with all of you and it’s nice to be in a
room full of like enthusiastic and
interested students so and that’s pretty
much it gave my my speech away but
that’s okay so where should I start I
think that we all have passion inside of
us and something that we’re always
looking for is a way to find purpose for
that passion and mine began so my
parents tell me when my mother was five
months pregnant with me and she was
taking an upper class and she was
holding a score and she doesn’t remember
what it was but apparently it’s huge
crescendo came up and I kicked so hard
with the reaction to the music in the
room that the score went flying off the
page and her instructor said hey you’ve
not conductor in there so now that sport
I was born in in downtown Detroit and
there weren’t a lot of things for any
the art supports weren’t really
prevalent as they are now like in
Cleveland there are so many
opportunities for you and I went to we
all know that there’s like a a car
that’s company called Chrysler so I went
to Walter P Chrysler Elementary School
which is and I was 7 years old did you
drink since that he came to our school
who wants to conduct well I mean you ask
any group of small children who wants to
do something and everyone is gonna say I
want to do it and none of us really knew
what that meant but for some reason I
was chosen and
Antony the time housewife when I jumped
up on the podium and all I remember
wasn’t his sound pouring over me
something that I had never experienced
before it if any of you how many of you
were musicians in here okay so you can
imagine standing in the center of all of
that sound and just being completely
enveloped by all of that oxygen and all
of that life course and this is
something that rolled only as I was
seven years old
and of course I obviously I wasn’t
conducting that they were leading
which i think is a little strange
because like I remember feeling all of
this energy to the right where the
yeah but I think that’s just into it
thank you
it seems like forever but my grandfather
was on the phone with my dad and
overheard by asking him again for an
instrument and the next day so I studied
in that in the public schools and did he
start private lessons until probably I
was in the middle school and I started
staying
members of the Detroit Symphony but
there weren’t any outlets for young
musicians at that time like youth
orchestras weren’t popular then and so
and just sort of felt myself not like
yeah just directionless I couldn’t
thinking about what to do with this
passion that I had and how could I
harness this passion and my parent says
that should review my parents sent me to
have me which is recording it was a
great experience have you know actually
being in like in the woods with 400
other teenagers they’re all of the
creative and but even while I was there
the things that they said that I could
do or I could teach in the public
schools both professions which I have an
enormous amount of respect but they
didn’t sent me even at this focused art
school they still didn’t help me find
the direction that suited who I was
which made me feel almost more lost than
I was and I ended up in Cleveland
because my teacher there who was George
self who was forever inter-service
responsible for that Cleveland Orchestra
sound so I ended up in Cleveland and
studied with him and while and I still
felt sort of directionless because I
still had this passion but I didn’t know
about the purpose of that passion was
and how to find that direction and I
started making things up in my head like
okay
I’m gonna record all blocks solo forty
thousand sonatas for violin but I’m
gonna add a bass and I’m gonna add a
drum set because that’s what I would do
if he were alive today but it was
something different right it was
something that that I sort of had
control over that I wanted to do with
music and then I was in I was an
undergrad and the orchestra conductor
made an announcement to us that a local
music school was looking for a violin
teacher and they were paying eight
dollars and fifty cents an hour and so
there and I was tired and I was 18 years
old and everything changed for me at
that moment because I realized that part
of the purpose of my passion was to
teach and even though it was confusing
to me because I had dismissed going into
the public schools but it’s one on one
relationship those students that I had
and to be able to help find them and
give them a sense of accomplishment was
really quite satisfying and I probably
wasn’t very good at it at the time but I
sure did enjoy what I was doing and what
kept happened after that is I ended up
being a gofer for a local music schools
small Youth Orchestra and and someone
else was conducting and the gopher
meeting like i would go copy music there
i would like walk around and help the
kids with fingerings and foanx and you
know play tennis visions and about – I
was in there I was doing that for about
a year and a half and about two weeks
before a performance he had to leave the
school in his
wife removing and he handed me this
stack of music and said I gotta go here
and I was standing there with like this
stack of music these scores at the end
the school didn’t have anyone else to do
it because I had been there had been
involved in this so I stepped up on the
podium and and the thing is is that I
have no idea that it was very good or
not I just know how great it made me
feel and what happened is of all this
time we this passion that I had oh there
was like this purpose to this passion
and I wanted to be everything that I
could be I wanted to be the best teacher
that I possibly could be and where that
came with a lot of mistakes and you try
and you fail and and you learn from
these and I just I find that that like
teaching and music and medicine and all
of these these other wonderful careers
and paths you never stop learning that’s
not like you stop like I’ve learned
everything I know everything I’ve been
conducting for 25 years at this point
now insert surprise and there’s still so
much more to learn but I discovered at
that point that only I want to be a
youth orchestra conductor and I was and
there was passion turning into purpose
and I realized also at that point that I
had no interest in using the Youth
Orchestra as
Stone to get to that I was super happy
where I was so I stayed there for five
years and developed an orchestra camp
and well it’s a string camp and then
developed it into an orchestra camp and
so I was busy year round and honing my
craft even though I didn’t realize
that’s what I was doing but I was
becoming not just a better teacher but I
was becoming a better administrator and
I was becoming a better conductor and I
was becoming a better communicator my
instrument I became stronger on my on my
instruments because I was talking about
it in details around so I hopefully was
inspiring my students to continue to
work and be the best that they could be
but there was still something missing
and I didn’t know what it was dr.
