Blues Traveler to benefit Kids in a New Groove Gala Benefit Nov. 18 at OWT

2011 Music for the Soul Gala with Blues Traveler to benefit Kids In a New Groove

Exclusive concert will feature catered dinner, cocktails...and one incredible cause.

WHO:                Kids in a New Groove—private music lessons for youth in foster care

WHAT:              2011 Music For The Soul Gala featuring Blues Traveler

WHERE:           One World Theatre, 7701 Bee Caves Rd., Austin, TX ‪(512) 330-9500‬

WHEN:             Friday, November 18 from 6:30 – 11 p.m.

WEB:                http:/www.kidsinanewgroove.org/MusicForTheSoul

TIX:                  $250 individual, sponsorships start at $1,500

MEDIA:            Photos, details, or interviews david@wyattbrand.com, (512) 450-4395

As a musician and compassionate human being, I need to share something with you I think is profoundly important. I unequivocally believe that music can help heal most anything. Last April, Will Taylor and Strings Attached turned me on to Kids in a New Groove (KING), a non-profit organization that gives real hope to Texas youth in foster care through free private music lessons. I’ve come to realize that these children need all the healing they can get--more than any other kids in any state foster care system.

Why do I think this?  

Shanti Grossman from KING contacted me with an update on the program. She shared a few heart-breaking statistics about the Texas foster care system.

•        Texas ranks 50^th of 50 in funding for foster care.
•        Texas also ranks dead last in education.
•        Texas ranks first in deaths due to child abuse.
•        Some children in the Texas system are in up to 20 single-family foster homes.
•        Many children are in residential treatment centers/group homes until age 16.
•        70% of the U.S. prison population has been in foster care.
•         Many kids in foster care age out and end up pregnant or on welfare.  

 
There's more...

Reports indicate that less than two percent of foster youth will graduate from college and up to 50% will end up homeless within two years of emancipation. (From the KING Gala press release)

Whether these facts are related or not, I can only venture an observation that the system is freaking broken and these kids need every shred of hope they can get. I can't think of a better way to make a positive difference on every aspect of these youngsters' lives than to get involved with this program. 

Now for the Fun Part!

Blues Traveler is giving a gala dinner and concert to benefit KING on November 18 at One World Theatre! This will be a very cool event, for a very cool organization. If you can help in any way, please contact me ASAP.

Shanti also had some cracking great stories to share. She told me about a 15 year-old girl who found a reason to live through the healing power of music. The youngster had been in around 20 foster homes and 5-6 group homes. She became deeply depressed (who wouldn't?), neglecting her health and personal hygiene—essentially, she gave up. After two voice lessons in the program, she began showering again, and after a few more lessons, asked for permission to leave campus for a short run to get back in shape. 

This young woman’s sense of self-worth and confidence revived when music entered her life on a consistent basis through the KING program. During the nearly two years this young lady participated in KING, she was bounced through several more foster arrangements, always maintaining contact with her teacher, regardless of what else was going on. It was her lifeline. This speaks to the understanding and compassion of the KING instructors as well as their artistry.

The proof is in the pudding.

And then there’s Antawaine. This is Antawaine in a "Sunday's Child" interview on YouTube. What we can’t know from the video is that Antawaine came from an abusive home, as many foster kids do, and was placed in the system by child protective services from a very early age. He developed anger and other behavioral problems, to no one's surprise. Antawaine had been in the KING program for a good while prior to the interview. In the interview, he says “Guitar is the spirit of my heart.” KING has made a radical difference in this young man's life. That’s how powerful this program is.

Want more awesome Proof is in the Pudding goodness?

Here's what KING music instructor Genevieve Borden (MT-BC, Neurologic Music Therapist) has to say about her young pupil:

Joshua is a fantastic young man. When I first met him, he was a little shy and was not extremely confident about his musical abilities in piano and voice. In the last year, I have seen him grow not only in his music career, but also in his schoolwork. He is improving greatly in both piano and voice and has learned to play the violin proficiently! He has pulled his grades up significantly as well.This year, so far, he has all A and B grades!! He is driven in his music and is looking forward to studying music in college. I am very proud of him!!

