(bright music) All right, I’ll start off with the, I guess, the strongest question.

talk about the academy.

Okay.

So, Crescendo Academy of music really offers classes for all ages.

I mean, we have students who are infants all the way up to however old you want to be while you’re still learning how to play an instrument, um, really all ages and stages of life.

When did you get interested in this field of music?

I cannot remember not singing.

I got into musical theater and drama and that kind of stuff, so went the voice lesson route, and I’ve just kept singing my entire life.

Where does this happen?

Where does this this talent that’s nurtured happen?

Where does it happen?

Well, we’re here at the epic Center in downtown Kalamazoo, so that’s where a lot of our teaching happens, where a lot of our classes and rehearsals take place, but then I know that a lot of our artists are out in the community offering recitals or they play with other organizations in the community, our teaching artists are really like walking the walk and talk in the talk, you know, they practice their own instruments and then they go out and play in the community as well.

I’ve been playing for just over two about two and a half years and I started as an adult beginner, so I had not taken piano before, and it has really enriched my life in ways beyond what I expected.

I remember when I first came from my first lesson, you asked, what is it that you’re hoping to get out of this?

And beyond just learning to play, beyond that challenge, I actually wanted to work on my fine motor skill and my neuroplasticity.

And you told me I was the first student to say that.

and it has done that, but it’ it’s really enriched how I listen to music and um it’s really had a just a positive impact on my broader experience of the arts.

Yeah, so I guess for me, it’s it’s it’s it has been part of me since I was seven, and I guess it’s like the water that that I drink and the air that I breathe as a teacher, um I think for me personally, um I don’t I don’t know if it applies to all the teachers, but for me, I I like it when my students enjoy the, you know, enjoy the instruments, enjoy the piano.

and and I try to or or actually even broader, I would say when they enjoy music, that’s when that’s when I think I am very happy, also for them and also for myself as well, and I think I’m doing something right if if we can have um fun.

Well, I’m a first year student.

I started in May, and I’ve not ever played a string instrument.

So I have a musical background, not strong, but never a string instrument.

I’m really enjoying it.

I get frustrated.

I’m not gonna deny it.

It’s I tend to be a perfectionist, so, for me, it’s I want to be able to do it and do it right, right away.

And so it’s this has taught me that it’s not about being perfect.

It’s about being slow.

and taking your time and learning the instrument, feeling the instrument, feeling the sound.

I would say my greatest success recently is that I’m able to tell on some of the notes now when I’m out of key, and I can just I know just to move my finger just a little bit to get into key, and that’s that’s a small victory for me that I feel good about.

I will say when I first started, I would maybe like hear a piece of music, and I’d be like, ah, if I can learn to play that, then that will be it.

I will have achieved what I set out to do.

And that has actually changed.

And now it really is about just um getting better at the instrument and experiencing other kinds of music.

So, and we did the Scott Joplin piece and, you know, just really getting more versatile.

There was a point I would say that she was hooked.

So there was you know, we were doing this method book and then and then I introduced this other piece and then somehow she find it very, you know, fulfilling and challenging at the same time.

It’s like very challenging.

and yet and yet she wants to really play it really well.

So all of a sudden it kind of sparks this desire, I would say, right?

With with the jump Thomps and pieces, would absolutely, yeah.

I’ll like look ahead.

my technique, though, I’m sorry, my tech is still challenge.

But but so anyway, so like there was that kind of moment and and it it it happens to not just Angela, but all of all of my students, I would say, well, there there there are moments where it kind of hit like a spark or something, and then it just kind of takes off.

So, I yeah, so that’s that and then, you know, we’re waiting for another one, but, you know, the first step, yeah.

Music together versus the academy two different animals.

Um, yeah, but we coordinate really well together.

So music together is a worldwide organization.

So music together worldwide offers classes around the globe.

So you might be in Italy or Japan or Taiwan or Australia.

You might be in Mexico or Kalamazoo, right?

Yeah, or Chicago or New York or San Francisco.

And you can be singing the same hello song.

So not only do we have these communities that happen in these small classes, but we have a worldwide community to rely on.

Well, I’ll tell you, the the teaching artists from Crescendo, who teach violin or piano or guitar, drums or any of that, they always say, oh, I know that this kid was a music together kid.

because they’ll come into their private lessons sort of having this mastery, really, or what we call basic music competence where they can already sing a song by themselves.

They can already hold a steady beat and they’re ready for that next step, then, of private instruction.

Describe maybe a class for me.

So we always sing hello to each other, right?

It takes a couple weeks for the kids to get used to that, and then they want you to sing their song, and they can’t wait until it’s their turn to hear their song or their name in the song.

And then the same thing happens at the end.

We always do a lullaby and then sing goodbye to each other at the end of class.

And I imagine there are other skills learned through music together or the academy, getting along with the person next to each teamwork and coming together for a a song, other, you know, obviously stage fright, maybe?