Reynolds came to town and he at the time
was the peoples are in residence with
the Philadelphia Orchestra and he was
compositions one other composition of
depositors at Harvard and he was being
brought in by a negative local Orchestra
in town to do a conference on
contemporary music and they needed a
Youth Orchestra to demonstrate on how
children could access new music and so
they came to me for some reason and said
can we use your demonstrate sure
so dr. rams sent me because this is
before cell phones and email sent me his
score in the mail and it was like filled
with all these notes and and weird
graphs and I didn’t understand what it
was so I just didn’t do anything with it
and being like this was wonderful things
sometimes and I just left it
to do a big with it and then dr. Mann
shows up to rehearsal and he says oh
he’s English and so lovely and he said I
can’t wait to hear what you’ve done
understand it so as an educator he sat
down with me and you know spent I have
no idea how long five or ten minutes
with me and explained it to me and I
could explain it all to you right now
that if it was a thinner line and got a
little bit darker and lighter obviously
the sound was supposed to mimic that and
I understood what that was and I think
you understand what I’m explaining to
you as well so it was really personal
interpretation based on a piece of art
that you were looking at so he said why
don’t you run the rehearsal let me see
what you do with it and again being
night he was so great oh sure so I did
it and then he did it as false then on
to the actual I’ll do that because so
and I get an idea makes makes you have a
sense of no fear and so I did it and I’m
sure you all have had a teacher or a
parent or a friend or someone who you
look to who has said something really
positive to you that could have
potentially changed your life or changed
your outlook or changed how you think
about things or made you make a decision
that you didn’t realize that it was the
right thing for you to do at the
reception and burner trances that have
authority in that person for me was at
the reception after this he pulled me
aside and he said you have an ability to
hear it and teach this music and I think
starting Youth Orchestra he said I
really think you should think about this
shouldn’t passion the purpose the
purpose of this passion where am I going
to go with this what am I trying to do
that isn’t what I’m doing right now I am
so happy on the podium of the Youth
Orchestra this is so great so I took a
year to think about it
and I started playing with things and I
don’t know what how you end up
developing thoughts and content but eyes
don’t I usually start with the name
so all of a sudden I’d came up with his
name contemporary orchestra well there’s
not another one anywhere that just as as
as heard that just does he use it
so with $400 in my pocket and some
parents in my presence to do that for
attorneys that helps me become a
nonprofit organization have you read the
name I started the orchestra with 35
members and Wow okay so my passion is
turning into this purpose here to expose
students to independent possibilities of
new music so that was 23 years ago and
what has happened in those twenty three
years is c1o has evolved into an
orchestra and a chorus and a chamber
music program and a masterclass series
and we have become an orchestra that
that is not just focused on contemporary
music but is focused on offering our
students opportunities to learn of all
the different potential professions that
they can have in the
entertainment industry so they learned
about entertainment law all these
classes were forming to start next year
in earnest
so entertainment law and media and
marketing and lighting design and stage
design and recording and photography and
videography and Composition all of these
different things that make a show happen
and so where is the passion that where’s
the purpose in this the purpose in this
for me is to make sure that my students
have the confidence to create their own
careers to be independent thinkers and
to be comfortable with the decisions
that they make for themselves and how is
that possible through an orchestra well
if you think about this through the new
music you don’t have the opportunity to
listen to her recording and say have to
play it just like that
which is fine but instead you have to
rely on your own Institute’s and your
own choices and decision-making to bring
to life something that is not been
brought to life before and whether or
not you go into music or any of the
other entertainment fields that were
exposing you to you are going to be able
to apply that to everything else in your
life because that confidence has been
instilled in you and the orchestra is
just the vehicle to get there one of my
favorite moments is seeing the faces of
my students when they accomplish
something or when they know that they
can raise their hand in rehearsal and
saying can we try this phrase like this
because in order for music to be owned
for you to own your art you have to have
a say in that as well and so to create
that atmosphere where there’s comfort to
be able to have a say in the interval
is magic because you’re going to be able
to take that elsewhere so my passion was
turned into purpose to help my students
find purpose for their passion and at
season 20 the end of season 20 of CYO I
most of you probably will not know this
group but there’s a there’s a full rock
group called crosby Stills and Nash and
Graham Nash was our guest artist and I
known him throw for a while at that and
some friends have been asking for years
to do this show with us and he has
written a lot of music about social
activism and social issues and a lot of
his songs were based that we did in the
concert were based on these things that
he’s been talking about since the 60s
they’re still relevant today and he did
our clothes our clothes he showed her
for a season 20 with us and afterwards I
got my first tattoo with him and it was
his writing that I had on my body and
some of you may know and I’ll tell you
what this is but some of you may know
his song teach teacher children well
which is one of his most famous songs
and so I had teach written on my baton
he onto his handwriting and what it does
is it sits here and reminds me that
first and foremost in my life when I’m
on purpose [Applause]