Oakland  Drops  Beats  Presents:    The  State  of  Music  Education  In  Oakland  

Symposium      

       PHOTOS  ©  by  Stevie  Lee  

OAKLAND DROPS BEATS PRESENTS:

THE STATE OF MUSIC EDUCATION IN OAKLAND SYMPOSIUM

December 20, 2014 3:00PM-5:30PM

GOALS & OBJECTIVES This symposium features a distinguished panel of musicians and music education professionals working in Oakland from four sectors: 1) Public Schools, 2) Private/Charter Schools, 3) After-School Programs, and 4) Local Music Organizations. This cross-sectoral collaboration will trace Oakland’s vibrant music education history and identify best practices and strategies to ensure that music education stays vibrant in Oakland. The State of Music Education in Oakland symposium is the first of its kind in that it specifically looks at music education practices and policies that have shaped them. From curricula design to adhering to MENC and State Standards, to innovative programs and collaborations, we will explore the challenges and successes in the Oakland music education scene. All are invited to attend and participate in what is sure to be one of many discussions to follow.

TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION

What is the history of music education in Oakland? When is music offered in the curriculum for students? What grades? What does the music classroom look like? (Student/Teacher ratio, demographic) How are music teachers being trained and where are music teachers coming from? What challenges have been faced in keeping music education alive and well? How do collaborations between local professional organizations/ensembles and Oakland

schools enhance music education in Oakland? When did your program begin? What needs does it identify and set out to fulfill? What is music education? What makes a music teacher? How are we preparing music students for a life in the arts? Why the myth that there is no music education in public schools? What is the state of music education in Oakland today? How has gentrification, socio-economic status effected/influenced music education in

Oakland? What needs need to be met? Action Agenda

PANEL

Elliot Gann, PSY.D.

Today’s Future Sound, Founder/Director

A professional psychologist, producer and DJ, Dr. Gann has been teaching in Oakland and San Francisco Bay Area schools and community settings for a decade. His work with TFS has taken him across the country and continent teaching in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario, New York, Mississippi, Louisiana, Southern California and Connecticut (including at Yale University), putting on “beat battle” fundraisers in almost all of the locations where he has taught while locally organizing in San Francisco the longest running monthly live beat in the world. In January of 2015 he will join the U.S. State Department and UNC Chapel Hill’s joint “Next Level” program to do conflict resolution in Senegal. He has also conducted research on Therapeutic Hip Hop activity groups (recently archived at the Schomburg Center for Black Studies), involving both rapping and beatmaking, which demonstrated the significant positive effects of such interventions. Dr. Gann has presented on TFS’ work at various educational and mental health conferences including the One Mic, One Movement Conference at Fordham University, the Hip Hop Education Think Think III: Legacy Building, Rock the School Bells at Skyline College and 4th Annual San Francisco Bay Area STEAM Colloquium “Full STEAM Ahead: at the Corner of Common Core and STEAM.” Building off of both his research findings and experience, Dr. Gann is now leading TFS to continue such work and further advocate for its use, including expanded wellness/mental health, educational, economic and social justice applications.

Donn K. Harris Oakland School of the Arts (OSA), Executive and Artistic Director Donn K. Harris was born in New York and has lived in the Bay Area since 1990. He received his BA and MA in Theatre Arts from California State University at Los Angeles, and his teaching and administrative credentials from San Francisco State University. Mr. Harris has served as an English and Drama teacher, and worked with children challenged by learning and emotional disabilities. His teaching experience spans high achieving schools and incarcerated youth in juvenile hall. He became an administrator in 1994 when he was appointed Dean of Students at Galileo High School in San Francisco. Mr. Harris came to OSA in November 2007 from the acclaimed San Francisco School of the Arts, where he served as Principal for seven years. During his tenure, the school grew from 400 to 650 students. Mr. Harris also created a sister school, The Academy of Arts and Sciences, to ensure that a broader range of students had access to SOTA’s proven curriculum and vibrant campus. Student achievement, as measured by California's Academic Performance Index, rose steadily under Mr. Harris's leadership, reaching a score of 802 in 2006-2007. At OSA, these test scores have risen to an API level of 837 in 2013. It was Mr. Harris's vision that, with the 2009 move into the Fox Theater, OSA would become the most dynamic secondary school in the East Bay and that student achievement, both artistically and academically, would reach unprecedented heights. He joined the dedicated and skilled OSA

team with great enthusiasm and passion for taking the school to the next level of inspired excellence. That has happened, and the school now enjoys a national reputation as one of the top arts schools in the country. OSA students enroll in prestigious colleges and perform in many professional venues, including network television. Governor Jerry Brown appointed Mr., Harris to the California Arts Council in December 2013. Mr. Harris also serves as the Vice President of the National Arts Schools Network and is on the board of the Engineers Alliance for the Arts. Mr. Harris lives in San Francisco with his wife and two daughters, also arts school students. Mrs. Taiwo Kujichagulia-Seitu Co-founder of Lyric Dance and Vocal Ensemble and Lyric Performing Arts Academy (LPAA) Mrs. Taiwo Kujichagulia-Seitu is a coloratura soprano, dancer, educator and griot (historian, storyteller, entertainer, musician, praise singer) with a performance history spanning over 2 decades. Taiwo’s annual production entitled Go Tell It! – A Harriet Tubman Christmas Story, currently in its third season, has become a Bay Area holiday tradition. Told through music and dance, a highlight of “Go Tell It!” is the cast’s moving performances of Taiwo’s original arrangements of many well-known and loved Spirituals. A passionate educator of 15 years, Taiwo teaches West African, jazz, hip-hop, stepping, and liturgical dance in addition to musical theater, music history and vocal performance. Taiwo is the co-founder of Lyric Dance and Vocal Ensemble and Lyric Performing Arts Academy (LPAA) and currently serves as LPAA Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Lynne Morrow Conductor Dr. Lynne Morrow is the Music Director of the Pacific Edge Voices (formerly the Pacific Mozart Ensemble). She and the ensemble received Grammy nominations in 2006 for the recording of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass with Kent Nagano in Berlin. In 2010, their long-time collaboration with Dave Brubeck (including many world premieres) led to the release of “Dave Brubeck: Songs of Praise” with Dorian Recordings. A second recording of Brubeck’s music, “Brubeck and American Poets,” was released in August 2012. Dr. Morrow is also the Music Director of the Oakland Symphony Chorus. During her tenure, the scope of the chorus has expanded to include contemporary, international and neglected works along with traditional classical repertoire. She conducts OSC’s workshop performances of major works, hosts summer choral outreach sing-ins and prepares the chorus for work with Oakland East Bay Symphony. In March 2013 she conducted Oakland East Bay Symphony and Oakland Symphony Chorus in a subscription performance of Faure’s “Requiem.”

