So it’s been a while since our last update as Margaret Stewart Lindsay Arts Leadership Award recipients. We received original the grant for Musical Diplomacy, a community-focused project that addressed social issues through music. Now we’re excited to be LAUNCHING our NEW ORGANIZATION, The Sounding Board (TSB) on September 24 at 8PM @ Yes Oui Si.

At TSB we create live music productions that address social issues. Our events combine world-class performers with top-tier nightlife entertainment producers, invigorate timeless classical pieces with some of the hippest new music around, intertwine commentary from celebrities with noted public figures, and feature dynamic scripts from some of Boston’s most promising writers. TSB wants to create not just an entertaining evening of music, but make it relevant to the world around us—illuminating current events and cultivating dialogue on social issues.

In order to do that, we’ve sought out other artists that feel the same way. Daniel Bernard Roumain (aka DBR), who conducted his Symphony for the Dance Floor at our last Musical Diplomacy event, has joined The Sounding Board as our Executive Producer. We’re ecstatic to have him on board! Additionally, we recruited an incredible creative team who have helped us in shaping our vision, image, values and programs – read more about them HERE.

We are ecstatic to be launching our organization in just a few short days, with an extremely talented line-up of artists: TSB Executive Producer and performer Emmy-nominated composer and violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain, singer-songwriter Mia Friedman, award-winning jazz singer Aubrey Johnson, rock-pianist and songwriter Andrew Horowitz from the band Tally Hall, and Harvard Lampoon writer Ben Smith (who is helping us develop the comedic aspects of the program).

For those of you in Boston that may be interested in attending the show, we’d love to have you there! You have to be 18 or older to get in, but can check out pictures and videos on our Facebook page after the show. Tickets are available at this link.

We couldn’t have done any of this without the support of many great people and organizations – especially From the Top. We want to encourage all of you: if you have an idea, a dream, or a vision, with enough hard work, patience and determination you can make it happen.
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First we start with Jacob Shack, who applied for the award on behalf of the Andover-Lawrence Strings Program as the senior coordinator for the program. The grant money supplied new materials as well as training for the student teachers. Now a freshman at Harvard University, we asked him about his transition to college and what he’s taken away from the experience:

I have been at Harvard for almost two months now, and I am finding it exhilarating, intellectually challenging, and sometimes completely overwhelming. Upon my first visit back to Andover , I made sure to tell my friends, who are seniors this year, that there is no possible way you can be prepared for what college will throw at you.

I am a member of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, which, similarly to the Phillips Academy orchestras, rehearses on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. I am also taking a chamber music class, in which we receive one coaching a week and rehearse on our own time. As for the new stuff, I am “comp”-ing The Harvard Crimson, which is the only daily newspaper in the city of Cambridge.

Next semester, I plan to join a program called “Harmony,” which is very similar to the Andover Lawrence Strings Program that I coordinated at Phillips Academy. It consists of Harvard students providing private lessons on stringed instruments and piano to middle- and high-school aged children from Cambridge, with periodic concerts throughout the year. Although I do not have time for it this semester, I plan to build it into my schedule come Spring. Andover Lawrence Strings seems to have left an indelible mark on me, something that I can’t escape, even if I tried.

Stay tuned as we follow this inspiring program and the changes put in place through the award!

Our next MSL spotlight is Griffin Gaffney, a current sophomore at Harvard University. While still in high school Griffin developed the inspiring program Classical Chaps – a free violin lesson program for students grades 3 through 5. We asked Griffin to share more about what he learned from the program:

Classical Chaps started out as a small thought in the back of my mind but turned into something that continues to inform the choices I make everyday, especially with regards to school, my future and current projects here in Boston. It taught me quite a bit about myself, my community, how to be a leader and teacher, figure out how to get 3rd-5th graders to think that playing violin is fun– the list goes on. That being said, I find the following two points to be very pertinent:

• Using What’s Already in place: Classical Chaps really taught me that the success of the program truly was in the fact that it pooled existent resources close to my community in a way that was new, effective and exciting.
• Don’t Forget Your Starting Point: It’s important to look back at where you started and constantly evaluate your emotional satisfaction with how far you have come (or not).

Griffin is now working with Harvard classmate Noni Carter to develop an after-school music appreciation and writing class for middle school students in Boston. We asked him to share why he chose this project and what he has learned from the process:

Looking back onto my own years in middle school, I can confidently say that those years were horrendously awkward yet crucially formative. It’s a time when students begin dabbling in different extracurricular, social and cultural groups and start to map out the identity that they will carry with themselves into high school. What happens in middle school seems to hold an especially large amount of importance in a student’s development.

Though Noni has published a book and I have extensive background in music performance, we’re both writers and musicians in our own rights; we saw it as a very fitting idea to combine the two. I think students will gain a very unique, broad base of arts education from our combining of the two art forms. This, I believe, will really allow us to make many obvious connections between art and ‘real life’ in a way that’s more powerful than instrumental instruction on its own.

In the process of developing this project I’ve learned that it’s crucially important to start small. Because of the things I’ve done in the past I sometimes have a false sense of reality in my mind that tells me I can reach exorbitantly high goals. Numbers of students, grant money earned and other such ‘measures’ of success are truly insignificant when considering the passion that is inherent in creating such a project.