This is the "Ways You Can Help" part

•     Attend the 2011 Music For the Soul Gala concert with Blues Traveler!
•     Donate $$, time, blog posts, instruments, musical instruction, in-kind services…
•     Let all your friends know
•     Think of ways you can partner for concerts, etc.
•     Comp tickets for the KING kids for your concerts, shows, etc.
•     Collaborate with other kids' groups
•      Include info in newsletters
•     Spread the word about KING

Will Taylor's brilliant benefit concert and violin burning for the group met with great success. To celebrate, Will and friends hosted a BBQ for the KING kids in his backyard. They continue to support KING by setting up a project info table at every gig. How cool is that? Pretty damn good modeling, I’d say. Thanks to Will, AT&T, and many other dedicated folks and sponsors, KING is beginning to catch fire, and deservedly so.

My small contribution is this very tardy blog post. I really want you to see for yourself how necessary music is to heal the souls and hearts of these forgotten children.

The Really Awesome Bottom Line...
KING is making a difference. And you can help.

Alternately, Kids in a New Groove offers a decidedly more promising path by providing private music lessons to youth in foster care. All of their most recent high school graduates went on to college this fall, demonstrating that they are truly making a difference. The November fundraiser will allow them to sustain and extend their programs throughout the state.

Kids in a New Groove’s unique music mentoring programs have a proven track record of helping these youth improve grades, behavior, and overall life skills. Lessons become a lifeline as teachers move with foster youth between placements, giving these youth a chance to trust and develop lasting relationships. (From the Gala press release)

  All photos courtesy Kids in a New Groove

Vernal equinox + full moon + maundy thursday

We have achieved springiness. Perfect early spring weather in Texas. We won't get many bluebonnets, due to the winter drought, but I do love me a cool, sunny, blustery day after a good rain kind of Texas spring. I'm also singing with the music director whom I worked with to promote the Texas Bach Festival a few years ago. The festival, also in March, prompted me to write an article which nobody was interested in, but it did paint a picture of exquisite Baroque music resounding in the turbulent, central Texas spring.

We adore the bluebonnets. They represent the most maternal aspect of the Hill Country. A velvety, electric blue blanket flowing over the land. We watch that endless ocean of transform through purple to red through orange to yellow by the time summer heat parches the land.

Some folks from Texas A & M University have an excellent bluebonnet site. Those Aggies are experts in plants, among other things. A children's book, can't remember the name, tells the bluebonnet story of a little girl's sacrifice to save her people. I like both stories.

At the risk of sounding trite, the music I associate with this time of year is Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring." The rawness and frenzy of musical lightning and wind (sturm und drang) is a perfect soundtrack for Texas in the spring. There's the more refined version of the vernal equinox as inspiration--"C'est moi de mai," is one of my favorites from the French Renaissance.

The full moon serves to intensify the forces at work. I'm drenched in psychic energy. My friend Bruce from the Sangha Cafe in Wimberley says this is the second of the "four Maiden Moons of the Triple Goddess cycle. It means whatever you want--except undeniably the lunar energy overflows & you can ride the crest of the wave only if you observe it consciously." Actually he wrote it last month for the first of the MMs, but the overflowing lunar energy is what drenched me today.

Then there was the washing of the feet and the stripping of the altar, accompanied by Schutz, Tallis, and Palestrina, representing the German, English, and Italian Renaissance. A magical day celebrating the renewal of the body and spirit.

Elder Human Computer Interface and my 62nd birthday

There is a loverly article in Interactions Vol. 13, No. 6 that deftly and gracefully frames the elder human computer interface opportunity and gives it legs. Aaron Marcus illuminates the galactic brain power of the eldest third of the U.S. population.

If I could distill the essence, it would be "Oldest Humans + thoughtful technology = the National Treasure."

The cross-human communication technology opens a new world of functional design necessary through all the stages of human growth. A tumbling arc, a continuum of age.

I've started a list of hard- and software that I anticipate needing in the future if I am to continue to write and communicate, that's a given. Have you started your lists yet?

Hardware: I want an "Enter" key for my left pinkie. It can occupy one half the space of the Caps Lock key. It's kinda like having the low B attachment with it's just a little further out key for your right pinkie. That way, you can access a body of flute repertoire that appeals to me the most. The Impressionists, the contemporary bloom of composition for the flute.