Dr. Morrow’s new ensemble, Quanta Chorale, has made the first recording of the choral works of California composer, Elinor Remick Warren. This project, soon to be released by Cambria Records, will showcase exciting and challenging repertoire for mixed and women’s chorus. Lynne Morrow also directs the Voice and Opera/Music Theatre programs at Sonoma State University. She enjoys creating a visceral connection to music—presenting works from every corner of the musical arts in fresh ways to reach the widest possible audiences. Robin Nzingah Smith Musician and Music Educator Nzingah has been teaching music in public and private schools since 1999. She currently teaches woodwinds and jazz ensemble for the El Sistema inspired Enriching Lives Through Music Program (ELM) and general music for the Heads Up program in San Rafael. In Oakland, Nzingah directs the lower school band at Head Royce School. She performs in several Bay Area ensembles, notably with Azúcar Con Aché and Johnny Tolbert and De Thangs. Nzingah holds a Bachelor of Arts in flute performance from Rutgers University. Angela Wellman, M.M. Founding Director, Dean, Trombone Trombonist Angela Wellman, hailing proudly from Kansas City, Missouri, has performed with the McCoy Tyner Big Band, Joe Williams, Al Grey, Slide Hampton and other noted musicians. From 1991-94, Angela was a California Arts Council Artist in Residence, during which time she designed and implemented a Jazz Studies Curriculum for Cole Visual and Performing Arts Magnet School in Oakland, CA. In 1997, she was awarded a Master’s degree in Music Education from the Eastman in Rochester, NY. She subsequently returned to the Bay Area, and served as the Education Director for the Oakland Youth Chorus where she developed award-winning community music education programs. Ms. Wellman is a recipient of national, state, and city Arts awards and fellowships for performance study and music education. Among these awards is the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Study Fellowship to study with trombonist Steve Turre. Raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Ms. Wellman was nurtured in a musical family, and is a third generation jazz musician and music educator. She grew up listening to the stride piano style of her grandfather, her father's swinging ballad & blues piano, and the soul-stirring songstylings of her mother, Jyene Baker. Angela inherits her passion and understanding for the preservation of musical traditions through education from her uncle and mentor, Eddie B. Baker, Sr., founder of the Charlie Parker Memorial Foundation & Academy for Performing Arts and the International Jazz Hall of Fame. Angela's initiation into the world of Jazz as a player began while hanging out at sessions at the famed chitlin' circuit Local 626, the once–Black musicians' union in Kansas City, and now sanctuary for the spirits of jazz pioneers such as Ernie Williams (The Last of the Blue Devils), Count Basie, Charlie Parker, and countless others who got their start in that very place.

In 2005 she founded the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music to provide high quality, affordable music education for Oakland citizens. Angela divides her time between Oakland and Madison, WI where she is pursuing doctoral studies in Education/Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin. She also performs and teaches throughout the United States. Her band, New Roots, performs spirited, contemporary music, creating new forms, styles, and roots in the Jazz tradition.

MODERATOR

Jashen Edwards Composer/Conductor/Researcher Jashen Edwards was born in South Central Los Angeles and began playing trumpet in middle school band. Soon after he started to hear tunes in his head and realized that composition would be a life long passion. Since making the Bay Area his home, Jashen has worked as a composer, conductor, teacher, and researcher in music pedagogy, specifically composition curricula. He has conducted concerts and musical productions with The Community Music Center Orchestra, Deutcher Musik-Verien, San Mateo Union High School District, and the Stand For Children Youth Chorus and Orchestra, which he co-founded. In 2012 he won the UC Berkeley’s Max Weinbach Musical Theater/Opera award and composed and produced C.H.A.N.G.E! - a musical drama about homelessness and poverty in the United States. Other compositions include an original score for Emeryville’s acclaimed Splash Circus Theatre, a children’s circus performing troupe, and A Child’s Request for children’s chorus and orchestra, which served as the San Francisco Stand for Children Day theme song. This day marked the first national holiday set aside to bring awareness to the need for higher standards of children’s education and healthcare in the U.S. The chorus and orchestra were comprised of young people ranging from age 2 through 15. They performed for an audience of 2,000 parents, kids, teachers, community members, and city officials.

As Founder/Music Director of sounds of life ®, Jashen has sought to create and practice innovative composition curricula that allows children to engage, explore, and experiment with sound, rhythm, melody, and harmony by creating their own compositions. He has facilitated this program at locations throughout the Bay Area including The Bayview Opera House, Our Lady of the Visitiacion School, Hamilton Homeless Shelter for Families, and currently Ile Omode School in East Oakland. As a recent DAAD Fellow, Jashen lived in Berlin and documented a successful composition pedagogy program called Querklang Experimentelles Komponieren in der Schule.

Jashen is a Ronald E. McNair Scholar and holds a B.A. in Music from UC Berkeley. Presently, he is applying to graduate school to pursue a PhD in music education with an emphasis on developing composition curricula for the K-12 classroom.

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Symposium Reflection & Summary

Introduction On Saturday December 20, 2014, Oakland Drops Beats (ODB)* presented The State of Music Education in Oakland Symposium at the Joyce Gordon Gallery in Oakland, California. This special event offered an opportunity for some of Oakland’s finest music educators to meet and share teaching philosophies and strategies, compare observations in the classroom, and voice concerns and challenges faced in light of budget cuts, stringent testing demands, and a general neglect and decline in music literacy. In their dual role as professional musicians and music teachers, these distinguished panelists gave a glimpse into their own musical genesis and processes and discussed how these translate into their individual teaching philosophy and practice, which in turn transforms the young people they teach. Panelists represented a cross-section of music educators from public schools, private and charter schools specializing in music and the arts, non-profit organizations offering after-school music programs, and performing arts organizations offering in-school music programs. By creating a cross-sectorial dialogue, the goal of the symposium was to identify common areas of concern, provide feedback and support, and promote collaborative opportunities. The following summary of the symposium is sectioned into 6 Key Areas: 1. Core Issues that Impact Music Education in Oakland: The Testing Mania, Gentrification

2. What Music Education Looks Like in Oakland: Origin Stories, Music Literacy Challenges, Solutions

3. Music Pedagogy Philosophies: Providing Music Education for ALL Children, Digital Technology & Music

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4. Music Teacher Preparedness & Training 5. Collaborative Opportunities & Resources 6. Success Stories A brief Conclusion, Action Agenda, and Acknowledgements end the summary and includes food for thought as we prepare for the next Oakland Drops Beats Presents The State of Music Education in Oakland Symposium on Saturday May 9, 2015. 1. Core Issues that Impact Music Education in Oakland The Testing Mania This was a shared concern by all participants. As Donn Harris and Lynne Morrow pointed out: post-Prop 13, what little was left of music education in California, was negatively impacted by the “testing mania” because test scores became “punitive” and students were required to take more reading and math classes sacrificing their elective in the creative arts. Robin Nzingah Smith noted how many ESL students are not getting into music programs since they scored poorly on their English test. As a result students from Central America, Mexico, and South America are underrepresented in school bands and orchestras. The “sledgehammer” of NCLB, Robin observes, has only exacerbated the issue leaving many children without a music education. All agreed that this was, as Donn Harris put it, “a failure of imagination” and that more needs to be done to reverse this trend because music can actually be used as a tool to boost literacy and math skills. Both Taiwo Kujichagalia- Seitu and Elliott Gann spoke to this showing how their programs, Lyric Performing Arts Academy (LPAA) and Today’s Future Sound, respectively, successfully integrates critical thinking skills, math and reading skills, and media literacy. (More is said about this in Key Area 2. What Music Education Looks Like in Oakland.)