• Highlight: meeting with schools. To actually set foot into a school that is eager to host our program and to meet students sets the wheels in motion in my head and garners quite a bit of excitement for what is to come.
• Struggle: getting stuck in the planning stages.

Noni and I spent a lot of time having aimless back-and-forth conversations that were leading us nowhere. After months and months of planning I felt that we were becoming increasingly detached from what we had initially set out to do–work with kids. This is why I think it’s especially important to constantly question one’s intentions and emotional state throughout developing a project. If it doesn’t feel right, there’s probably something wrong.

Unrelated to anything in the actual curriculum or plans we have in place for our program, I’m most excited to dance, be silly and have fun with a group of students. I have come to realize that the best moments in the classroom are often those of celebrating the hard work that students and teachers alike have achieved.

Next we visit an inseparable pair, Brian Kaufman and Michael Reichman, whose project Musical Diplomacy has grown from a small concert series into a genuine proposal for a full-on program that addresses social issues through musical context. In addition to expanding and redefining their program, they have also renamed it The Sounding Board. We asked Brian and Michael a few questions on the developments and future plans for their project:

We’ve created a bunch of new programs (for Fall 2011/Spring 2012), developed a website  (soon to be released!), drafted a strategic plan and mobilized a creative team to help us move forward. We’re in the process of getting legal advice to help us become a 501c3 non-profit organization.

Though the name Musical Diplomacy served us well, we decided it didn’t completely fit our program’s vision. It’s a great name for an academic program in a university. However, we plan to expand our audience to include the broader community that enjoys music, social issues or is just looking for something fun on a Friday night. We feel the name The Sounding Board is more accessible to a broader audience. We’re excited about the road ahead!

We then asked Brian and Michael to individually share where they were post-graduation, and how it feels to now be a part of the “real world” as artists:

Michael: I’m currently Co-Director of Prism & Program Manager at the New Center for Arts and Culture. I artistically oversee and create productions that explore universal themes from a Jewish perspective. It’s very exciting because I get to work with a very talented staff and utilize all aspects of my education (music, writing, entrepreneurship, marketing). I feel very fortunate to make a living producing unique events that have a significant impact on our community.Brian: I feel so lucky to be working as a Resident Artist at El Sistema Boston, a Venezuela inspired program that uses music as a vehicle for social change. There, I conduct the wind ensemble, teach a music literacy class and serve as the videographer. Since the kids have 3 hours of music 5 days a week, it’s so cool to see how quickly they’re progressing. I’m having a blast!

Last, but certainly not least, we wanted to catch up with Noah Kelly, who received an Honorable Mention for his efforts to provide concerts for the residents at the Sophia Snow House retirement community. Noah, now a fifth grade student at Jackson Middle School in Newton, is a part of the community program Project STEP: a string training program for African-American and Latino children who demonstrate exceptional musical talent and interests.

Now, 5 months after receiving the award, Noah’s musical successes are far from over! On July 22^nd, Noah performed a recital at Newton’s Golda Meir House for an audience of 75 people – a performance that came about thanks to the recognition of Noah’s accomplishment in the Boston Globe by staff writer Cindy Cantrell. Shirley Goldsmith, a Golda Meir resident highly inspired by the Globe article, contacted Noah and helped to coordinate the July performance at the retirement center. Following the performance, Shirley wrote the following to Cindy Cantrell:

Hi Ms. Cantrell. How can I thank you? Let me count the ways…just wanted to let you know that Noah was here at Golda Meir House yesterday, July 22^nd, and he was sensational! He had an audience of 75 people who have not stopped talking about him all day today.

Noah was also named a 2010 Seaman Scholar with Project STEP – a scholarship offered to one to three outstanding students in Project STEP’s Training Division (Grades 1 to 7) to honor the memory of the late George Seaman. We are so excited to see what lies in store for our youngest arts leader!

We are so proud of our 2010 Margaret Stewart Lindsay Arts Leadership Award recipients for all that they have accomplished. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to follow these inspiring young arts leaders!

Michael and Brian (left) Noni and Griffin (right)

Among the attendees were four faces familiar to our blog : Brian Kaufman and Michael Reichman of the concert series Musical Diplomacy, and Griffin Gaffney and Noni Carter – two Harvard sophomores developing a project  that promotes literacy and exposure to the arts for Boston middle school students.

Arnold Pesnell, Jonathan Anderson, and Gregory Groover

Joining the group were three new arts leaders from the Boston Arts Academy (BAA): Arnold Pesnell, Gregory Groover, and Jonathan Anderson. Arnold’s project is called Raise Your Voice. A vocal major at BAA, he hopes to develop a voice program at his old middle school focused on ear training, vocal technique, and posture. Gregory, an instrumental music major with a concentration in jazz, plans to create a documentary archiving the rich history and culture of jazz in Boston. Through this documentary, he hopes to inform and inspire the youth of Boston to take a greater interest in the art form. Jonathan, a music tech major, plans to host a benefit concert called Get Right for A Change. All proceeds from the performance will go towards creating a youth program at his hometown’s community center, Lucerne Garden, to help create a safe, fun environment for children from the area.

