Music, Teaching, Learning, and Life

In past weeks and months, news of the economy, job losses, and cuts in the arts and education funding have caused me to think often about the future of young people and our society.  What is the future of arts education?  My hope is that it will continue to grow, but recent news has me wondering.

I often think about the number of talented people I’ve been fortunate to meet during my life, and then I consider the factors that contributed to the development of their talents.   How much of their success lies in pure talent and innate ability, and how much lies in their own hard work, making the most of opportunities presented, etc?  How much of their success happened because the opportunities existed in the first place:  at school, home, or through extra-curricular activities?

Last weekend I had the opportunity to participate in a concert with excellent musicians again.  The Elmhurst College and Community Wind Ensemble played several pieces including the premier of a new composition by a senior student composer, John Robert Matz.  John Robert is a fine trumpet player as well as one of the best vocalists I know.  He wrote Shiloh as a part of his composition class at Elmhurst College.  The piece is a musical representation of one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War.  When I heard the piece for the first time during rehearsal, I was immediately able to hear the events he verbally described in the music.  After the performance last Sunday, the audience rose immediately as one, without any hesitation, to give John Robert a standing ovation lasting perhaps a minute or more.  I don’t know this young man’s personal experiences in high school, but I hear much more frequently about composition classes in high schools as well as in colleges now compared to 25 years ago when I was in school.

Yesterday afternoon I saw a portfolio of artwork by one of my daughter’s friends.  Looking at the drawings of this 18 year old girl nearly moved me to tears.  This young lady was able to develop her talents by taking classes at her high school.  Would she have the same opportunities or realizations about her own abilities had she not had those experiences at school?  Not long after she showed me her portfolio, her younger brother came into the room with his acoustic guitar and blew me away with his playing.  He’s only in the 8th grade.

A couple of years ago, I came in contact with another family having three children with various artistic talents:  an operatic singer, an actor/artist, and a dancer.  Their parents were also artists, but would their abilities have flourished had they not had opportunities to participate in the arts?

One of my favorite activities is attending rehearsals with community groups.  Many of the musicians with whom I play have careers other than in music, but our love of playing our instruments enriches our own lives as well as the people who hear our concerts.  How many of these groups would exist if music hadn’t been offered to us in our schools?

How many children will fall deeper into the vacuum of television, video games, and the internet if the arts don’t remain a vital part of education?  How many will never discover their God-given abilities in the arts if they aren’t given the opportunities to experience them?  How many will miss out on the joy of learning to think creatively because the arts aren’t offered to them?  I fear far too many!

I hesitate to post this as I’m certain I’ve missed many nuances, possibilites, etc.  I haven’t even mentioned other types of programs that help students discover what they might enjoy and in which areas they might truly excel.  These are only my thoughts from a very limited perspective.  Please add your own perspectives if you wish.