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Gentrification Donn Harris and Cava Menzies, music department chair at Oakland School for the Arts (OSA), shared how gentrification has impacted enrollment at OSA. Once a predominantly “black school,” according to Ms. Menzies, OSA now “attracts a different population of people.” She has noticed how “our entire group of kids that show up to audition is very different than it used to be, very, very, different.” While gentrification and the influx of affluence in Oakland certainly plays a role in this, other factors may include the new downtown location at Sweet’s Ballroom, the acclaim OSA has received in the press, and the fact that OSA has established a reputation as a premier school for the arts. Hoping to achieve a balance, Ms. Menzies leads her recruitment efforts with diversity in mind. This “trend” can be addressed she believes by “staying aware” and being proactive in recruitment efforts. Harris says OSA compensates some of their artists teachers and musicians on staff to help prepare students for an OSA audition. Their musicianship training classes give potential students to OSA the opportunity to gain skills and feel confident in their audition process. This year OSA saw nine of these students successfully audition and enroll. Creating more opportunities for cross-collaboration in underrepresented schools throughout Oakland really works and can help remedy the situation Ms. Menzies felt. More cross-collaborative opportunities are addressed below in Key Area 5. Collaborative Opportunities & Resources. 2. What Music Education Looks Like In Oakland – Origin Stories, Music Literacy Challenges, Solutions In seeking to understand what music education is and searching for better ways to teach music to young people, panelists painted a historical picture tracing the roots of their own music education. Of note, was when and where music was introduced and by who. Almost

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all of the panelists recalled music being sung or played in their homes from an early age. A piano was in the living room. A parent, grandparent, uncle or aunt played and created an atmosphere and expectation that this was normal. So, it wasn’t something out of reach. Elementary grade classrooms had a piano and children sang. Churches taught songs in their services and children and adults learned them. Lynne, Robin, and Taiwo spoke in depth to this and observed that because music making in the home, church, and community is lacking, so is a “music in common” - something earlier generations held dear. Many youth, Robin and Taiwo observed, express they cannot sing, let alone play a musical instrument. Reasons for this are vast of course, including environmental, psychological, emotional, and socio-economic factors, and certainly cannot be covered in one one hour and half symposium. However, panelists did speak to the rise of the record player (e.g., CD, mp3, etc.) usurping the piano in the home and classroom and forever changing how young people engage with music. This is crucial to how music education is perceived as the performative aspect of music shifts from music-making to a music-voyeurism of sorts. Lynne echoed this sentiment by noting, “the performative view of what music is these days is really damaging. It’s a human thing. Every human should be making music. And this business that we’re always watching somebody else do something is problematic.” How problematic? Are young people actively listening to music? How are Oakland music educators addressing this? When asking her students to listen and identify musical aspects in a popular song, Taiwo noticed seventy-five to eighty percent of her students in her Popular Music History class, were not listening to the music at all but were busy analyzing the text. When she questioned them about this, they appeared shocked, thinking that they were analyzing the music. Now, after seven years of teaching this course, many students acknowledge “they listen to music a totally different

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way.” This is great news because it indicates that by bringing an awareness to the issue and offering an alternative perspective within music curricula, students do respond favorably and redress their listening habits, which in turn increases their potential to actively create music. As Lynn pointed out, “listening precedes doing.” Elliott is constantly engaging his students in their after school beat- making class encouraging them to “dig and search” for a variety of music from the internet, vinyl, and other sources. Students learn to listen, identify, construct, and deconstruct simple chord progressions and scales that they can then weave into their own compositions. Elliott believes that capturing the attention and imagination of young people begins with meeting them on their own level and finding ways “to be truly relevant to youth culture.” His “working backwards” methodology has allowed students to explore musics outside of their comfort zone and integrate these sounds and rhythms into their individual pieces. The MUSE program, born out of the Oakland East Bay Symphony and music director Michael Morgan, “is a multi-component music education and enrichment initiative that serves young people at public schools and community sites throughout Oakland. By providing these programs free to participants, the Symphony ensures that each year, 16,000 young people have access to a variety of music education and enrichment activities, regardless of their economic situation.” (http://www.oebs.org/community-education/muse) As Music Director of the Oakland Symphony Chorus, Lynne shared how “in-school mentoring, after school programs, and [symphony musician] visits” have helped create a vibrant music education for the 1200 plus young people she works with and provides them a number of performing opportunities throughout the year. A believer in “access” and “life-long learning” Lynne traced a trajectory of music education from early childhood, thru college, and the adult years. Her work with the

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Oakland Symphony Chorus encompasses free music literacy training to anyone who is “interested” regardless of age or experience. 3. Music Pedagogy Philosophies: Providing Music Education for ALL Children, Digital Technology & Music Providing Music Education for ALL Children All panelists agreed that providing a sound music education for all children is a priority for them. Even with the constraints of the testing mania and the inequality posed by gentrification and socio-economic disparity, panelists have found ways to be proactive and creative in their approaches to reaching thru to youth. By incorporating music, dance, storytelling, and theater in her curriculum, Taiwo shared how many of her LPAA students who come with a strong desire to be professional performers gain “real world” training and experience. She believes “it’s really important to provide everybody with real performing arts opportunities to gain experience…no matter what level they are at.” This translates into a richly diverse and intensive curriculum. Taiwo’s students are involved in the process of creating, writing, and performing a show each year. From beginning to end students are active participants. Whether re-writing Annie for the modern audience and producing Annie The Reality Show, or performing in the annual Go Tell It! - A Harriet Tubman Christmas Story, beginning, intermediate, and advanced students work together and gain invaluable “real life skills” that shape them into professional performing artists and conscious citizens of the world. Robin Nzingah Smith discussed how the El Sistema** program hailed from Venezuela has been influential in the music program she teaches. Born from disparity, and infused with a passion to provide free music education to at risk youth, El Sistema provided a way for poor children to learn a musical instrument, and in turn gain

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confidence, comradeship and develop their self-concept. One of Robin’s students, a “wanna be thug” is now the concert master of his middle school. She says, “there’s about so much trouble he’s gonna get himself into because he won’t be able to play, and he loves it.” Parents of another student of hers expressed surprise when they realized their son was online streaming classical music after one of his classes. Robin is right on when she says it’s all about “exposure…to anything that has value. Expose it to them. They’ll suck it in.” The use of digital technology in the music classroom is one way that has also proven effective in reaching out to youth who may not have the opportunity or interest in traditional approaches to music making. Digital Technology & Music Since the emergence of digital technology (e.g., computers, software, MIDI, etc.), its use in the music classroom has been a topic of debate. If it is used, how and to what extent should it be used? Is it effective in engaging students or is it a distraction and time waster? Some of the trepidation may come from ones own feelings of limitation or inadequacies with digital technology. Others argue for a more traditional approach to the music education classroom. Whatever one may think or feel about the use of digital technology in the music classroom, no one can escape the fact that Millennials and Gen Z are both digital natives, and as such have the potential to respond favorably to digital technology in the music classroom. Elliott Gann provided great insights into how his program, Today’s Future Sound, actively engages students in the music making process via beat making. By “teach[ing] the kids basic audio engineering and recording [he] gets them to…sample [and] record their own instruments.” His success demonstrates how a curriculum

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can integrate traditional music pedagogical practice with digital technology. Turntables, multi-track sequencing and mixing software, and synthesizers are the tools used to learn and apply scales, chords, and intervals. Interdisciplinary in nature, digital technology in the music classroom enables youth who may otherwise slip through the cracks of traditional music education programs to gain media and music literacy skills. Lynne Morrow shared her concerns about the use of digital technology in the music classroom if that technology is not a catalyst for individual creative expression. When technology drives a personal creative act to occur it is effective. She observed the flurry when everyone thought the Internet would “open up all these opportunities for people to hear music [from] around the world.” So, in her music classes she asks students if they’ve heard any “Balinese” or “Chinese erhu” music recently. The answer of course is no. “Music,” Lynne says, “is a person-to-person experience.” The master/teacher relationship is the technology. Use of digital technology in the music classroom that does not promote a student actually “making music” may take away from the “human thing,” and in this sense, prove damaging to the “performative view of what music is.” All agreed that it’s important to find a balance when using digital technology in the music classroom and that it can be a meaningful and effective way for young people to learn and create music on their own terms. 4. Music Teacher Preparedness & Training Since panelists represented a cross-section of music educators from unique and diverse backgrounds, their thoughts about pre-service music teacher education and readiness offered great insight into what