The Gallery Walk

The goal of this gathering was to start building a community of local arts leaders working towards a shared vision, to inspire and learn from each other.  During the 2-hour event, everyone had the opportunity to present their projects and receive feedback from the group on a particular challenge or dilemma. We asked each participant to write a short description of their project as well as one question/dilemma for the group on large paper posted around the room. Everyone was then welcomed to walk the “gallery” of projects and write questions and comments on others’ projects using colorful post-it notes. The post-it notes were a big hit! After a final group conversation to reflect on the feedback received, everyone was invited to take their large sheets home. The gathering was a great success! Everyone left with new questions, ideas, and perspective, and are all looking forward to the next meeting.

Stay tuned as we follow these inspiring arts leaders as they develop their projects. We will keep you posted on our next gathering happening in February.

Are you a high-school/early college musician in the Greater Boston area who wants to become more involved with your community through music? Check out From the Top’s Center for Arts Leadership today! Applications are due November 12!

Brian after conducting Bernstein's "Symphonic Dances from West Side Story" (photo courtesy of Jesse Weiner)

From the Top: What have you learned during the course of developing Musical Diplomacy?

Brian: We learned a tremendous amount. We learned about what we’re capable of as artists, as individuals, what we have the ability to do if we put our mind to it. We learned a lot about how to put something together, how to organize things, and how to get a community excited about something. The whole thing was challenging—there was no part of it that was a walk in the park! There was constant negotiating, adjusting, and modifying original plans. To do something like this, you have to be really flexible.

Michael: What we learned is that if you have an idea and a passion, and hope to see it through, you can make it happen. There is no end to the possibilities of what you can do. No one had done what we did before at the conservatory, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t take something to the next level. For any artist out there, don’t let the world stop you from doing something that really interests you. It sounds so corny, but if you dream big, there is no end to the possibilities. This doesn’t mean that we’re going to be performing in front of three million people at Woodstock, but it does mean that this distant dream of a year ago has now become a reality, and we couldn’t be more thrilled about that. Anybody could do this.

Michael after conducting Jason Belcher's "Concerto for Improvisers and Orchestra" (photo courtesy of Jesse Weiner)

From the Top: So this being your second year of Musical Diplomacy, what new ideas emerged?

Michael: Last year what was novel about what we did was that we had a concert plus a discussion. We did that again this year, but it was also with additional effects, such as the audio clips, lighting changes, and seating changes – all things that enhanced the overall aesthetic of the concert and the musical experience. It’s about how you can change the expectations of what classical music can do, and how the music can be effective in ways that people never had thought of before. Your expectations of what classical music is can be quite broad and can be a lot of different things. It’s not just about sitting and listening; it’s about where it takes you from there.

Brian: In a standard classical concert, when the music starts the magic starts but when it stops it ends. Daniel (Daniel Bernard Roumain, or DBR) was open to any ideas that we had, but the audio clips were one that he liked that we could actually do. The lighting changes we did really made an impact as well. We went from all the lights up with the Bernstein to all the lights off for Caroline Park’s piece, a much smaller piece. This was very effective for people since it was such a big difference in aesthetic between the two pieces, and the lighting matched that difference.

Michael: The things that happened that we didn’t expect or anticipate, and ended up planning only a few days before, were a lot of these new aesthetic ideas that Daniel had suggested: an unorthodox concert dress, or in his words “dress like you are going to be on MTV,” and having some sort of creative transition between pieces so that the audience is constantly being engaged and stimulated in some way. The idea is that the concert experience should completely seamless.

(photo courtesy of Jesse Weiner)

From the Top: How has this project related to your experience and education at NEC?

Michael: We served as conductors and music directors for this project, so we did everything from the musical preparation of score study to the logistical preparation of recruiting ensemble personnel, securing rehearsal locations, etc. That is all very much a part of what we did at the conservatory, outside this project. We’re using all those skills. NEC has begun a crusade to start an “entrepreneurial musicianship” program, and the NEC President is very gung ho about this idea of educating NEC musicians to be entrepreneurs. That goes along with not just being good artists, but knowing how to “think outside the box” on ways you can contribute to the community, wherever that community is. That just so happens to be what we’re already doing! So that ties into our education in that respect.

Brian: There was an incredible overall sense of accomplishment with everything we did. Michael and I talked about how this concert was, in many ways, a synthesis of the learning that we have done over our whole education, not just our two years at NEC. All of the organizational things: raising money, getting Daniel involved with the project, having Gunther Schuller on the panel discussion, having From the Top become a part of the project, getting 85 students to freely volunteer their time, having interest from the faculty at New England Conservatory, having the entire Conservatory come together between marketing and faculty and staff, all of these were really helpful and positive things.

(photo courtesy of Jesse Weiner)

From the Top: How did you feel about the post-concert panel discussion?