I had the great pleasure of spending four days with friends in Dallas, reuniting with several whom I have not seen since 1974. What made it extraordinary is that some of it was spent in a friend's recording studio (James Neel Music House) with musicians I used to play and sing with. Got a few tracks laid down before a technical glitch shut down the action. I gave 'em a sample of some backup vocal lines. Looking forward to getting a backup group together. I do love whuppin' up a bluesy girl group in close funky harmony more than anything. Unless it's playing me some Poulenc and Hindemith sonatas, or Cage and Castelnuovo-Tedesco flute duets. Yeah.

So, I need a little key revision on my keyboard. Bear with me while I think ahead...at some point, I may have to add some audio technology, and visually, we pretty well know what we need: uncluttered, clear, intuitive, impeccably organized. Perhaps a style guide for techies of any age that describes best practices in communication among all ages. Hmmm...

One of these days I'd like a decent recording sound on my computer, with some voice transcribing software on board. Before I get too croaky to sing. That'll be a while coming, I expect.

Beverly Sills, music, and aging

This is where I spend most of my time at work. You will notice the wave keyboard and orthopedic mouse. Also the theater monitor screen, which is more for opening several docs at once for reference and comparison.

Just the floaters that swim around in my eyes (I know they really don't!) can make me swear there's a comma rather than a period at the end of a sentence. Needless to say, unless I'm 8" from the laptop screen, I always bump the magnification to 150-200%. Don't get me started on dotted note values in music...

This issue of reading music is looming on my horizon. It may come down to a race between which goes first, the eyes or the voice. The limiting feature of musical scores is that the larger the notes/words, the larger and heavier the printed edition, and the more pages to turn. The only solution I can see at the moment is magnifying glasses. This would mean scaring myself or the conductor to death with alien bug-eyes, or relying on peripheral vision to watch the conductor.

I refuse to give up my musical endeavors. I just hope that I have the perspicacity and class to bow out before I 1) make a pitiful fool of myself, or 2) compromise the musicianship of a group. One of my sheroes, Beverly Sills, the gifted opera soprano, retired at the peak of her career. I admire her more for dealing with the personal loss she must have felt than for reasons 1) and 2) above.

Ms. Sills filled her life with activities just as meaningful as performing at the Metropolitan Opera. After retiring from singing, she became the director of the New York City Opera, elevating the organization to the top of the field. She didn't stop there--she eventually directed the Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center.

Even as she guided the fortunes of these stellar organizations, she managed to raise more than $70 million over ten years as national chair of the March of Dimes Mothers' March on Birth Defects.

My musical career is miniscule in comparison. I hope that when the time comes, if it does, I have the integrity to make as graceful an exit as she did.

Brava, Bubbles. You made the world a better place in many ways. We miss you.

Yay for Brahms!

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was a musician's musician and composer. He practiced counterpoint (think Bach Two-Part Inventions) for two hours every day before he put pen to manuscript to compose his own work. I call him the hemiola king. Makes singing interesting. Basically, it's shifting the metric pattern from a 3/4 or 6/8 (triple) time signature to what sounds like a string of duples. In other words, you're banging along 1 2 3 1 2 3 and the accent shifts to 1-2 3-1 2-3. You have to hear it...

At any rate, tonight was first rehearsal of the season for the Austin Vocal Arts Ensemble (AVAE), and we're doing a full program of Brahms, featuring the Liebslieder Waltzes. Brahms' style was Classical Romantic, rather than full-out Romantic. He respected the older forms of music (imitation, canon, fugue, et al) and adapted them to structure his work, as opposed to say, Wagner, who wrote what is known as program music--sometimes called a tone poem--which tells a story, or conjures an image, and may be through composed, which simply means the architecture doesn't divide up into neat sections. Think Prelude and Liebestod--restless movement away from a tonal center, never quite landing on a cadence (think the A-men at the end of most hymns).

Brahms wrote for nearly every genre except opera. His lieder (songs) are de rigeur for any singer, and his piano pieces are difficult, but supremely satisfying--you get to use the full range of the piano, and thunder away all your anger or depression. The symphonies are quite pleasant, but perhaps his best known work is Ein Deutsches Requiem (The German Requiem) for chorus and orchestra, which regularly shows up in every chorus' season. It isn't religious so much as spiritual. His tonalities reach deep inside your psyche and resonate with exquisite passion for the listener and the singer.