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contributes to the making of a successful music teacher. Blending university trained and credentialed music education philosophies and techniques, with hands-on/self-taught systems, to performance-based pedagogies, panelists projected various lenses by which to view music education. This conversation enabled us to reflect on alternative methods and approaches to curriculum development in the classroom, thus broadening concepts of community musicking. “OSA looks like a hundred different things going on at the same time for teachers,” Donn Harris noted. “Luckily in a charter school, every teacher in the arts have to be credentialed and that’s a real opening up of the gates for letting people in. On the other hand you have a lot of great musicians who want to come be a part of it and teaching skills have to be worked in. So, part of our job is to make sure they’re supported in that way. But it’s wonderful to have the whole community of artists and musicians able to come into the school without any restrictions as long as we do our work.” “Hav[ing] a very non-traditional model [and] being a small non-profit,” puts Elliott Gann in a position to contract “multi-instrumentalists,” “self-taught musicians,” “folks from the industry,” and a “variety of teaching artists,” he said. Some of these teachers come with full- fledged bachelors, masters, and doctorate degrees from prestigious institutes like the Berklee School of Music. Others, have been home- grown. All are vital to the success of his program. LPAA, according to Taiwo, draws its instructors from the field of performance study within the academy. Her instructors have advanced degrees in their given field of music and/or dance. This gives her students the opportunity to work one on one with professional artists who have been through the rigorous training necessary to succeed in the industry. This is key to the conservatory style curriculum she has developed and allows young people drawn

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to her studio to attain, not just academic footing, but professional development. This prepares them for the many auditions and roles they will play in their future careers. Lynne outlined the music education program in place at Sonoma State, where she is professor and director of the Opera and Musical Theater and Vocal programs. It follows a more traditional approach to music education in that students seeking a credential “study all of the instrument families,” “study privately on their original instrument,” actively perform in campus ensembles, “take classroom management,” and other classroom methods and “resource” courses. Robin said music teachers in her district “come from various backgrounds…[including] Masters, PhD’s, and Orff-credentialed.” 5. Collaborative Opportunities & Resources Donn Harris and Cava Menzies offered utilizing OSA’s new performance space, Sweet’s Ballroom, for a shared concert. This would be a great opportunity for young musicians from various schools throughout Oakland to meet, mingle, and make music. All agreed this was definitely something special and certainly worth putting the time and effort into organizing. As far as the panelists knew, this sort of event has never happened in Oakland and would mark the first of its kind. A youth music festival of this nature has the potential to empower young people and offer the larger community an opportunity to experience the incredible young talent right here in our own backyard. Donn Harris suggested looking into the California Arts Council’s Creative California Communities Grant as a resource to facilitate this. Lynne Morrow suggested OSA and MUSE find ways to connect so her students are made aware of OSA’s program and audition process.

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Cava Menzies made a fantastic suggestion to create a web presence/space for Oakland music teachers. A go-to place where everyone can check-in and share ideas and resources on a regular basis. This could be a hub for everything from lesson plans and strategies to new performance opportunities. All panelists wholeheartedly agreed! What Ms. Menzies brought to our attention is that lots of great people are doing lots of great things here in Oakland and may not know about each other yet. This kind of network will equip music teachers with useful tools empowering all of us to be more effective in the music classroom. It also demonstrates to our music students the value of collaboration and community musicking. 6. Success Stories Panelists and audience members swapped stories about the many successful music programs they see in Oakland schools. Dedicated teachers with vision have helped shape many of the successes seen. Audience member, and former OSA student Kent Overshown expressed how the music program at OSA was not only a contributing factor to his successful career, coming off two Broadway shows, but a lifesaver. Taiwo spoke to the impact The Young Musicians Program (YMP) housed at UC Berkeley for many years, had on her life and career allowing both her and her sister to study singing and musicianship for free. Donn Harris credited Oakland’s “Teachers of the Year” recipient and creator of the Oakland Spirit Orchestra (OSO), Allison Streich as being a “dynamo” a teacher whose skills are responsible for countless Oakland youths loving and performing music. Jason Hoffman of 51Oakland was present in the audience and shared the fantastic news that McClymonds High School had its first “music assembly” in twelve years just one day before the symposium. This was indeed thrilling and hats off to Jason and the crew at 51Oakland for working so hard to make this possible.

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Conclusion, Action Agenda, & Acknowledgements Panelists and audience participants expressed great enthusiasm and excitement. All agreed that a gathering of this nature is welcome and beneficial for our community. In less than two hours we were able to get a glimpse of the dynamic music teachers and programs available to youth in Oakland. The ideas put forth for a Youth Music Festival at Sweet’s Ballroom, a Music Educators Conference (possibly this summer), and an Oakland Music Teachers social media-like blog/page/site, are definitely worth pursuing. Finding and securing funding opportunities like the California Arts Council’s Creative California Communities Grant can certainly help make these ideas a reality. This symposium proves that critical issues such as budget cuts, gentrification, stringent testing demands, etc. will not impede the progress music educators in Oakland are making. As Lynn aptly put, “We are the technology!” We are also our own best resource, and as the symposium demonstrated, have the vision, skills, and talent to provide young people in Oakland an animated, stimulating, and comprehensive music education. This symposium was the vision of Angelica Tavella and the Oakland Drops Beats crew. So, many thanks for making this possible! Having such a beautiful space to meet in was the gift of Joyce Gordon of the Joyce Gordon Gallery. Love the space and appreciate you very much. Many thanks to our fantastic panelists who freely gave their time and shared their experiences and insights: Elliot Gann, Donn Harris, Taiwo Kujichagulia-Seitu, Lynn Morrow, and Robin Nzingah Smith. Angela Wellman, who unfortunately could not be with us as hoped, offered wonderful pre-planning assistance and direction. A shout out to incredible Lyric Performing Arts Academy performers: CieArra Gibson-Mathis, Jedah-Simone Simon, and Saije Awoyefa

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who gave us the sound of music education in action. Thank you to Beverly Cobbs for working the video cam and refreshment angel Bill Hersler for the tasty treats and beverages.

*Oakland Drops Beats is a community driven music crawl in downtown Oakland that aims to foster creative and community solidarity amongst Oakland's artists, people, and youth via one full day of musical performance, multimedia productions and participatory activities. The inspiration and planning of this event came from a diverse group of musicians, and is centralized within a two block radius in downtown Oakland, turning non-traditional spaces including community non-profit organizations, art galleries, screen printing shops, and the streets themselves into music venues for one day. **It is important to recognize that, while El Sistema is a highly documented and successful program, it is not necessarily a new or novel concept to music educators in the U.S. In fact, music education in schools and communities once did thrive and offered greater access to all youth, marginalized or not. Many great musicians and band leaders sprang up in the U.S. post-world wars as a result of concerted efforts from communities and dedicated music teachers. Government funding cuts, legislative irresponsibility, punitive testing procedures, and an over emphasis on the hard sciences, as a result of Cold War fears and perceived notions that the U.S. was losing its competitive edged relegated music and the arts to the back burner. If El Sistema is the catalyst to bring our attention back to a time when public support of the arts was a priority, then utilizing its curriculum can be greatly beneficial.

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Donn Harris: “So, I’m Donn Harris. I’m the Executive/Artistic Director of your art school which is Oakland School of the Arts a block down at the Fox Theater. So what little of music education was left after Prop 13 (late 70s/1978) was destroyed by the testing mania because the minute those test scores began to be punitive they threw everything creative out of the school and kids had to go four and half days a week with reading and math. And so, it got devastated. So it’s hard for the experience to get to everybody and when we look later at what gentrification and the socio-economic stuff we’re gonna get to that.” Lynne Morrow: “What people didn’t understand was that music has everything to do with reading and math. And what you were saying something about “Do you have to read music in order to be musically [educated?]” The answer to that is yes. You can’t say, “I study literature, or I’m going to be a poet” and you cannot read the language, right? Reading it is crucial to that education. It’s not the only thing, but it’s crucial and central. You have to understand the language in order to know how to use the product, right? So, I think that’s really important. I teach a class at the university called Music and Action and the first question that I ask is, ‘What music do we know in common?’ This is a problem for our society okay. That’s a problem and that’s what was happening in schools. My mother taught first grade for thirty-five years and music was in that classroom from the very beginning all day everyday, right. Every elementary school teacher had a piano in their classroom. Just think about that. All my age peers know that. Young people don’t even know that that happened. This is critical.” Robin Nzingah Smith: “It’s interesting you say that because a lot of people, many people could play piano. If you went to college in the generation probably before mine and you were a girl you probably went to finishing school and all the young ladies learned how to play piano.” Lynne Morrow: “And the generation before that every parent had a piano in their parlor in their living room. I learned how to play piano I started when I was four-years old because I had an uncle that was already playing but that piano was in my grandmother’s living room.”