Michael: It didn’t go quite as we had previously expected, and of course that had to do with a lot of last-minute replacements on the panel that happened the week of. You can formulate panel questions you would like the discussion to revolve around, but panelists feel things in the moment. Both Daniel and Donnie Perkins prefaced their speeches by saying, “I was going to talk about this, but having had this experience I feel compelled to say these things.” The format was having each panelist speak for about 8 – 10 minutes each, and then open it up for questions. I think one thing that we might want to consider doing differently for a similar formula in an event like this is to maybe have very specific questions asked by the moderator to specific panelists. That way, it becomes immediately more like a dialogue rather than a series of speeches. The momentum and the energy would be a little bit more kinetic and gets the audience a more engaged. It would also hopefully leave room for the audience to ask more questions, since we only had time for 2 questions from the audience.

Brian: This whole idea of music in and of itself, this idea that it transcends words and represents an idea that we cannot with words, is really powerful. I think it can be a powerful thing to react to that and discuss it: what did we get from that? How does it shape our thoughts? The idea of discussion is important, and the interaction between people is really important. As we move forward to do this in the future, we can begin thinking about how we can guide that discussion and make it as fruitful as possible.

Michael: The important thing for us to keep in mind is that we’re not political activists with an agenda or an idea to get across. For us, it was about guiding the discussion in a direction that made sure we were talking about where we are in our country culturally now that we have a non-white president. It was interesting that the conversation went in many different directions from that. Perhaps changing the format will make sure that not only is the interaction a little more lively between the panelists and the audience, but that the questions and issues that we intended to have raised in the event are, and that less gets left untouched.

Daniel Bernard Roumain conducting his piece, "Symphony for the Dancefloor" (photo courtesy of Jesse Weiner)

From the Top: There was a powerful moment in the discussion when an audience member challenged the panel on the issue of affirmative action. How do you think that affected what followed?

Michael: I think Daniel’s response to the question was an appropriate response, and that he responded to it as a musician and not as somebody who has his own political opinions or social opinions. It’s important that when you are trying to do an event like this to keep in perspective your perspective: I am reflecting and raising these issues as an artist. We are talking about America and the effects of racial integration culturally. We are asking “where are we in this country culturally?” We’re keeping in perspective how we’re asking the questions and who is asking the questions. I think it was good Daniel answered the question as a musician.

Brian: He didn’t just dismiss the guy for his anger, either. He really identified with his viewpoint by saying: “I understand where you are coming from, I don’t agree with you. Here are some things that I think differently, but I do understand where you’re coming from. There are parts of my experience that I cannot connect with where your experiences are, because I’ve had different experiences.” At the same time he was saying he didn’t agree, he was giving the guy’s argument value and understanding, which was really powerful. He wasn’t knocking the guy for his anger or his view, he was saying your voice is just as important a voice as any other voice, and it deserves to be heard just as much as any of the rest of us, as any of the five of us sitting up here right now (the panel).

DBR (photo courtesy of Jesse Weiner)

From the Top: What do you see in the future of this project?

Brian: Personally, I see someone giving us a $200 million grant to continue doing this. I don’t know if it’s going to happen, but I have my fingers crossed!

Michael: I think we have tapped somewhat of a niche market. Nobody is exactly doing what we’re doing in this way. We would want to continue doing projects like this—not necessarily in a concert plus discussion format, but projects that take music and set it in an illuminating context. In other words, taking art and getting people to think about it in a different way and continuing to produce events that do that.

Brian: We’ve both found that we have an interest and a passion for this kind of thing. We’re looking to keep that as a central part of what we do after NEC. In more detail, we’re looking to set up an organization that would put on these kinds of events, potentially a nonprofit.

Michael: It is definitely something we want to move forward with, and to keep thinking of new ways to be creative and enhance that concert experience, whether that be from the audience member’s perspective or from the performer’s perspective. Diplomacy through concert plus discussion only has to be one medium for that. It can take a lot of different forms, a lot of different concerts, and lot of different styles with the importance being that it’s wonderful music getting people engaged and enhancing the way they see and experience music.

Panelists Robert Gittens, Donnie Perkins, William Lowe, and DBR (photo courtesy of Jesse Weiner)

From the Top: Do you ever see it expanding beyond music and incorporating other arts?

Brian: Absolutely! I think collaboration is at the core of what we are doing. There are so many artists that are already part of this idea and that are doing things relevant to what we are thinking, and they would probably be really interested in being a part of this. The Internet is another way to make this available to everyone right away.

From the Top: Based on how this most recent experience went, what is the ideal picture you could paint for Musical Diplomacy?

Michael: Our name right now is Musical Diplomacy, and the key word to that is “music”. It’s all about making sure that the music gets you thinking or affects the way that you experience “fill in the blank.” It’s about how we can get music to get people thinking about the world around them differently. That’s the big mission, that’s what musical diplomacy is all about. The best success for us would be hearing: “Bernstein, that’s such a great piece and I’ve loved it all my life, but I never thought of it that way. Any time I listen to that music I am now going to think about it differently. And the next time I hear Barack Obama speak or Jesse Jackson or anybody in that sort of activism, I’m going to think about it differently because the music affected the way that I see this issue and how the issue either transcends or doesn’t.”

Brian: We are really interested in expanding on this idea of music as a platform for addressing social issues. It’s a really compelling idea that could make a huge difference and a huge impact for a lot communities and a lot of people. Aside from the concert and discussion, the question is that within this context of Musical Diplomacy how can we connect people to these ideas? What educational components can we bring in? How can we engage people in high school or middle school with this idea? How can we engage other communities? How can we bring this idea outside of Boston and into other parts of the country?