If you are in Austin on November 8, come listen. You'll hear lots of hemiola :)

Sloppiness and life in general--mostly music and grammar

Ronni Bennett, elder blogger par excellence, is a sister Nazi Grammar Policewoman. What the h**l is with our educational system that people don't even know how to diagram a sentence these days? That's not all Ronni blogs about, she's the grand dame of the elder bloggers, and always posts a lively comment on many issues.

But, gee, spelling, grammar, and word usage seem to have gone by the wayside in writing from bottom to top. I regularly edit writing produced by PhDs and am appalled by what is commonly accepted as good communication skills. Not to belabor the issue, but when a Dr. mispells a word, it really makes me wonder...

Just as there was a "new math," it seems there is a "new grammar." Kiddos learn verbs, THEN nouns. The word "predicate" is now only a whisper. I can see how learning the action portion of a sentence is compelling; however, I want to put the brakes on "dumbing down" grammar simply to make English more accessible to slackers.

Do I sound harsh? Perhaps. There are other nouveau practices that I heartily endorse: cut the jargon, write in a direct, clear, active voice, leave plenty of white space, and get the important points above the scroll line. These practices enhance communication rather than negate it. Spelling, good grammar and usage, however, are the basic architecture of human relationships, and I hate to see them go by the wayside, even though new ways to spell old words can be entertaining, to a certain extent.

Good on you, Ronni, for recognizing that we elder bloggers manage to adhere to the older best practices. Somehow I think we are the last of a dying breed. Speed and flash seem to be the buzz words of today. Get it up on the Web, and worry about the basics later, if ever. I am certain that we can do both. Send me something to edit, and I'll get it back to you in less than 24 hours. How much faster do you need it done than that? Even the most die-hard Web surfers have to sleep sometime :)

Which leads me to music. What's with the current sloppy rehearsal techniques? When I was in college, we were expected to do our very best every single time, not just at performance time. How can we improve if we don't challenge ourselves?

I sing with a semi-professional chamber chorus, and I'm constantly bitching about going flat. It truly hurts my ears, and if it goes on long enough, I get nauseated. What is our music education system doing these days that students can't develop a decent pitch memory? I tend to want to attribute it laziness--lack of breath support, not paying attention to dynamic markings, just "getting through" rehearsals until the performance.

The joy of music is as much in the journey as it is in the culminating performance. How can one expect to improve one's music skills if one only puts out the minimum required to (sort of) learn the music before curtain time? Is it so excruciatingly boring to not do your best? Why not develop that transcendence during rehearsals as well as in performance? I tend to cut everyone off at the knees over this issue.

NPR had a report that posited that your brain and ear "grow" to recognize and appreciate "pleasant" sounds, including your native language, and the language of justice, morals, etc. When your ear and brain encounter a "dissonant" sound, the body responds in a negative way. What has happened to our population that most people accept "less than" pitch or musical production? Doesn't it hurt their ears and stomach, too?

Have we reached a point in our civilization that we can no longer teach and absorb the basics in language, communication, music? What a sad state! I've often bragged that I can teach anyone to sing. Anyone CAN sing, if they pay attention, and WANT to sing. It's a skill that's learned like any other skill: pedagogy and practice. I always tell my students "Practice makes POSSIBLE, not PERFECT." We can sometimes get away with blind skill and luck, but in the long run, we'll never be happy until we dedicate all of our senses and focus to the task at hand.

OK, now I'm sounding old. It's true, though. Check it out. I can teach you how to sing, I'll guarantee it, as long as you honestly put all your resources into learning...

Back to Butterfly

Found the BLO program book from Madama Butterfly nesting in a pile of clothes. You can see the fabulous costuming and stage setting on their Web page. Perusing the bios, I corroborated that my ear did, in fact, pick up that the unevenness of the voices, probably because this was the debut performance of many of the cast. It in no way detracted from the wonderful work of Kelly Kaduce as Cio-Cio San or Honduran mezzo Melina Pineda as Suzuki.