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Robin Nzingah Smith: “Exactly, and you know if you listen to the jazz series that was on television not so long ago he mentions that there were three hundred piano makers in the United States before the advent of the sound recording and…” Lynne Morrow: “Think about that!” Robin Nzingah Smith: “When we had three hundred piano makers after the record player it went down to twenty because people, hey they could just put on the stereo and they stopped learning to play music. And so its changed a great deal and I think, yeah having sound recordings is great, but it came at a great cost. It’s taken it out of the culture out of our culture the concept and now people think, young people think they might say, ‘Oh, I can’t sing’. Whoa, think about the Zimbabwean saying: If you can talk you can sing if you can walk you can dance. People say, ‘ I can’t sing’ or ‘So and so can’t sing’…Everybody used to sing. They used to get around the piano and sing. So there’s things that we’re losing. And then on top of it to have the sledgehammer of Know Child Left Behind come into education, and as you were saying, take those [test scores]…What’s happening is children are not getting their elective. If they don’t meet a certain level, a certain threshold on their test scores, then they have to take a special reading program instead of an elective.” Lynne Morrow: “And that it should be an elective is criminal.” Robin Nzingah Smith: “Exactly right. Exactly. And I’ve worked with the San Rafael School District and work with many Hispanic children. People from Central America and Mexico and some from South America and this is happening to them because of course English is their second language. So, they don’t do so well on their tests. So, a lot of my kids they’re not getting into the music programs. San Rafael the high school has a wonderful music program. It’s huge and great instruments it’s

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and well funded. And when you go to concerts you see all white children. Now, it’s wonderful that the white children are playing music. All children should play music. But you aren’t seeing the Hispanic kids and there’s a huge Hispanic community.” Donn Harris: “And it’s because they need those extra classes… Lynne Morrow: “Right!” Robin Nzingah Smith: “Exactly!” Donn Harris: “It’s like a failure of imagination that you have this time there to do music and you could use it to help literacy and if you actually have imagination you can figure out how that works. Instead, people get scared right away and they put in these reading classes.” Lynne Morrow: “Yes, you sure could! Absolutely!” Robin Nzingah Smith: “It’s punitive!” Jashen Edwards: “ You had something to say Taiwo?” Taiwo Kujichagalia-Seitu: “I did. My name is Taiwo Kujichagalia-Seitu and I’m the CEO of Lyric Performing Arts Academy [which is…] and I’m also an educator. I teach first and second grade and I teach dance preschool thru adult and I’ve been teaching forever.”

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Jashen Edwards: “And, Taiwo was my choir teacher at Berkeley City College.” Taiwo Kujichagalia-Seitu: “I was his choir teacher at Berkeley City College. And, I teach a Popular Music History class at Berkeley City College which is now being offered at some of the charter high schools in Oakland. And it’s interesting talking to the high school students because, with the core of music, of course musical literacy went way down and like now there’s almost no musical literacy in the younger generations. So, I asked my students, ‘How many of you guys play music?’ And out of a class of maybe thirty, maybe two or three might raise their hand, and I’m like, ‘Oh, no!’ I can’t even imagine that there are so many that don’t read music and who haven’t had a chance to take a music class. But what I’m also noticing is that, in terms of listening to music, they really don’t listen to the music. So, I did a short experiment in class one day and I said, ‘Okay, let’s listen to, and I purposely picked songs that were kind of popular on the radio, but I picked songs that were musically rich but I picked from songs that I knew they had heard like several times before and I said, ‘Okay, what are things in the song that are musical? What are some of the musical aspects you can pull out?’ And, they were working in small groups and every group, at least fifty percent, and for a lot of the groups it was more like seventy-five, eighty percent of what they said had nothing to do with the music. It was everything about the lyrics. And I stopped them. I said, ‘Well, okay I didn’t ask you about the poetry. I asked about the music.’ And the looks on their faces were like, ‘but, we did tell you about the music!’ ‘ No, you told me about the language that is set to the music!’ And just that shift for them I could see the wheels turning in their heads. And it’s amazing because at the end of that course, I was teaching that course for the past seven years, at the end of the course my students told me, ‘ I listen to music a totally different way.’ So, they’re going from listening to just a beat in pop, or hip-hop, or R&B, to actually listening to instrumentation, listening to musicality, listening to all the things that help tell the story outside of the lyrics. And I think in prior generations that was what we listened to. So, I grew up in a family of musicians. Both my parents are jazz musicians. Most of the music we listened to had no words. None! You were only listening to music. You were only listening to the story the music told. And with the present generation that’s not the fact. So, they’re not even hearing music and pair that with the fact that they’re not

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taking music classes, then there’s almost no music education. It’s an interesting paradigm shift for me because I grew up with a piano in the home. I didn’t start taking formal lessons until I was maybe like, I don’t know, ten on the piano, but I had been taking violin lessons prior to that, and I had been singing since as long as I can remember. And, it’s always there so I can always kind of play with it, play along things I was hearing in the home. And, so there’s just this huge gap of musical literacy. And if you look at traditional non-Western cultures around the world, music is a part of the everyday human experience. It’s a part of everything. So, I always grew up taking West African dance. There was a dance slash rhythm slash song, because it all goes together, for every single part of your life. If there’s a wedding, if there’s a death, if there’s a rites of passage ceremony, a harvest celebration. Anything that you had to do there was music associated with it. So, when you look at the fact that now these are people who are transplanted out of their homelands for various historical reasons that these are musical people, right, that come from very musical roots and then you suck all of the music out of the educational system and you take all that out there’s a very real part of people’s everyday lives missing. And the fact that I have a lot of students who are not able to take those music classes you just…it sucks the life out of school and then it makes school less interesting. Because for my students who, they take dance with me one day a week their like, ‘This is our favorite class. It’s the only class where we can kind of relax and be free.’ And they need that. They need that balance.” Robin Nzingah Smith: “When I taught in East Oakland at King Estates I had a flute player who only came to school because he could play music. I’m just wondering. What percentage? I used to go to church too and we sang in church. I don’t know what percentage of young people are still going to church. We had so much music in church and kids would learn to play piano. So if we lose it in the schools and we lose it in the church what is happening to our culture? What is happening to our spirit?” Lynne Morrow: “People are un-churched now. That’s one of the reasons we don’t have so much music in common.We’re watching what’s happening to it.” Donn Harris: “You know we get our isolated pockets of places that are specializing in music or has a certain mission that gets that going, but other places are not in the fold.”