Panelist Gunther Schuller (photo courtesy of Jesse Weiner)

From the Top: What advice would you give to younger musicians who are interested in getting involved in their communities and are inspired to do something similar?

Brian: Try to identify the components of what you’re trying to do. Once you do that, get advice from people who are good at those individual components. We’ve been very lucky. Even though we’re receiving credit for putting this concert together, we had a tremendous amount of help. The good news is that there are a lot of people out there who want to help you. You’re not alone in this. Whether it’s your teachers or other people in your community, I guarantee there are people out there who will help you with whatever you want to do. One example at NEC: we had to raise money for our project, and we were applying for grants. We were directed towards the grant writer for NEC and met with him. We explained what we were doing, showed him drafts of our grant proposals, and he gave us feedback. Asking advice from someone is almost the best form of flattery you can give them. Don’t feel like you can’t ask. Always, always ask! Most people would love to sit down and help you in any way they can.

Michael: I think that’s the biggest thing: ask for advice. You don’t even have to have a completely concrete idea. If you’re really passionate about something and you have an idea, talk to your teachers and your mentors. Tell them about your idea and ask whom else you could approach to get advice. Take those names and then ask them for advice. It continues from there.  You’ll start developing really good rapports and relationships and a support system. That’s all you need. As we were developing our network at NEC, Tanya Maggi, the Director of the Community Performances Partnerships Program at NEC, came across From the Top’s Margaret Stewart Lindsay Arts Leadership Grant. All because we asked somebody for advice!

(photo courtesy of Jesse Weiner)

From the Top: What does it mean to be an artist in today’s world?

Brian: Especially in classical music, there aren’t that many jobs out there. Being a 21st century musician is about being resourceful and using all of your skills, and not necessarily just musical skills. That could mean teaching, performing, or putting your own projects together. For us, being relevant and part of a community is really important, and it’s part of being a 21st century musician. To go along with that, you have to have a broad view of what being “successful” is. Don’t limit your idea of success to being a violin player in an orchestra, and that’s it. You’ll miss out on a lot if you do.

Michael: I went to a conducting workshop, and one of the speakers during a career seminar said, “there are no such things as jobs, only opportunities.” As a young artist or musician, that (along with asking for advice) is a powerful idea that you can take away. It’s all about forging your own career. You can create anything you want, and if you have a passion for it, you can find a group of people that will help you. That’s almost as important as honing your craft at a conservatory. Look at your education as training for the various opportunities with which you’re going to create for yourself. With this attitude, artists (any student, really, in any field of education) would look at their careers differently, and, I think, for the better. Everybody has something to contribute to society; it’s just a matter of figuring that out. If you see your education as a way to create your own opportunities and not just apply for a job, it will have a monumental impact on your outlook.

Brian: You can also think about it as being a contribution with your art. That changes the way you approach what you do. Art isn’t about you; it’s about contributing something.

(photo courtesy of Jesse Weiner)

This is the final installment of our Musical Diplomacy series on The Green Room. We will keep you posted on future developments and proposals with the project!

We would now like to take this opportunity to introduce to another composer who was involved with Musical Diplomacy: Jason Belcher. Jason recently received his Bachelor’s of Music from New England Conservatory (NEC) in Contemporary Improvisation and Jazz Studies, and will be returning in the Fall to purse his Masters in Composition. We sat down with Jason to discuss his involvement with the event and his perspective on diplomacy in music:

When/how did you first learn about Musical Diplomacy (MD)?

I first learned about MD soon after Derek David and Albert Oppenheimer were finishing their pieces for the first MD event last year. I hadn’t known Brian and Michael too well then, but loved that they put the event together. It was a presentation built around current events, new music, and bringing a lot of minds together, and that’s a great thing.

Why did you want to be involved? How does this project connect to your own mission as an artist?

When they asked me to write a piece last year (around this time), I knew that I wanted to contribute to their next production right away. I knew that I could also get folks from the Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation departments involved (which fit the subject perfectly).

My mission was (and is) to bring together people from all kinds of musical paths and backgrounds to contribute to a greater whole. I feel that this is relative to American history, our advancements as a country, and also the advancements of NEC as a musical institution. I feel like there’s a lot of research going on here in terms of the way various people (students, faculty, and staff alike) are working, and the ways that we can work together. Just when I feel I’ve figured something out, a new bunch of people come along, give me a new set of tools, and the things we come up with are always rising to a new level.

How did your piece connect to the overall mission of Musical Diplomacy? What was your hope for the evening in terms of what the audience took away from the experience?

Race and Culture in the Age of Obama: One of the first things I did when I knew I’d be writing this piece was to go on the web, and look up interviews with our President. One of them was a short clip called “Jazz in the White House.” We see Obama say something like “We are going to have Science in the White House…Jazz in the White House.”

In the video the music that those kids are shown playing is closely related to other urban styles of music. It was a great example of an integration of people and cultures, and I knew I had to do something to contribute to M.D that dealt with music in that way.