Maybe, yeah, but I’m I’m really glad you brought that up because our classes my music together classes are a little bit different from, you know, people who might be taking piano lessons with the goal of participating in, say a recital or some sort of like cumulative culminating event to show what you know, right?

For example, this morning in my class, we were working on early mathematical concepts.

So I’ve got babies, toddlers, three year olds, four year olds.

We do a dance and it’s a pattern, and that’s a mathematical concept.

We do a little counting game with our hands and we wait until the very end to go woo!

and that’s another pattern, and it’s also counting, and it’s another mathematical concept, right?

So music learning supports our math skills.

It supports our reading on our verbal skills.

It supports certainly our social emotional skills.

I mean, I don’t know if you’ve had any experience as a music maker, played little clarinet, little bassoon, little trumpet.

Okay, yeah.

There’s nothing like those people you make music with, right?

We also know that our littlest people, they learn the best when they feel safe and connected to a grown up in the room.

So if I can tell you a secret, we won’t tell...

The real, the real student in the room is that grown up who comes in with their child.

because a toddler may look at me and be fascinated by me or really excited about what I have to offer.

Yeah, because I’m the teacher at the front of the room being silly.

But if they’re grown up, plays along, sings along, dances along, they are so much more likely to feel like, hey, I can try this too.

This is something that I can try.

And my my big, big goal is to get grownups comfortable with going home and doing that without me.

I love when they come to our classes and we can sing and dance and play together, but if they’re also doing it at home, that’s where it really hits.

I would say one of the unintended consequences is that it is actually very therapeutic, and I’ve discovered like, if I’m under a lot of stress, you would think that practicing something completely new would be stressful, but it’s not because I think because it involves, you know, your eyes and your hands and your brain and your ears, um it really allows me to disconnect from the world in a really helpful way.

So I’ve actually found that when I’m having a lot of stress, and I’m like, I’m going to go practice piano.

and it’s really it’s really quite awesome.

For me, it’s purely the enjoyment of learning something new.

I love classical music, I love all genres of music, couple I don’t, but classical has always been a love and I’ve always loved the cello.

I have a deep voice, so the tones, the deeper tones resonate quite well with me.

And my granddaughter started lessons a year ago and on violin, and I got to thinking about it and I’m like, you know, I really like cello.

I’ve always liked cello.

So I decided to dive in and give it a try and I really do enjoy it.

It’s therapeutic for me in a lot of ways.

This is my happy place.

I come here once a week and let go of all the other things and learn new things, challenge my brain as a retired person.

I’d say it’s become more therapeutic for me now than I’m older.

I lost my folks three years ago.

and I just felt like something was missing, obviously.

And this has just allowed me to just close myself in a room and play, or even just enjoy listening to cello music, just to hear the sound and and be more more meditative with it.

But I do.

I enjoy just being able to shut myself in a room and and play.

My instructor Sylvia is wonderful.

She is very patient and encouraging and has little tricks to teach you how to remember things.

and it it just has been a really great experience.

I think if you’re a serious musician and a performance musician, I think that this is also a wonderful place because they’ve got a wide range of experienced teachers here that can help you work really, really hard and or else just have it be a little bit more relaxing.

I I would never be yo yo ma and I’ve been just it’s like, don’t you can watch him, but don’t think you’re gonna play like him.

And I said, no, I know.

that’s not gonna happen.

But if someone aspired to that, I do truly believe that they could get what they needed here to help propel them that direction.

How rich is Kalamazoo to have not only its own epic art center, yeah?

Plus these opportunities, you pretty lucky?

So rich.

I don’t know what kind of little mini utopia this is, but people believe in the arts in Kalamazoo and people believe in education in Kalamazoo.

And you put those two things together, like the opportunities are endless, so many great organizations really supporting arts education here.

I don’t live in Kalamazoo, so there’s a reason why I drove, you know, the highway to come here.

So the community itself, I think is very supportive, but also specific to Crescendo, I think, you know, the, you know, Audrey and April, who works here, um I think they are worth, um, you know, coming, yeah.

coming to Crescendo is, I think, is worth it because of the staff.

I find this community, especially the Crescendo Academy community, I would say, like really thriving.

and and you know, parents are going to recitals and we have recitals all the time and sometimes we get like really filled up really quick, you know, and so, you know, so those are good signs, in my opinion.

I think there is a richness below the water line that not everyone even fully understand how really fortunate we are as a community to have the depth and quality and access to the arts that we do.

And I think, you know, if you’ve been in other communities and you come here, you’re like, oh my goodness, this this is this place has it happening.

And so I think, yes, and there’s even more there than people I think necessarily understand.

Thank you so much for watching.

There’s also more to explore with Kalamazoo lively arts on YouTube, Instagram and wgvu.org.

We’ll see you next time.

Support for Kalamazoo lively arts is provided by the Irvine S. Gilmore foundation, helping to build and enrich the cultural life of greater Kalamazoo.