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Robin Nzingah Smith: “When they get it they get so jazzed and so into it and it changes their life so much. This little group that I work with in San Rafael, I mean, you know, I got a couple of little wanna be thugs in the classroom and that little wanna be thug is the concert master in his middle school.” Lynne Morrow: “Yeah, cause he’s a leader.” Robin Nzingah Smith: “Yeah, and so there’s about so much trouble he’s gonna get himself into because he won’t be able to play and he loves it. And, we’re playing classical music. And the parents said to me, you know, ‘My son went online and I thought maybe he’d be looking for hip-hop music or something and he’s [streaming] classical music.’ Because we have to expose the children, not just to classical music, but any, we have our own classical and African American classical music, anything that has value. Expose it to them. They’ll suck it in.” Lynne Morrow: “Well, the thing that was always interesting to me is that we thought the internet is going to open up all these opportunities for people to hear music around the world. And so, in my class that I teach I always ask, so ‘Anybody listen to Balinese music today? Anybody listen to Chinese erhu music today?’ No, they’re listening to these very siloed extremely restricted genres and areas of music. It’s not open. So, person-to-person teaching, you know I have this argument, but I’m old right, so I can do that, with all the people who are trying to say they need to have all this technology in the classroom, I say, ‘No, no, no. I’m the technology. This is a person-to-person experience - music. I’m telling you I’m the master you’re the student. This is how it goes.’ And you’re losing that too. So, I mean I really always try to put that thing together and I was really thinking about what you were saying, Nzingah, because the performative view of what music is these days is really damaging. It’s a human thing. Every human should be making music. And this business that we’re always watching somebody else do something I think is so problematic.”

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Elliot Gann: “I just want to respond to you, and I apologize for being late. My name is Dr. Elliot Gann. I’m founder and director of Today’s Future Sound. I was just helping out setting up a free beat making workshop so my apologies. In terms of what you were saying about being exposed to different kinds of music from all over the world, one of the things that I really can say and value about hip-hop and hip-hop culture is that it integrates all different types of cultures and music. And so we encourage the kids to dig and search for music including vinyl records, or deejaying or over the internet. So, I ask them to think of the most random country you can possibly summon in your mind and then put in psychedelic rock, or jazz or classical. And then to take this music, sample this music, process and incorporate it into your own hip-hop beats. That offers an opportunity to do that and certainly hint at that tradition of old-school hip- hop.” Lynne Morrow: “Yeah, I mean and to your point too I believe that that exposure leads to actually doing it yourself as opposed to just listening. Listening precedes doing.” Elliot Gann: “Absolutely! And then I also really appreciate what you said in terms of, and how you view giving kids access to music and teaching them how to make and construct something. You also learn how to deconstruct something. When you learn to deconstruct something you’re talking media literacy skills, musical literacy that kind of thing. You also learn to construct it. So, I think that’s really important to foster critical thinking, media literacy, musical literacy, all of those.” Donn Harris: “You know, when talking about playing music, we’re talking about the act of doing it, I remember in high school taking a music appreciation class. And those don’t exist anymore. I haven’t heard of one in decades. That in and of itself would be a [big help.]” Lynne Morrow: “Right.”

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Elliot Gann: “Yeah.” Jashen Edwards: “ So, it sounds like we really have touched a lot on the challenges being faced and also a mix of some of the curriculum that’s being used to address those. Perhaps we can talk a bit more about, go around and each person talk about their program and how their doing collaborative work in schools and how that, what that looks like. We can start with Nzingah.” Robin Nzingah Smith: “Oh dear, well. Okay, so you want me to talk a little bit about the program. Well, it’s called Enriching Lives Through Music (opens up jacket to show T-shirt with logo and audience laughs affectionately). We just had a concert today. Our final concert of the year. And, it’s an El Sistema inspired program. And if you’re not familiar with El Sistema, some of us are, some of us aren’t, but it’s a system that came out of Venezuela that’s been in operation for the past thirty or forty years and it was really started kind of by the seat of your pants sort of thing by Dr. José Abreu started this program and just…” Lynne Morrow: “And the music director of the LA Philharmonic is a product. Dudamel is product of El Sistema.” Robin Nzingah Smith: “Gustavo Dudamel, yes. And in fact, yeah, if we want to cut to the chase…” Lynne Morrow: “No, no, no I’m just saying if people didn’t know the connection…” Robin Nzingah Smith: “Oh yes, Gustavo. Anyway, the people at, okay so fast forward about thirty, forty years later and people have graduated from this program are populating orchestras, professional orchestras, national orchestras throughout the world. They have some of the finest musicians and you know Dr. José Abreu started

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with twenty-four kids. And so they called it El Sistema and people have been looking at the system and looking at the products of the system and the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, which is their main orchestra and have said, ‘Wow, look at this! Yeah, we want to do that here!’ So, there’s quite an effort in the country really and there’s several groups in the United States and the Bay Area and I work with Enriching Lives Through Music in San Rafael and there’s a few others too. So that’s what we’re doing in San Rafael. And then I also teach at Head Royce in the lower school third thru fifth grade band. I have a beginning band and an intermediate band once a week and we are also noticing a drop in numbers you know what some of them are taking hip-hop dancing. So we see that it goes across the board even economically [?] And then the last thing that I do, oh yeah, I work thru the Heads Up program in San Rafael in the public schools and I teach general music in third and fourth grade. And there I teach the Orff system, which is the xylophone and recorders and singing and the [?] and the general music. That’s what I do. I think that’s enough from me.” Lynne Morrow: “So, it’s interesting. I’m Lynne Morrow and I’m the Music Director of the Oakland Symphony Chorus. And so in our collaboration with the symphony I just want to talk a little bit about their programs. And you can go to the website. It’s oebs.org. And the MUSE program is a really rich program where symphony instrumentalists go into schools and create orchestral ensembles with kids in schools all over the city. And the MUSE program then puts those students together periodically doing the year and they give concerts. They also give concerts in the lobby of the paramount every other year with the symphony. This program is made up of in-school mentoring, after school programs, and then visits. Michael Morgan actually goes out to the many of these schools to talk with the kids. The kids are given access to come to symphony concerts throughout the year. And, so obviously my connection with that is because I conduct the chorus. My regular everyday teaching is at the university level. But I am a believer in life-long learning. So all those people who should be taking music education in public school at the elementary and secondary level then go to university and then when they get out of university there’s a symphony chorus and a place within a chamber ensemble within that symphony chorus where adults can continue music education. Every Wednesday night we’re at the MOCHA Museum of Children’s Arts now on 17th and Clay. And so every Wednesday night is a voice lesson for the 100 members of the symphony chorus. And we we need some men. So, hey come on down! The symphony chorus is

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open to high school students. It’s open to adults. I believe in access so there’s no barrier in terms of you have to know how to read music. You just have to be interested and we’ll help you take all the next steps. So I just want to express that there’s a continuum that’s lifelong.” Donn Harris: “Hi everybody. Donn Harris Oakland School of the Arts and there’s some questions here I think that Jashen brought up and I want to make sure I address at some point. But Oakland School of the Arts was started in 2002. We were in the Alice Arts Center at that time and later moved to a parking lot where we were in bungalows for about four years and in 2009 moved into the Fox Theater complex which is a great space but got some limitations. We serve about 750 kids. I believe all total about 200 are in music and if you count vocal music as well probably looking at about 300 kids altogether. What’s the total number? (Question directed to Cava Menzies, OSA Music Dept. Chair sitting in the audience) Cava Menzies: “120 in instrumental and about 125 in vocal.” Donn Harris: “Okay, so, 250 students out of 750, so a third are in some type of music education. And the music classroom is a very unique place. So if you’re looking for an academic classroom you’re looking at plenty of children, and teacher and desks and kind of a traditional model. A music classroom could be three. It could be sixty. There’s all sorts of different combos and different ways to combine the kids. They’re constantly moving around. The schedules, the ideas, and new pieces of music - it’s pretty challenging! Now, along with that they’ve got to take five academic classes and they’ve got to pass those, because if they don’t they can’t perform. So there’s an incentive. An interesting point here that I think Jashen wrote was, ‘How has gentrification, socio-economic status effected/influenced music education in Oakland?’ I can talk about how it’s effected our school. When we audition students because we do and this is common around the country that most cities in their downtown arts area have their arts high school or their arts secondary school. It happened in Cincinnati. It’s going on in Dallas. Lots of other places. Kind of a trend. The kids that we want sometimes have no experience in the elementary school. So, we have to have outreach programs. As a matter of fact Ms. Menzies, that’s our music chair

