From the Blog: Community

15-year-old cellist and Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Matthew Liversedge has always believed that music can be enjoyed by anyone, and wanted to share that view with other high school students in his community. So on the morning of September 30th, Matt and his friend Stephen Wright (violin) visited the Oakdale Christian Academy, a boarding school for high school students, to share this message. They created a program that combined both classical and popular works, tying them together as pieces that inspire their own playing. Matt’s program was part of the school’s daily chapel session, which meets for an hour every morning..

“My primary goal was to help these high-school age students to connect personally with my music by making the performance personal and interactive. I wanted to communicate the enjoyment and pleasure music can bring to an individual by presenting the music as fun and exciting, yet also as something serious and concrete.”

Read more about Matt’s presentations on our Arts Leadership Map!

13-year-old guitarist Thomas Pfefer believes that music is a gift meant to be shared with others. So when representatives from the Volunteers of America Children’s Center in Allentown, PA asked him to present to a group their students, Thomas said he’d love to. He performed a variety of guitar piece, then share more about how the guitar works and why he loves to perform music.

“My goal was to expose kids to classical music. Most of the kids had never attended a recital and I believe that none of them had ever heard classical guitar before. I really wanted to show them how fun and inspiring classical music can be. Beyond the music component, I just wanted to share my passion with them and maybe inspire them to become passionate about something.”

Read more about Thomas’ presentations on our Arts Leadership Map!

18-year-old pianist and Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Yifan Wu wanted to find a way to reach out to the elderly in his hometown of Flushing, New York. He was introduced to the Korean American Senior Center, and reached out to their event coordinator in hopes of taking part in one of their weekly programs with its members. The event was a combination of music and activities, with staff from the Center engaging the audience through movement and dance.

“This performance showed me that the main point is not how good a performance is, but to bring happiness to your audience. They were all really sweet, and love life and music. At this event, my music brought them happiness, which made me very happy.”

Read more about Yifan’s performance on our Arts Leadership Map!

17-year-old flutist and Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Ryan Norville wanted the youth from his hometown of Fort Myers, Florida to see and experience the power of music. He chose to visit with students from his old elementary school, Tanglewood Elementary School, where he gave two back-to-back presentations for 4th and 5th grade students. He was joined on the program by a friend, flutist Michal Zeleny – another From the Top alum! (Show #226). After performing a variety of solo works and duets, the two spoke about their own experiences and shared ways for the students to get involved with music in their community.

“My goal for this project was to inspire one person, at least one, to really take music seriously and to do something great with it, and to do something for their community.”

Read more about Ryan’s presentations on our Arts Leadership Map!

Anna DeLoi (harp) and Nash Ryder (violin), two arts leaders of From the Top’s Center for the Development of Arts Leaders, will be presenting a benefit concert this Sunday, October 30th at 3pm at the Unitarian Universality Church in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Click here to view the invitation (PDF).

Donations given will directly support MusiConnects, the music education nonprofit they have worked with since January. Read more about Anna and Nash’s inspiring leadership project.

Admission to the concert is free and open to the public. There will be a reception following the performance – a great time to catch up with Anna and Nash and learn more about their music and arts leadership work!

Address: Unitarian Universality Church, 28 Mugford Street, Marblehead, MA

It’s been ten whole years since we’ve heard from alum Andrew Roitstein, a bassist who played on Show 051 in Lenox, Massachusetts alongside his twin brother, flutist Matthew Roitstein.

These days Andrew lives in New York and plays with another From the Top alum, violinist Pala Garcia (Show 068 in Portland, Oregon), in the Toomai String Quintet, the resident string ensemble for Carnegie Hall’s Music Connections program. Through this program, the group plays in hospitals, community centers, and even correctional facilities. They are currently the Ensemble in Residence at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx.

“We are working with Jacobi staff to create a ‘musical hospital’,” said Andrew. “We are searching for ways that we can make not only an emotional, but also medical impact through our music.” Andrew’s work with the music hospital is similar to the arts leadership project of another radio show alum. This year violinist Caeli Smith founded Rayos de Canción (Rays of Music) to raise awareness about the power of music to facilitate healing. She traveled to Guatemala with several Juilliard students to put her work into action – read about it on our map!

Andrew on a music outreach trip to Mexico.

Andrew has been a substitute for the New York and Hong Kong Philharmonic orchestras, but a large part of his career is spent working with young people. He is part of the faculty at the New York Philharmonic’s School Partnership Program and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, helping public school elementary students perform, compose, and see great classical music. Andrew’s work with children was greatly inspired by his time on From the Top, which he said really set an example.

“As a professional musician looking back on my experience with From the Top, I think the show really demonstrates how much of a difference one meaningful, high-quality musical encounter can make on a young person,” said Andrew. “Now that I work with young people, I strive to instill that same sense of empowerment in them, whether I am playing an interactive concert, teaching a lesson, or getting a group of Brooklyn public school 3rd graders ready to watch their first NY Philharmonic concert.”

