Composition Matters

I have really enjoyed reading all of the comments of both the panelists and the write-in comments, and I’m sorry we can’t go on another week, as I feel things are just starting to percolate here. So as a final thought for the week, I thought I would make a case for some of these problems being addressed through a more activist educational push from musicians and composers alike.

Barbara Scowcroft mentioned her affiliation with the Houston group, which I know to be the American Festival for the Arts. If there ever was a long term to solution to so many of the problems we are talking about, it can surely be found in this institution. Todd Frazier, after receiving a masters at Juilliard in composition, applied for an in-house grant, and asked 10 of his recently graduated friends from there to do a summer program, at that time on the cheap, with the idea of traveling around small-town Texas and doing a series of concerts and especially masterclasses to local middle and high-school age musicians. With the patience of Job, he managed to raise the money, year after year, to return to the same places, and ultimately about ten years ago, to set up a summer-only conservatory in Houston with a satellite out in Beaumont, which has over 50 teachers and over 200 students.

The reason he gave for following this vision was that he was really tired of what he called, “drive-by arts education,” where a group would visit a high-school once and that was all they got, and also tired of all of the younger musicians not having any loyalty to the city, leaving it for “greener cultural pastures.” The other thing he wanted to do was not insist that the music students follow the music path as a career choice, but rather that they emphasize the importance of participating in music throughout their lives. And in fact, besides the scores of students who have gone on to the great roster of music conservatories and schools around the country, equally as many have gone on to become doctors, engineers, etc. AND great music lovers and supporters.

I have seen the results of this school over all of these years, and it is truly amazing. I remember thinking that Todd was a little off his rocker that first year, as he had this elaborate mission statement (at the age of 24!), but boy was he right. Apart from establishing one of the pillars of the arts community in that region, he stuck to his guiding principles. Every one of those concerts has a very new work on it, and he is now even commissioning works. He brings in guest conductors of great quality, ranging from Barbara Scowcroft to Michael Morgan and others, and he gets a wonderful mix of local players and the best recent conservatory grads who have a fire in the belly to teach the younger players. The students get theory, history, repertory classes, composition, etc., but most importantly they come away with the idea that music-making and composition is a living art, and that they should participate in it no matter what they do, wherever they are. This is not just the party line- they REALLY do.

By the way, those concerts are packed with extremely enthusiastic friends, relatives, and not just those. Each of those students is required to bring two friends! We complain about not having enough ticket sales to fill a 1500-2000 seat theater. Surely, addressing the problem from the ground up is the solution. Surely, the combination of harnessing that incredible enthusiasm that only a high school student has and the long-term focus of a program like this is the way to build a loyalty that is not limited to the school, but to the arts scene in the community as a whole.

I have just scratched the surface of what this program is about, but I would encourage you all to find out more. The link is: www.afatexas.net

Best wishes to all!