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right there she’s our outreach coordinator (points to Cava Menzies in the audience) and we try to find students who we can bring to the school and pay some of our artists and musicians to stay after school and work with the students to get them ready. Because many of the students play by ear very well. We want them to have a little reading experience. So we have music reading classes after school. I think we’ve got about nine kids this year that were in our program last year that actually enrolled in the school. So, we’re making some gains. It’s hard to get out there and find them though. A lot of challenges in that way too. But I think the stuff we were talking about earlier, where you look at say music education at the elementary schools is really effecting the socio-economic status of those kids that are getting into art schools and studying music life long. So, that’s a big challenge.” Lynne Morrow: “So, I would love to be the bridge between what you are doing and what the MUSE program is doing. Because the kids are there - 1200 kids.” Elliot Gann: “Yeah, so Today’s Future Sound serves predominantly elementary and middle school youths some high school youths in OUSD. We also do community based stuff but we do a lot of work in elementary schools so I encourage you folks to connect with me. Certainly I have specific students whose dream it was to get into OSA. So, I’m trained as a clinical psychologist. I’m also a musician. A hip-hop producer and deejay by just learning on my own. We use the program where we’re teaching kids music production and teaching deejaying and from a mental health and educational intervention. And what I mean by that is I do a lot of interventions at different levels, whether it be in community, establishing relationships thru use of hip-hop and electronic music, or within the classroom if there’s kids that are having trouble focusing, having some academic problems. We have a relationship especially with the folks at West Oakland Middle School where we run our Beats For Lunch program that’s going on right now. So, we’ve been there for two going on three years now and we have a relationship with the teachers. An English teacher, Ms. Thomas who actually teaches multiple subjects will say, ‘Hey, Elliot, I’ve got a kid for you. You know, he’s having trouble focusing in class.’ This is a free, free of charge to the school, free of charge to the students after school program that we come to on minimum days. So, we called it Beats for Lunch because we did originally come during lunchtime and now we figured we needed more time. So, kids can come. And it’s

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totally volunteer. The kids are not required to be there. We have probably on average about fifteen kids there every Wednesday. We also teach in after school programs thru Bay Area Community Resources at Hoover Elementary, Lafayette Elementary, Prescott Elementary, and a couple of other high schools like Life Academy, but we’re doing fifteen week sessions with the kid where we teach them the history of hip-hop, including music production, beat making, ethical and copyright issues for example, that kind of thing. We’re also doing some basic music theory: some scales, chord progressions, song structure, as well as sampling and exposing them to vinyl that kind of thing. So, we’re also teaching the kids simultaneously, it’s inevitable, I’m sure you all have noticed already but you’re gonna teach kids math when you teach them music.” Lynn Morrow: “Yep!” Elliot Gann: “Right, fractions, decimals, ratios, multiplication, division so implicitly and explicitly they’re learning that. Also, with the digital format of beat making we’re teaching them media literacy skills to create their own media, right. And, I’ve talked before about beat construction. So these are and there’s many many different things I can highlight about the program. But we serve fifteen hundred plus kids per year. Our music instructors are deejays, audio engineers, producers, multi-instrumentalists. We have four maybe five staff that went to Berklee College of Music. We have some folks that teach at OSA. And then we have folks who are not professionally trained as musicians but are self-taught deejays and producers. And we have access to independent teaching artists who are coming into the schools and working with the kids. Usually the ratio is 3:1 in most of our classes where there’s three students, one instructor. And I find that’s really important for learning especially for the complex stuff we’re teaching them. But, often with Beats For Lunch you see one on one stuff happening which is really important. Our kids performed this year and last year at Oakland Drops Beats. They’ve performed also with an African dance and drumming group, Afrique Sogue. They’ve performed at Malonga Center for the Arts - kids from elementary schools and West Oakland Middle School and that’s some of the collaborations we have going on.”

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Taiwo Kujichagalia-Seitu: “I’m Taiwo Kujichagalia-Seitu CEO of Lyric Performing Arts Academy which is a performing arts academy. We just celebrated our first year in September of this year and we teach dance, theater, and music. So, vocal music, traditional West African percussion because in traditional West African dance and music it all goes together. I also personally teach music history for Berkeley City College and we provide performance opportunities for all of our students no matter what level they are at so that our beginning students. I think it’s really important to provide everybody with real performing arts opportunities to gain performance experience. So, we have two major theater productions every year. Go Tell It! - A Harriet Tubman Christmas Story that’s done during the holidays so we did November and December this year, the traditionally we do December. And then in June we have our studio wide production. So we kind of took a departure off of the studio wide recital concept and instead of doing a recital we do a full musical theater production. So, last year we did a take off of The Wizard of Oz and this year we’re doing a take off of Annie, called Annie The Reality Show. (Affectionate laughs from the audience) We always do critical thinking things with our students. I strongly believe that critical thinking skills are highly needed and it’s the one thing that most schools don’t teach. Students don’t have critical thinking skills. So, all of our musical theater productions have a critical thinking component. So, in this one it’s how real is reality TV. So, we have students write poetry for reality TV to show and tell me well in reality this is what I see. So everything we do like, they help create the productions. With Go Tell It!, they don’t help create it what they are taught is inserted into it. So, I was taught spirituals. I’m a classically trained vocalist. And, all classically trained vocalists, especially African Americans classically trained vocalists learn to sing spirituals and so that was my background and that’s where, in terms of our voice classes I start there because spirituals melodically are very simple melodies. It’s very simple. And once they get to the point to where they can sing harmony I can add in simple harmonies. So I start with spirituals. Even the ones who don’t read music, I give them sheet music so they can learn how to follow along. We have basic sight reading exercises that our part of our vocal classes and then they get sheet music to all of their songs and so they’re learning how to read music as they go along with the sight singing. And we clap rhythms. We do all of that breakdown the first half of class and then we have songs that they learn and that they can eventually perform. So, the spirituals they learn over the summer and earlier part of the school year they sang, I put together a medley, and they sang it for Go Tell It! and two of our students are here today and are gonna sing.”

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Jashen Edwards: “Are we going to get to here some of that? Taiwo Kujichagalia-Seitu: “You’ll here some of it! Yeah, we’re gonna perform it for you guys!” Jashen Edwards: “So, we have a performance at the end of this which is great!” Taiwo Kujichagalia-Seitu: “They’re also our daughters and one of my co-founders of Lyric Performing Arts Academy. Her daughter and my daughter they grew up with us performing so they are now our students. And, everybody else who was supposed to perform for some reason didn’t show up today so it’s just the two of them…” Audience member: “Cie-Arra’s on her way!” Taiwo Kujichagalia-Seitu: “Oh, Cie-Arra’s on her way! She’s another student of mine from Ile Omode that I started teaching dance to about three years ago. She was my dance student and I heard her sing one day and I said, ‘You have a gorgeous voice. You should come and take voice classes!’ and she did. And it’s interesting because we teach everything so it’s not just music, it’s dance, it’s music, it’s theater, it’s musical theater, and so there’s a nice hybrid going on and so they get to learn about the arts from a lot of different aspects. So, in some performances they will just dance. In some, they’ll just sing. And, in our bigger productions they do everything. So, it’s nice to be able to offer all of those components and then to actually perform it. So, they understand that when you’re backstage you’re quiet. This is how we operate backstage. We have a cast of forty. Most of them are adults. You stand up here. You wait quietly in the wings. They understand all that because they really believe that they need to be prepared for the real world of performance because we know that a lot of our students do want to go on to perform professionally. And, even the ones that don’t those are real life skills that you need to know: be quiet, stand back, stand in a line, focus, be aware of

