- [Announcer] Production of Applause, an Ideastream Public Media, is made possible by the John P. Murphy Foundation, the Kulas Foundation, the Stroud Family Trust, and by Cuyahoga county residents through Cuyahoga arts and culture.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Coming up... For more than 30 years, he led the music department at Shaker Heights High School.

We'll learn about the legacy of the late Robert G. Schneider.

Plus, check out an Akron artist, making streetwear to communicate tough emotions.

And we meet a Columbus art professor whose passion for origami has become an obsession.

Welcome to Applause.

I'm Idea Stream Public Media's, David C. Barnett.

We start in Akron, where a couple of friends are pairing one's business skill with the other's artistic talents.

The result is a million dollar streetwear company that brings attention to mental health.

- I like to use my artwork to kind of reflect a lot of my emotions, a lot of my feelings, a lot of my mental health.

- Some days I'm not okay.

And that's okay.

And you know, I deal with anxiety.

I feel like I can't breathe half the time.

That doesn't define who I am but I still run a business.

A successful business.

And I believe his art helped create that conversation.

(upbeat music) - My name's Shawn Coss.

I am the co-owner and artist behind the brand, Any Means Necessary.

- Michael Nemitz.

I am the co-owner of Any Means Necessary.

Any means necessary is more than a saying to us.

It's a lifestyle.

You know, we started the business in my basement on $200 and we turned it into a million dollar company by being relentless, never taking no for an answer and you know, we did everything we could to follow our dreams.

- The whole concept was taking dark art and mixing in with like the streetwear fashion.

And you know, enjoyed in doing that.

I feel like we're one of the only brands that actually has emotion meaning behind stuff that we're putting out.

We're not trying to fit a mold.

It's always been our own path.

So the brands' kind of reflection of that.

Dark art's obviously just a subjective term.

To me it's just art.

It's just my type of artwork.

I just kind of create how I feel.

And so, it's not really creepy to me.

It's more of like therapeutic art.

Art is in the eye of the beholder.

So it might be dark to one person.

It might be very touching to someone else.

- We started the LC in like 2014 and we idea what we were doing.

But end of 2016, he started doing a mental illness series in October.

It was called Inktober Illness.

And it did a different mental illness depiction every day of the month.

People were very excited.

So then, you know, we started making posters of them, and that's when we started getting traction.

- We literally stumbled upon all this... All by accident.

We have no background.

We have no business being in business, to be honest.

- [Michael] I was a cable guy.

He was a nursing student.

- [Shawn] Yeah.

But like the last three, four years you would have no idea that we had no real business background.

It was just two friends making cool stuff.

You know, that's all we ever wanted to do.

But now it's like, we're holding conversations with people who are 10, 20 million companies, you know, big fashion brands that like, he can sit down and actually have a conversation and not be like, "what does that mean?

What does that mean?"

- [Michael] We did a lot of, fake it till you make it, in the beginning and... - [Shawn] We've always fallen forward, which is nice.

We've never fallen backwards.

Every year's always been better.

- I wanna be a motivational story for people to know that like, I deal with anxiety, depression, stressed out all the time, but you know, you still can do what you want to do.

You don't have to follow the paths that everyone else traveled.

- [Shawn] Knowing that at the end, we built this on something that shouldn't have been successful.

And that's super motivating to me.

And like, we are so spiteful, that we're being told like, you can't be successful in Ohio we're like, "Okay, cool.

We'll figure that out."

And being a million dollar clothing brand, direct to consumer of a dark art and street wears fashion with no business background.

I mean, I feel like we're doing something right.

- [Narrator] Four more profiles of Northeast Ohio entrepreneurs, look for Idea Stream public media's "Making It" series at arts.ideastream.org.

(upbeat music) And now to Columbus, where we meet a professor enchanted with the art of origami.

It began as a simple childhood passion for Hiroshi Hayakawa.

Today, he's a master of paper craft design creating works of whimsy.

(calm music) - The paper craft project, I started doing this mid '90s when the CCD had a head librarian Ms. Yu.

She used to have this Chinese new year's party every year, And she asked me one day to make an animal from the Chinese ZodiacS with a small out of paper so she can decorate her dinner party tables.

And then gradually, the number of animals expanded.

(calm music) I published four books, and they're all small tabletop sized animals.

(calm music) So this was the very first book I made.

Start with instruction, then start with a simpler, easier project.

As you go through the pages, that level gets higher and higher, more advanced, then very end of the book has these templates.

So you can take this book to a copy store and make your own templates, turn them into an animal.

I used cardstock paper, which is the best material to use for this kind of craft.

And then in order to make projects sort of more colorful, I started to paint.

(calm music) (upbeat music) This paper animal night lights are more recent project.

(upbeat music) It is technically a combination of the paper folding and a paper cutting.

Both.

All the projects are constructed out of a two sheets of paper, and the reason is, so that light will go through in between those two layers that create interesting patterns that are radiating from the center.

The other reason is, it's easier to design that way.

(upbeat music) This is a template for giant panda.