For the past few months, From the Top has been hard at work launching a Boston Pilot, as part of our Center for the Development of Arts Leaders (CDAL). This blog is part of a series written by Linda Gerstle, Director of Education and Community Partnerships, chronicling the pilot year of this program. Read the other posts here.

Charlie is the “leader” of the current events discussion, the man with the microphone. Ben has a son in Syria and Mimi is very outgoing. Floyd sets up the chairs, is loud, friendly, and 100 years old!!! These are the ways in which the Center for the Development of Arts Leaders Team Delta have come to know the residents at the Goddard House. Team Delta has been so captivated by the residents’ stories that they are recording and cataloging those stories on a CD that will be given to residents, their families, and staff. The five arts leaders are working with their mentor, Mike Dahlberg, to develop an interview protocol for these conversations. They will be learning some recording and editing techniques as well in order to produce the CD. The groundwork for this effort was laid by the team over the past six months; they hosted a series of mini soirees for increasing numbers of residents whose input was consistently sought in creating the program content. Music excerpts from the soirees chosen by the residents will also be the back drop for the CD stories.

(L to R) John Carney, Will Hess, Dante Velasquez, Mike Dahlberg (mentor), Maddie Bauer, Tiffany Cheng, and Danielle O'Brien (Goddard House)

Opened in 1849 as the first private, non-profit home for elders in Massachusetts, the Goddard House in Brookline, MA for Assisted Living and Goddard House Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Jamaica Plain, MA offer a continuing commitment to elders through a range of services and care. Goddard House was also the first partner to sign onto the Center for the Development of Arts Leaders pilot year. As part of this pilot, teams of teen and early college musicians in Greater Boston are doing applied projects with community partners as part of an exploration of what it means to be an arts leader.

Team Meeting at Panera

In addition to the soiree series with the group of residents and story project described above, Team Delta has had some opportunities to interact with the Alzheimer unit at Goddard. This has been challenging in good ways for the team, inspiring them to consider the ways in which music can create memorable experiences for those whose memory capacity is compromised.

The experience at Goddard has been transforming for many of the Team Delta arts leaders, opening a window on a world that most don’t have regular opportunities to experience. As one of the arts leaders reflected, I wish I had had this experience while my grandparents were alive.

Three-time radio/TV show alum Mike Thurber reached out to us earlier this year with an exciting idea – he wanted to create a recording to celebrate From the Top’s efforts to support young artists and keep classical music alive and well.

Mike teamed up with other From the Top alums Charles Yang, Ibanda Ruhumbika and Caleb Hudson, and they worked with Matt McCorkle at Equal Sonics in New York City to make “And the Sound is Music.”

After months of hard work, the song is completed and available for download! Mike and his team also produced a mini-documentary about this project:

You can download the song here by giving as much as you’re moved, and the proceeds will benefit our Center for the Development of Arts Leaders.

A huge thanks to Mike, Matt, Charles, Ibanda, and Caleb for their hard work over the summer!

For the past few months, From the Top has been hard at work launching a Boston Pilot, as part of our Center for the Development of Arts Leaders (CDAL). This blog is part of a series written by Linda Gerstle, Director of Education and Community Partnerships, chronicling the pilot year of this program. Read the other posts here.

Anna gives a harp demonstration to students

To the astonishment of his teacher, a student at the Chittick Elementary School in Mattapan, Massachusetts who was not able to hold a pencil, had the motor control and dexterity to play the harp that Anna DeLoi brought to his kindergarten classroom. Anna and her arts leader teammate, Nash Ryder, are now a regular presence in the school. Right now they are working with the kindergarten teacher to introduce students to the joy of music and some of its component parts – instrument families, rhythmic patterns, famous composers, etc.  Then, in early February when From the Top tapes its next radio show in Boston, the students will be connected with the show performers to learn about the role of music in young musicians’ lives.

The Anna/Nash team of two is the smallest of the five teams participating in From the Top’s Center for the Development of Arts Leaders –  Boston Pilot. With the guidance of their mentor Kassie Eberle, Anna and Nash are working with CDAL partner MusiConnects under the leadership of Betsy Hinkle. MusiConnects is establishing chamber group residences in public schools in Boston. Their approach is a new model of music education that brings kids and families together with professional musicians around the shared intention of building a thriving community. With 83% of the student population at the Chittick School qualifying for free/reduced lunch, offering arts opportunities that are free of cost is crucial.

Nash works with students at Chittick Elementary School

Locally sponsored house concerts are one of the primary fundraising strategies for MusiConnects. Nash and Anna are at the center of this effort as well, having spent the entire summer organizing a concert that will be performed at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Marblehead on Sunday, October 30 at 3:00 pm. This event is a family affair of sorts as well – Nash’s grandmother, a Marblehead resident, has been instrumental in rallying the community around MusiConnects’ mission!

Anna and Nash wanted to share their passion for music and arts leadership with other young performers, so they put together the video below. We show this during Arts Leadership Orientations to our radio performers as a way to inform and inspire the young musicians who appear on our program!