Or the wonderful costumes and sets. The stage director, the venerable Sir Colin Graham, chose the sewamoto, or domestic mode of Kabuki theater, which yields more natural, as well as stylistic movement. Also learned that the Chorus Master, indeed masterful in preparing the difficult choral sections, is also director of choral activities at MIT and on the conducting faculty at the Boston Conservatory. No wonder the "Humming Chorus" was impeccable...

I took a hiatus from singing after AVAE's Oct. 29 performance, and I'm really looking forward to rehearsals beginning next week for our March performance of contemporary American composers and music. Listened to a lot of music over the holidays, and was asked to sing something at a colleague's home, which threw me a bit, since I was a little rusty. Plus most of my singing is in an inner part in languages other than English...I did hasten to reassure the guests that they were in no way to judge AVAE by my singing that day--by concert time, we will all be well-prepared.

How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

You study music for years and years. Practice makes possible. This photo, taken in April of 1993, is of me, my mom, and my daughter. It's under the placque by the front door of Carnegie Hall, following a performance of "Mazeppa," by P.I. Tchaikovsky in which my daughter and I sang with Princeton Pro Musica and the Opera Orchestra of New York. My mom flew in from Chicago for the performance, and she and I remained in the city that night and the next day before returning to our home in Princeton for a week's visit. That was the last time I saw my mom alive and functioning.

I had sung at Carnegie several times before, but this year, Ms. E had auditioned for and was accepted by Princeton Pro Musica, under the direction of Frances Slade, a wonderful person, friend, and musician, who still leads the group in making fabulous music. Each year, PPM collaborates with the Opera Orchestra of New York, led by the equally wonderful Eve Queller, in two concert performances of a major opera rarely mounted because of monster casts, staging, or other costs associated with a full production. One production takes place in Princeton in Alexander Hall and features a cast of young up-and-coming opera stars, which is notable for its passion and energy.

The second expands into the venerable Carnegie Hall, with a cast that includes the creme de la creme of the opera world, and while the youthful passion may not be present, the gravitas and brilliance of both the luminaries on stage and the audience were certainly sufficient to warm the cockles of this old heart. Especially when I got to share the stage with my beautiful and talented daughter and watch her comport herself so professionally, singing flawlessly in Russian, no less. And espying my mom and family and friends in the balcony, waving like a madwoman--not so professionally, but I spent decades being straight-laced and professional on stage, and I THUMB my NOSE at being a stick in the mud anymore, and well-behaved women rarely make history, anyway, so there, and it didn't stop me from getting to perform on stage at the Sydney Opera House later in life, so wotthehell.

At any rate, with the Valley Forge Military Institute marching band, the American Boy Choir, our group, the Opera Orchestra, the soloists, and various and sundry superluminaries, it was a splendid production, and our little fan club presented us with roses afterwards and got to meet some of the principals in the green room afterwards, and we got this lovely photo that I will cherish always.

The next morning, mother and I made the Red Grooms exhibit at Grand Central Station and ate the obvious at the Oyster Bar and then took the NJ Transit train down to Princeton where she visited for a week before flying back to Chicago. Two weeks later, we got a call that she had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and was in the Northwestern U. hospital ICU. My sisters and I met there, and spent the next 24 hours with her, celebrating, weeping, watching the Bulls, ordering good Chicago pizza for the ICU staff, missing a Little Feat performance, where she would have been had she been conscious, saying goodbye, and finally, disconnecting the breathing machine that was the only thing keeping her alive.

A couple of years ago, after my stepfather passed away, my sisters and I were going through my mom's belongings and I came across the necklace she was wearing in the picture in front of Carnegie Hall. I hung onto it for a while, and when I noticed it was the same necklace, had the idea to make a shadow box with the necklace and the photo together and give it to my daughter for a Christmas or birthday gift. I got as far as gathering all the components, but never put it together. I gave it all to her anyway. I wonder if she has put it together. If she hasn't, maybe the next time I visit her, I will.

I miss singing at Carnegie Hall. I miss singing with my daughter. I miss my mom. I miss a lot about my life in Princeton. But I'm finding neat things to do in Austin. Like writing a blog. And singing with Austin Vocal Arts Ensemble. And other things I'll be writing about, so stay tuned...