Engaging the Community

Aug 23 2006
Browse archives for August 23, 2006
Jon Deak
Jon Deak

Jon Deak, Associate Principal Bassist and Creative Education Associate of the New York Philharmonic, is also a prominent composer. He was educated at Oberlin College, The Juilliard School, the University of Illinois, and as a Fulbright Scholar, at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome. His training includes work in the visual arts, and he was active in the “performance art” movement in New York’s SoHo. He now teaches a composition class in the New York City public schools that his own children attend. In September 2000, Mr. Deak was chosen to lead a youth concert at Carnegie Hall in honor of Isaac Stern’s 80th birthday, in which he served as host, conductor, and contrabass soloist.

Mr. Deak’s compositions have been performed at music festivals worldwide and by such institutions as the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago, National, Minnesota, Cincinnati, Seattle, New Jersey, Atlanta, Colorado, and many other symphony orchestras and chamber groups. His discography includes recent releases on Centaur, CRI, Innova, and Cabrillo records.

Mr. Deak recently completed a successful three-year appointment as Composer-In-Residence with the Colorado Symphony under the Meet The Composer Residencies Program, which included affiliations with the Colorado Children’s Chorale and Denver Public Schools. Among the programs he inaugurated in connection with his Denver residency are: the “Source Project,” a new music series in the Denver Performing Arts Complex, which brought together a stunning display of creativity by Colorado composers; and a restructuring of the pre-concert lecture format into a pre-concert “event” that includes drama and live music. Mr. Deak became a familiar figure around Denver as he moved from school to school teaching composition and creativity to young people of all ages and backgrounds.

Mr. Deak regularly participates in fundraising events to aid symphony orchestras, and has been an outspoken environmental advocate. An avid wilderness mountaineer, he has led climbing expeditions into the Canadian Rockies, Alaska, and the Himalayas. He was chairman of the New York Philharmonic Artistic Advisory Committee, which helped select Kurt Masur as the Philharmonic’s Music Director. He also participated in Leonard Bernstein’s historic Freiheitskonzert (Freedom Concert) in what was then East Berlin, on Christmas Day l989, an event he regards as one of the musical highlights of his life.

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[Jon has been traveling in Europe and having a few Internet problems – I just received this from him. Ann Drinan]

I just wanted to say I’ve been reading the statements and comments so far, while on the go in Europe. It’s clear that all the panelists are working mightily to reach the communities they serve, and that audiences and children all over cannot but benefit from our efforts.

My own tactic generally comes under the heading of “letting the community teach us.” I so much want to expose kids, especially, to the great orchestral classics and the contemporary, but I am even more interested in what THEY want to express, create, play, write, shout. Clearly there are many approaches, but I am so convinced of the infinite depth of the expressive capacity of the orchestra and live ensembles that in my Very Young Composers program, I generally make a deal: In exchange for giving you (the public school child, for example) the tools with which to create for the orchestra, we will agree to perform exactly what you compose, and no fooling with your stuff, nor editing. Can’t notate well enough? We’ll do it for you, as long as you tap, sing, play, talk, yell out exactly what it is and is for, down to the last eighth note, raw from your gut. Deal?

Yes, this is a big risk, this so-called “blank slate” method. I don’t even let them use the computer until later in the process. But this way, we don’t have to worry so much if we are feeding them the proper, culturally relevant music. We are learning it from them. – With such joy! When they need the instrumental skills, we will give them to them as they are needed. (And they ARE needed!)

This is only the barest sketch of what really goes on in this type of process, but over the eleven years I, and now a number of us have been involved, thousands of miraculous little gems of the heart have been created, loved, and performed. More about this later, and back to the discussion at hand tomorrow.

About the author

Jon Deak
Jon Deak

Jon Deak, Associate Principal Bassist and Creative Education Associate of the New York Philharmonic, is also a prominent composer. He was educated at Oberlin College, The Juilliard School, the University of Illinois, and as a Fulbright Scholar, at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome. His training includes work in the visual arts, and he was active in the “performance art” movement in New York’s SoHo. He now teaches a composition class in the New York City public schools that his own children attend. In September 2000, Mr. Deak was chosen to lead a youth concert at Carnegie Hall in honor of Isaac Stern’s 80th birthday, in which he served as host, conductor, and contrabass soloist.

Mr. Deak’s compositions have been performed at music festivals worldwide and by such institutions as the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago, National, Minnesota, Cincinnati, Seattle, New Jersey, Atlanta, Colorado, and many other symphony orchestras and chamber groups. His discography includes recent releases on Centaur, CRI, Innova, and Cabrillo records.

Mr. Deak recently completed a successful three-year appointment as Composer-In-Residence with the Colorado Symphony under the Meet The Composer Residencies Program, which included affiliations with the Colorado Children’s Chorale and Denver Public Schools. Among the programs he inaugurated in connection with his Denver residency are: the “Source Project,” a new music series in the Denver Performing Arts Complex, which brought together a stunning display of creativity by Colorado composers; and a restructuring of the pre-concert lecture format into a pre-concert “event” that includes drama and live music. Mr. Deak became a familiar figure around Denver as he moved from school to school teaching composition and creativity to young people of all ages and backgrounds.

Mr. Deak regularly participates in fundraising events to aid symphony orchestras, and has been an outspoken environmental advocate. An avid wilderness mountaineer, he has led climbing expeditions into the Canadian Rockies, Alaska, and the Himalayas. He was chairman of the New York Philharmonic Artistic Advisory Committee, which helped select Kurt Masur as the Philharmonic’s Music Director. He also participated in Leonard Bernstein’s historic Freiheitskonzert (Freedom Concert) in what was then East Berlin, on Christmas Day l989, an event he regards as one of the musical highlights of his life.

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