So I'm gonna start with scouring the lines, and the reason why I'm doing that is, that way, when these are turned into three dimensional structure, I will have a nicer, neater folding lines.

So I'm gonna go over all the folding lines with this tool.

I'm just adding the light pressure.

I'm not really following the truthful representation of animals, but they're more stylized versions of it.

So I do have some source material to look, you know, like online or books.

Then once you got that sort of essence of the animal down, then I can use my artistic ability to, you know, manipulate the shape a little bit.

The next step is cutting the template out.

So I will use this craft knife, where you can use any knife, like exacto knife.

So I'm gonna start with the eyes.

Cut the eyeball out.

Then I'll take this rolled up sandpaper to smooth out the opening.

And the simplicity and the complexity.

I try to target somewhere in between, that shapes are simple enough for the people to cut out but the way those papers are folded and constructed together, is more complex.

So that is sort of a, you know, brain teaser.

These two templates, front side and back sides are cut out.

So now I can turn this into three dimensional objects.

Okay.

The front side is finished.

So now, I'm gonna work on the back template, which is just one folding around the ears.

Like this, and like that.

Now I can put these two templates together.

Insert this tab into this cut I made earlier.

I apply a little glue to the end with the Q-tip.

Okay.

Then, I'm going to work on these two joints next.

I'm gonna insert this tab into this cut right here, and this tab into this one.

Then again, I'm gonna glue these two tabs to the front template.

Let's use.

Now, these two tabs are glued to the back.

Now this giant panda is complete.

(upbeat music) I did a couple of workshops.

I remember one participant said she enjoyed it so much because it's really calming.

So I think there is a, you know, element of this kind of paper craft that puts people into the mood of sort of a contemplated, meditative , you know, because you work with the hands.

So that is, kind of stimulates the brain, you know, put people into sort of a zone.

(upbeat music) I like to continue working on animal nightlights, then hopefully trying to find sort of distribution network so people can make their own animals.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] The Massillon Museum is documenting the lives of African Americans in this historic Northeast Ohio town.

On the next Applause, see how staffers are gathering the memories and artifacts of people whose stories were left out of the history books.

Plus, we preview the Cleveland International Film Festivals return to in-person theaters while at the same time, debuting at Playhouse Square and Franz Welser-Most leads the Cleveland Orchestra in a gorgeous piano concerto by German composer, Johannes Brahms.

All this and more on the next round of Applause.

(calm trumpet music) (choir singing) - [Narrator] Robert G. Schneider made a tremendous impact on the students of Shaker Heights High School during his 30 plus years leading the school's music department.

His students were devastated when he died tragically in 2018, as were his friends from church where he played organ each Sunday.

But Schneider's legacy lives on, with a tribute happening at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

That legacy includes the many people Schneider touched with his unbridled joy and passion for music.

- Bob is one of those people that has an amazing spirit.

He was all about belonging.

He was all about making people feel included.

He had the best combination of being able to push students to become better and also be supportive at the same time.

- [Narrator] He was music director and organist at the First Baptist Church of Greater Cleveland, a sacred space where Schneider's patience was a virtue.

- He never got upset.

He was always soft spoken.

You never heard him get angry about anything.

He loved what he was doing.

And that of course, showed in his work, and the people loved him back.

And of course, when he passed away, you can't imagine the sorrow that was in this church for a long time and still is.

(choir singing) - [Narrator] Schneider also served as president of the MuseArt Society which supports music performances at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

- Bob was always positive, very friendly, warm.

He had this kind of, "let's all do it together" attitude.

Really, a major contributor to this community, not only in this museum, but in music communities throughout Cleveland, obviously in the high school and in the church.

- Well, I think he was one of the greatest people that this church has had.

This church has had, I should say many wonderful people, but he was here for 25 years and he did all these special programs.

And he well loved by the church.

And he will always be remembered as a very special person.

(choir sings) - [Narrator] Schneider strove to improve as a musician, whether as an organist or a coral director.

And he passed that perseverance onto his music students.

- It was all about giving them experiences.

It was all about being inclusive.

It was all about, "We're going to Europe.

You can't afford to get there.

Let's figure out how we can get you there if you wanna go."

(choir singing) - [Narrator] In 2005, Schneider took students to Italy to sing at the Vatican.

- We're singing actually in the main cathedral.

All the kids were in the choir loft.

The organist is there.

So you've got the organist from St. Peter's Basilica.

You had the soloists.

You had all of these priests lined up at the main altar.

3,000 people in the... And it was one of those experiences that you'll never forget.

And he looked at me when we were going in and he's like, "You're conducting that piece."

And I went, "Really?"

He's like, "Yeah."

He was always willing to share that spotlight.

- [Narrator] Five years later, when the Cleveland Museum of Art reopened its Gartner Auditorium after renovation, Schneider wanted to help mark the moment.

- Bob brought to us the choir from Shaker Height High School as part of our grand reopening celebration here.

He was always including everybody that could get involved, you know, concerts and in the museum itself.