Do you think the event as a whole was successful?

Yes. The musical program covered so many bases all relating to the subject. I really loved the program, and am happy to have had a premiere alongside Caroline and Daniel.

Brian and Michael also found a way to acknowledge the theatrical side of things by linking performances with recordings that we had made of ourselves, or others. I wasn’t too sure about that at first (I hate hearing my own recorded voice) but it really worked.

courtesy of Jesse Weiner

What are your thoughts on the discussion/panel component, including the pre-concert discussion at NEC – how did this contribute to the experience for you as a participant? For the audience?

The panelists at the concert, and their stories were wonderful. However, I preferred last year’s panel discussion over this one for a couple reasons. Last year, there was some opposition and differing views from within the panel. Everyone on this year’s panel had different experiences, but they all seemed to agree with each other. Also, there was much more conversation between the panelists last year. I was not terribly disappointed, but those are some things that I thought the panel could have been further strengthened by.

I enjoyed the diversity of the panel at NEC, and the wide range of sub-topics they covered when dealing with race. Here is another example of inter-departmental work that is fantastic, and needs to continue in other ways.

Did this inspire you to think about your work or role as an artist differently or inspire any new ideas?

It was incredible to hear my work being played by a large group of people. I personally don’t like a lot of political things associated with orchestras – it’s kind of like sports teams with coaches (or in this case, conductors) and players that are over-payed, and talked about way too much. However, I think that this is a vehicle that I can work with a little better in the future, by developing an individual way of writing for the orchestra, as many others have. If you look at every century, the orchestra has changed, and I don’t think that the 21st is an exception. The American Composer’s Orchestra, their commissions, and ideas were an inspiration to me while I was writing this work.

As far as the event itself goes, the diversity of the music, everyone involved in the production, and everyone in the audience made me very excited. It makes me proud to be where I am. It says “Look at all we have to work with here.”

I understand that you’ve started a community music series, can you tell us more about that? (what, why, who, how)

Here at NEC, we have a variety of programs that are known for being some of the best in the country. However, what you don’t hear is that those programs can (and sometimes do) collaborate. We’re all in the same boat, but largely in different quarters as far as the administration is concerned.
Because of the logistics involved, it’s hard for the school to organize inter-departmental forums and activities, but I wanted to find students, faculty, and alums who are interested doing cross-departmental work. I did a lot of talking to different people, had a few open reading sessions (of work suited to any musician/instrument etc.), and now there’s a core of about 30-40 people who have been involved in an off-campus series.

Next year, I’d like to begin working with students from other schools, and produce an interdisciplinary series. In the next few weeks, I’m planning to meet with students from Longy, Mass Art, Harvard, and Tufts. I’ve had a lot of help from other students in getting ideas and organizing for the series, and we’ve agreed that this is the next best step.

courtesy of Jesse Weiner

This article is a continuation of our Musical Diplomacy series. Stay tuned for our final interview with Michael and Brian to see their perspective on the event’s success!

Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR)

Last month we featured an interview with Brian Kaufman and Michael Reichman, founders of Musical Diplomacy, and recipients of From the Top’s Margaret Stewart Lindsay Arts Leadership Award.

On May 14th, they hosted a “Concert and Discussion on Race and Culture in the Age of Obama” which featured Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, the world-premieres of Jason Belcher’s Concerto for Improvisers and Orchestra and Caroline Park’s RADIO, and the Boston-premiere of Emmy-nominated composer and hip-hop classical fusion artist Daniel Bernard Roumain’s Symphony for the Dance Floor.

Why this recap?  Well Daniel Bernard Roumain (aka DBR) was kind enough to share this ‘day in the life’ vlog and reflection with us.

ON MUSICAL DIPLOMACY AND GOOD, LONG HUGS

I’m often traveling and touring and like many musicians, I’m often on the move.  It’s important for me to see the world and then, I feel better equipped to comment on what I see.  From the stage, I get a snapshot, a polaroid view of a town, city, or community.  I can hear them, shouting sometimes, laughing at others, the occasional “boo” or “bravo”!  It’s all about voices and opinions, actually, and the courage to express yourself and the humility to let others take the mic.  I think the concert event, MUSICAL DIPLOMACY, is about the artist, an audience, and our world.  The founders/producers Brian Kaufman and Michael Reichman invited me to conduct my latest orchestral work, Symphony for the Dance Floor, and I was honored to share the stage with a large, diverse audience, and an exciting post-concert panel featuring the legendary American composer/conductor, Gunther Schuller.  Boston is a particularly patriotic place, but that night, in the Fenway Center, I felt like I was part of a world community, on a stage and in a sacred space full of thought, sweat, rage, hugs, handshakes—and some good food, too!

The stages of the world, wherever you live and dream, might be the last bastion of democracy—a place where every voice can be heard and our musical diplomacy thrives.  Sometimes, it’s good to stop moving, and just listen to your favorite rock band or string quartet.  Sometimes, it’s good to give someone you love—more than a few words—one good, long hug.

