize the strengths of classical music training; try Aptos Middle School!
A little background: in the days before Prop 13, California arts programs were generously funded, but by the late 1970's, students were graduating from highschool without highly developed orchestra skills. Since schools like Harvard, Yale, UC Berkeley need a certain standard of excellence in their orchestras, they were willing to give substantial scholarships to students who could qualify. Note also, that these students were not required to major in music. They could study math, history, "whatever", just so long as they participated in the college orchestra.
When I began to realize this, I hastened to encourage my incoming 6th graders and their parents to begin acquiring expertise on string instruments as early as possible, because it could earn them a ticket to college in the future. This got their attention! Especially attentive were FOB (Fresh Off the Boat) Chinese immigrants, Hispanics and later, Russians. All of these groups were eager to work the American system to get an education. They just needed to be pointed in the right direction. For maximum scholarship benefits, I discovered that the string instruments most in demand were viola and bass. The latter was especially attractive to African American students, who liked the instrument anyway because it was so versatile in playing jazz as well as classical styles.
Not grades, not athletics, but viola
Nate's mother was a single parent without two nickels to rub together. Fired up by my proposition that he was capable of earning a scholarship to Yale University if he prepared for it now, she encouraged her 6th grade son to take up the viola. Then she sacrificed to give him private lessons, and saw that he practiced hard enough to make the SF Youth Orchestra in high school. Years later, the Yale Admissions Officer told Nate that it didn't hurt that he had straight A's at Lowell High, or that he was an outstanding athlete on the baseball team, or even that he was African American. But what really got him a four-year full-tuition scholarship was the Yale Orchestra's pressing need for a violist! For the record, Nate majored in economics, went on to Yale Law School and presently has a thriving practice on the Peninsula. He still plays the viola.
Anthony's Mexican-American parents didn't fully understand his love for the violin. But there was no mistaking his talent: he was a natural. He also loved the ladies. Pictures of him from the 1970's show long, curly locks and flirtatious eyes. His private violin teacher and I had many parental conferences to persuade Anthony it was in his interest to get with academic courses and finish high school in order to take advantage of opportunities in the wide world of music. Eventually he saw the light and put his life together to have a professional career, with training at the San Francisco Conservatory and the Manhattan School of Music. Today Anthony is living in the Mission District and introducing other Hispanic youngsters to the glories of the violin, through his orchestra program at Horace Mann Middle School.
Kristina was a "parachute kid." At the age of 10, along with her brother, age 8, she was deposited to live in a Sunset District garage, supervised loosely by a Chinese "uncle" living in the house. Her parents divorced and returned to Taiwan, sending money sporadically, while Kristina more or less raised herself and her brother. The following year, Kristina appeared in my class at Aptos, where she chose to play the viola. Although I thought it strange that none of her relatives ever came to school concerts, this was not too unusual. Often parents of new citizens work several jobs, so going to hear their kids play is not on the agenda. But Kristina developed into a real star. A first class musician, she received private lesson scholarships and performed in the leading string quartet.
Helped by a network of mothers
Kristina nurtured younger kids and inspired them with what she had accomplished. She was offered a scholarship to boarding school in San Anselmo, based on her viola abilities, but we could not track her parents down to get the required signatures. So, she settled for top honors at Lowell High School. Today, at UC Berkeley on a viola scholarship, Kristina is a pre-med student who enjoys her work with the orchestra as a respite from a routine of pure science. And she is immensely grateful to a network of mothers she met through music, who have made it their mission in life to help her grow up.
Finally, let me tell you about Damon. Not long ago, I was driving into my garage, when an African American fellow about 35 came running up. "Do you remember me, Damon Lee, from Aptos?" Of course I remembered Damon. He was a promising bass player, whom I steered to private lessons that his family could not pay for. So I paid him to do chores at my house on weekends. It turned out that in the more than 20 years since he had last seen me, he had driven by my house many times and had wanted to stop and thank me for having the patience to introduce him to music. But he'd never done so until that day.
He spoke long and earnestly. "My life was a mess when I was at Aptos," he explained. His parents were splitting up, and he was farmed out with different relatives. There was no consistency or pattern in his experience. Which was why, when I made him do our music theory workbook, he made a revolutionary discovery: music has rules and structure. This helped explain everything. Although he didn't especially like doing music theory, he was grateful for its addition of structure to his life, because mastery of these details gave him confidence.
Paying dues to the art of music
Later, he concluded that the same principles that worked in music could possibly work in academics. And he was on his way. Today, Damon is a systems analyst for Charles Schwab. He also finds time to front his own rock band and produces recordings for them and others. Damon is paying his dues to the art of music by mentoring younger kids, including one who presently is going through the same sort of crisis he went through earlier. What did each of these four kids have in common? They got hooked on classical music. They gravitated toward the discipline inherent in classical study, because (except for Nate), it was so conspicuously missing in their lives. Through music they also discovered friends and a world of opportunities. Isn't such investments in people like these preferable--and infinitely more cost effective--than building jails?
(Joan Murray is a former conductor and orchestra instructor in the San Francisco Public Schools. She currently serves as director of the Golden Gate Philharmonic, a San Francisco All-City Youth Orchestra.)