- [Narrator] Schneider's passing made such an impact on the Cleveland Museum of Art Its MuseArt Society has established the first Robert G. Schneider Memorial Commission.

- When it came time for us to honor Bob, and commission this new work, we knew immediately that it should be a work for choir and organ.

- I think that's the perfect way to celebrate his life, because he was all music.

And you couldn't do anything finer than commission something in his honor.

(piano music) - [Narrator] Learning about the commission, Schneider's former students shared memories of the man they called "Doc".

- They say things like, "He's the one I'll never forget."

Even though I was a silly irreverent teenager who should have taken school more seriously, he enriched my life in many ways.

I felt seen and valued even in such a large class.

And that's one of my strongest and happiest memories of high school.

Because of him, I got to see parts of the world I never would have.

He would pull me aside when my grades were slipping, and we would both be in tears about it.

And he always knew I had a gift, and did everything to keep me on track.

There's another young person that I was talking to recently who is doing his music education degree.

And I said, you know, Doc would be so proud of you.

And he was, "You know, I think about him every day."

And there are so many kids that do that and people that do that.

He touched so many lives.

- [Narrator] The first Robert G. Schneider Memorial Commission, performed by the renowned chamber choir, The Crossing, gets its world premiere at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Friday, March 25th at 7:30 PM.

(audience clapping) When the pandemic began in March of 2020, our Applause Performances team turned to a pair of Cleveland musicians for a virtual edition of the show.

In their songs, Ray Flanagan and Brent Kirby took on the issues of isolation we all experienced.

Here they are with Flanagan's song, "Lay down."

♪ Lay down, lay down ♪ ♪ Everybody lay down ♪ ♪ From miles away ♪ ♪ We must ring true this sound ♪ ♪ In our countries and state ♪ ♪ Through our cities and towns ♪ ♪ Lay down, lay down ♪ ♪ Everybody lay down ♪ ♪ I woke up this morning to rain on the roof ♪ ♪ With nowhere to be, it's all gone in one poof ♪ ♪ Well, I need you darling, you're my living proof ♪ ♪ Got nowhere to be and rain on the roof ♪ ♪ So lay down, lay down ♪ ♪ Everybody lay down ♪ ♪ From miles away ♪ ♪ We must ring true this sound ♪ ♪ I'll drink to my health ♪ ♪ when there is no one around ♪ ♪ Lay down, lay down ♪ ♪ Everybody lay down ♪ ♪ Withered away at each sleepy nod ♪ ♪ One box of wine, so so help me God ♪ ♪ Everything is closed up like peas in a pod ♪ ♪ One box of wine, one more sleepy nod ♪ ♪ Lay down, lay down ♪ ♪ Everybody lay down.

♪ ♪ From miles away ♪ ♪ We must rain true this sound ♪ ♪ In our countries and state ♪ ♪ Through our cities and towns ♪ ♪ Lay down, lay down ♪ ♪ Everybody lay down ♪ ♪ Six feet from you is six feet in the ground ♪ ♪ Lay down, lay down ♪ ♪ Everybody lay down ♪ - [Narrator] And that's it for this week's Applause.

I'm Ideastream Public Media's, David C. Barnett, leaving you with Brent Kirby accompanied by Ray Flanagan, performing Kirby song "With this time".

And until next time, stay safe and we'll see you next week.

♪ Around the ones I love with this time ♪ ♪ With this time I'm gonna try and write a song ♪ ♪ One those where everybody can sing along ♪ ♪ A tune for the lonely, please know that you belong ♪ ♪ With this time I'm gonna try and write a song ♪ ♪ With this time I'm gonna make my garden green ♪ ♪ Gonna work it with my hands not machine ♪ ♪ Rain and sun will make it tall, ♪ ♪ We'll harvest it in the fall ♪ ♪ With this time I'm gonna make my garden green ♪ ♪ With this time, with this time ♪ ♪ Spring is coming, I feel that sunshine ♪ ♪ Don't feel like doing much ♪ ♪ I just wanna be ♪ ♪ Around the ones I love with this time ♪ ♪ With this time I'm gonna realize who I've lost ♪ ♪ Across the river wide they have crossed ♪ ♪ My family and me, set ashes out to sea ♪ ♪ With this time I'm gonna think about who I've lost ♪ ♪ With this time I'm gonna think about my friend ♪ ♪ Wondering if their meeting all their ends ♪ ♪ I hope they know I'm here for anything they need ♪ ♪ With this time I'm gonna think about my friends ♪ ♪ With this time, with this time ♪ ♪ Spring is coming, I feel that sunshine ♪ ♪ Don't feel like doing much ♪ ♪ I just wanna be ♪ ♪ Around the ones I love with this time ♪ ♪ Don't feel like doing much ♪ ♪ I just wanna be ♪ ♪ Around the ones I love with this time ♪ ♪ Around the ones I love with this time ♪ (upbeat music) (logo chimes) - [Announcer] Production of Applause, an Ideastream Public Media, is made possible by the John P. Murphy Foundation, The Kulas Foundation, The Stroud Family Trust and by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.