-DBR

DBR isn’t just an amazing musician – recognizing today’s challenging economic environment, he created New Clef Coalition out of his determination to help youth orchestras not merely survive but thrive. The centerpiece of the coalition is a new 20-minute symphonic work composed by DBR (Symphony for the Dance Floor was written for this project). Partners in the coalition are given commissioning credit and are welcome to feature the new work in their season programming. DBR also visits the participating communities.

On June 20th, DBR will celebrate parenthood at Symphony Hall in Boston by doing a special Father’s Day concert with the Boston Pops!

Interested to hear more? Check out his latest CD.

What first inspired you to use music as a way to reflect on social and political issues?

Brian: I ran a brass ensemble as an undergraduate at the University of Maryland, and I asked a friend of mine to compose a piece for the ensemble. He wrote a really powerful, politically focused piece about Guantanamo Bay, which takes clips from the NPR show “This American Life” and infuses them with music. We weren’t able to perform it at Maryland, but when I got the music, I brought it to NEC. I shared it with Michael, and we decided to form an entire concert around this piece. We both had an interest in the idea of connecting social issues with music, and this piece was merely a jumping point for us to do that.

Michael: As graduate students in conducting, we have a limited number of performance opportunities allotted to complete our degrees. Brian and I were looking for another way to put together a performance as conductors. We were throwing around programming ideas, and during that process Brian mentioned this brass ensemble piece that uses clips from “This American Life.” Honestly, before that I had always admired and appreciated how music could be used as a catalyst for social dialogue or social change, but I never thought about it as something I could do to engage the community. It wasn’t until we started developing Musical Diplomacy that I realized the power music has to change a community.

Did either of you have an interest in politics or community service earlier on?

Brian: It’s not about being political; it’s about being relevant. This is something that has been important to me as a musician trying to find my path as an artist: making the music that I’m part of relevant. Very often classical music concerts are a wonderful display of art, but don’t answer the question, “How does this matter to my life?” Great art is something important that we all need, but we’re interested in how music can contribute to our everyday lives.

Michael: I was never a political activist per se, but I grew up reading the newspaper and was part of after school clubs in high school. I always wanted to be a well-read individual who could connect my own endeavors to the world around me. What’s important to me is that audience members connect the issue of race with the music performed, and that the music affects the way they perceive this issue. We try not to have an agenda because we don’t want to be thought of as lobbyists. We want to avoid saying whether Obama’s election was a good thing or not. We’re just trying to say, “We now have a non-white president in office. What does that say about our country culturally since the time of post-Civil War Reconstruction to 2010?” There has been a continuum of racial integration in this country. We want to approach that from a musical and sociological perspective. We want to illuminate all sides of an issue, regardless of our personal views.

Did you have any defining moments or role models that inspired this approach?

Brian: I went to the University of Maryland before NEC, and one of the guest artists that visited when I was there was Daniel Bernard Roumain, who is our featured composer. He was a big role model for me. At that point, I had discovered that I wanted to make music relevant in some way and do something different than what’s typically expected of musicians. Hearing Daniel talk was really inspiring. Up to that point, I hadn’t connected with anyone who made me feel like, “this guy is doing something like what I want to do.” I feel personally like I have come full circle since that point, since we’re getting to work with him.

For those who aren’t familiar with DBR, who is he? What makes him special? Why is he a particularly fitting guest for this event?

Brian: We talk about Daniel as a “21st century musician.” He is a composer, first and foremost, and he is also an outstanding virtuoso violinist and a bandleader. You name it, he’s done it. He’s had a very diverse career, from writing music that’s been performed at Carnegie Hall and other major venues throughout the world, to performing on “American Idol” with Lady Gaga. His diversity of ability and talent is really exciting to us. He’s also very interested in being relevant with what he does. He infuses a lot of popular music styles (hip-hop, funk, pop, etc.) into his music – I think that’s one way that he connects what he’s doing and helps make it relevant. The guy also has a Ph.D. in composition from the University of Michigan, and he is very knowledgeable about straight-up classical music as well.

How did you decide on the theme of the concert (“Race and Culture in the Age of Obama”)?

Brian: It was something that seemed current and really relevant. Last year during our concert, Barack Obama had just been elected. Shortly after that, in April 2009, we were thinking about what topic we might like to do in 2010, and it was kind of obvious. It wasn’t a long, drawn-out decision process. It was what we needed to do.

Michael: We picked the overall topic of race and Obama almost immediately, but race is a very broad topic, and Obama is a very broad topic too. We had to focus our idea. That was actually somewhat difficult, and it took us a few months. We asked ourselves many questions: “If we’re going to have an hour-long concert and an hour-long discussion on race and Obama, how are we going to do that? What pieces are we going to do? What types of questions should a panel address?” That was challenging, but we were able to develop a program that is very solid musically and flows organically into a focused discussion.

What was the process of organizing the concert like? How did you go about selecting the composers, panelists, etc.?

Brian: We started organizing this concert over a year ago. I had participated in a workshop with Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) as an undergraduate, and I thought he would be the perfect composer for the project. We told one of our advisors that we were planning to approach him, and she said, “I know Daniel! He’s moving to Boston!” We realized then that we might actually be able to get DBR to participate. We were also working with Professor Bill Lowe, who was teaching a jazz history class at NEC. He was a mentor for us in those early stages of defining our topic. Every week we would bring him an outline of what we’d come up with, and he’d respond with 20-30 questions. He would offer ideas, but he really put it on us to figure everything out. That was a powerful thing. We got a lot of advice. Obviously, we’re not experts on any of these topics. Even though we’ve set up the questions we want to address, there will be a fair amount of input from the moderator and the panelists about how we might get at these questions more specifically.

Michael: That’s a very important point. We don’t want to be framed as experts, and we’re not framing anybody else involved in the program as an expert. We’re trying to be relevant, but we’re not trying to be condescending. At the end of the day, Brian and I are artists. Our job is to present something and get the audience member to say, “Hm.” Despite the fact that this is our passion, Brian and I are not two young bucks on a crusade against art for art’s sake. We very much believe in music being relevant, but that’s not to say that we think that the concept of the symphony orchestra is outdated. We’re merely looking at ourselves as young entrepreneurs and artists and saying, “What can we do in this society to take music of serious artistic merit and get the world thinking about it differently?” As people that are forging a career in the arts, we are trying to think about how we can take our musical training and give something special to the community. The important thing is to not sacrifice artistic merit. That’s why last year we had Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man on the program, an amazing, classic piece. The same thing goes for this year’s concert with Bernstein’s West Side Story. We’re not trying to take the world of new music and separate it from the music that the public recognizes and loves. We’re not trying to take music and prescriptively morph it to something that fits the topic. We’re trying to reach a good synthesis of the two.

What do you hope audience members will take away?

Michael: I hope that afterwards they say, “I never thought about fill-in-the-blank in that way.” That “fill-in-the-blank” could be West Side Story, a piece they’ve known and loved for many years. Or it could be, “I never thought about hip-hop and funk music in a classical setting.” The next time an audience member reads an article about Obama in the New Yorker, Time, or Newsweek, maybe he or she will think about the article differently based on the way they experienced the art and discussion at our event. That would be a monumental success.

Brian Kaufman and Michael Reichman

Hi everyone!
Brian Kaufman and Michael Reichman here at New England Conservatory in Boston! We are both really interested in music and community projects centered on social issues. Last year we thought to ourselves: “Selves, how can we create an experience that grabs the listener and gets them thinking about music in a different way?” That’s when we came up with Musical Diplomacy an ongoing project bringing together leading policymakers, teachers, musicians, and concerned citizens for an inspiring evening of music and dialogue.

On May 14 in Boston we are hosting a “Concert and Discussion on Race and Culture in the Age of Obama” which will feature Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, the world-premieres of Jason Belcher’s (NEC BM ’10) Concerto for Improvisers and Orchestra and Caroline Park’s (NEC MM ’10) RADIO, and the Boston-premiere of Emmy-nominated composer and hip-hop classical fusion artist Daniel Bernard Roumain’s Symphony for the Dance Floor.

The concert will be followed by a panel discussion featuring: Pulitzer Prize-wining composer and former NEC President Gunther Schuller; Dr. Emmett Price, Chair of NEU’s African American Studies Department; Dr. Jean Wu, Senior Lecturer at Tufts University’s American Studies Program; composer Daniel Bernard Roumain; and Robert Gittens (moderator), NEU’s VP of Public Affairs and Boston Symphony board member. There will be a chance for audience members to ask questions at a reception immediately following the event.

We are both ecstatic to be working with From the Top and are honored to be recipients of their Margaret Stewart Lindsay Arts Leadership Award. While the fiscal support is nice, the professional and career advisement has been absolutely invaluable! We’ve also been very fortunate to have unwavering support from numerous faculty and staff at New England Conservatory as well as Tony DeRitis, chair of the Music Department at Northeastern University.

We both sincerely hope you will all be able to attend this exciting event on Friday May 14^th! Admission is free but tickets are required as seating will be limited. Please contact the Northeastern University Ticket Center at 360 Huntington Avenue, 109 Ell Hall, (617) 373-4700.

In the meantime, check out our fundraising video!

Stay tuned for more updates.

Excited!

Brian and Michael

Through this program, From the Top will provide grants and mentoring for three community projects this year. A shared grant pool of $2500 will support two existing programs -  Musical Diplomacy, a community initiative that inspires conversation about social issues through music, and the Andover Lawrence String Program at Phillips Acadamy – and launch a new after-school arts program in Boston. More information about the leaders and their work is available on our web site.

Gathering the Grantees

Brian Kaufman, Griffin Gaffney, and Michael Reichman at the orientation

On April 8th, grantees Griffin Gaffney, a From the Top alum and first year student at Havard, and Brian Kaufman and Michael Reichman, Master’s candidates at New England Conservatory, attended an orientation at our office. They introduced themselves and their projects, met the From the Top education team that will be supporting them along the way, and shared the individual stories and experiences that inspired them to pursue this opportunity.  The leaders also shared the challenges they face and helped each other brainstorm around these issues. Fellow grantee, Jacob Shack, who was unable to attend in person, was introduced through a video we recorded with him earlier in the week. Technology saved the day!

The orientation was an eye-opening experience for all and the first of what we hope will be an on-going conversation between these inspiring arts leaders! We plan to reconvene the full group before the start of summer and will document their efforts along the way.