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everything that is going on around you. You know, so those are real life skills that they’ll need that they’re learning now and developing now even for the ones that don’t go on to perform professionally. So, that’s kind of what we do.” Jashen Edwards: “So, there is a rich array of activities for young people to do in Oakland music. How would you envision yourself collaborating with each other to bring these programs to schools and to young people that you work with?” [Donn Harris acknowledges Cava Menzies in the audience who has her hand up to say something.] Donn Harris: “We have an audience member who wants to say something.” Cava Menzies: “I would love to also collaborate. Can I say something?” Jashen Edwards: “Absolutely. Please. Tell us who you are again.” Cava Menzies: “My name is Cava Menzies. I’m the music department chair at Oakland School for the Arts. One of the things I’ve really been wanting and maybe we can just tag on to what you’re asking is that as a music teacher in Oakland I feel that there’s not a network for me to know other music teachers in Oakland. And, so I do like a little bit of digging, but I’m also doing diversity, and recruitment and thinking about that kind of stuff making sure OSA reflects Oakland at large. But beyond that I really want to connect with music teachers and I want to share resources and I want to have events like this that happen regularly. I want to…I don’t know if it’s like a Facebook group or some platform in which we can communicate what our needs are, we can create function together. If there’s performance opportunities. We have Sweet’s Ballroom. We just finished three days of music concerts at Sweet’s Ballroom. It was an OSA event, but I would love for it not just to be an OSA event. Or Westlake Middle School. We’re talking about collaborate events. But I think to me that’s the biggest disconnect

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is that all of us are doing amazing work independently and there’s no platform for us to talk about and share it and…” Jashen Edwards: “With Oakland Drops Beats, the cool thing is that now there is. It’s a new event. There’s actually a mailing list that we’re going to start today. It’s on the piano for everyone to sign. The wonderful thing about Oakland Drops Beats, is the goal is for this to happen, what, Angelica’s here right? Did she leave already? I think it’s four times a year. So this is the third time this year. It just started in March and the first time to actually put together a symposium that looks specifically at music education and music resources in Oakland. So, the goal is that in March, sometime in March when the next Oakland Drops Beats happens, that gives us some lead time to actually, at the end of today’s conference, put together an action agenda of what we can do and network. And that’s the beginning of a great network.” Cava Menzies: “Yeah! I would just ask for something cause these events are great and I think we need each other but we all have stuff that happens throughout the year. If there was a place where I could check it in the morning, and see what you’re up to, or you’re up to or where we could have a group place to go to. So, yes, that’s my thing.” Robin Nzingah Smith: “You know I wanted to say, and piggyback on that. The thing about El Sistema is every group is a grupo in every town there’s a grupo and then they connect together. The grupo’s get together and they have performances so they actually have music in common that they share. And I can see how having a collaborative event maybe once a year or something. It would take a lot of work and it would take some collaboration just trying to figure out what would work for all of the various groups. But, it would be nice to interconnect all these children that we’re working with…” Cava Menzies: “And share music!”

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Donn Harris: “We’ve got the ballroom that can stand a hundred, not a hundred a thousand people so it’s very large. We could definitely hold an event there. And the California Arts Council has a grant for something called Creative California Communities that looks to people like us to collaborate and we all pitch in together and apply for this rather large grants. Robin Nzingah Smith: “All of our students can benefit from this. And they get to know our students and get to know one another…” Cava Menzies: “Yeah, exactly!” Lynn Morrow: “Great!” Robin Nzingah Smith: “You know rather than having to use…let’s face it, Oakland schools, you know in many ways, the problem with the school system is, that in many ways it’s somewhat segregated. Lynn Morrow: “Somewhat? It is segregated!” Robin Nzingah Smith: “Yeah, well, I was trying to be gentle.” (Audience laughter) Lynn Morrow: “Just saying it like it is.”

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Robin Nzingah Smith: “Like my friend used to say, ‘You gotta put water on it.’ But, yeah you know you go to, when I taught at Cole, you just have to work hard to find a white child. Same as King Estates. Elliot Gann: “Where’s this?” Robin Nzingah Smith: “Cole. Donn Harris: “The police force is there.” Robin Nzingah Smith: “Yeah, and King Estates. I don’t know if they’re a school anymore or not. Taiwo Kujichagalia-Seitu: “It’s a charter school now.” Robin Nzingah Smith: “But yeah, the kids can meet each other and know each other. And I think it makes a difference. It makes community. Let’s do it.” Jashen Edwards: “I want to get back to the gentrification, and since you spoke to it briefly about you being the director of diversity and you said that you try to have the representation. So, how is that? What does OSA look like? (acknowledging Cava Menzies) Cava Menzies: “What does OSA look like is the question. OSA looks different than when it first started. OSA was an all black school when we first started. We basically

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had kids from…well, sorry Leah. We’ve got two of my former students (a non-black audience member and OSA alum). It was predominantly a black school, maybe eighty percent, eighty five percent was black and then…you know…yeah. We’ve been around for a little bit and definitely since we’ve moved in the Fox building we’ve seen our school attract a different population of people. Probably because of the building, some of the acclaim, maybe just the history of being around for a little while. And, so one of our goals is to make sure that we’re maintaining the demographics of Oakland and really look at the statistics of Oakland and what it is and various other groups and making sure that we are staying aware because if we do nothing about it the trend is going to continue. Our entire group of kids that show up to audition is very different than it used to be, very, very different. I don’t know if that answers your question.” Jashen Edwards: “Yes, it does.” Donn Harris: “Again, I think a lot of this goes back to what’s going on in the elementary schools or even the middle schools. They’re not getting a music education and they look at our audition process and it’s very daunting they think when it’s actually not. And that’s a barrier.” Elliot Gann: “I was going to say virtually none of my elementary school students and middle school students at West Oakland Middle school, or Madison know about OSA. There’s only one elementary school student that I had who knew and interested in going there. So, I would love to connect with you and maybe we could have you in some of our classes. I certainly, I told the kids about OSA especially the ones that strike me as being already particularly talented. There’s an after school music program that our kids on Wednesday’s also go to after.” Cava Menzies: “With Allison.” Donn Harris: “Yeah, we know her.”

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Elliot Gann: “Is it across the street from West Oakland Middle School?” Donn Harris: “She’s in West Oakland Middle School on Wednesdays.” Elliot Gann: “Who’s that?” Donn Harris: “Allison Streich.” Elliot Gann: “Allison Streich. Oh, Allison! Yeah!” Donn Harris: “So, I want to give a shout out to a couple of really good programs. The one we’re talking about is an after school Wednesday orchestra. It’s called The Spirit Orchestra at West Oakland Middle School started by OUSD teacher of the year of the year last year. Allison Streich. She has a child at our school. Lynn Morrow: “She also teaches in the MUSE program.” Donn Harris: “She’s an amazing teacher and she’s just a dynamo. Love that! And Jason Hofman’s in the back there from 51Oakland and he’s done a lot of work at Castlemont and McClymonds, places all over the city, getting music education as an after school option for kids. Was it McClymonds that had its first concert in twelve years?”

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Jason Hofman: “Ah, yes!” Donn Harris: “McClymonds.” Jason Hoffman: “We’re helping start a first music program at McClymonds. It’s been about twelve years. So, we helped get a teacher in the classroom. So, there’s four classes a day of music. They had their first music assembly produced by a teacher and students yesterday. So, we’re really happy for them!” Donn Harris: “Wow! Twelve years.” (Audience applauds) Elliot Gann: “(?)…so McClymond’s has a whole studio and deejaying classes, and music and we’ve actually connected with them. We’re feeding our middle school students into their program.” Robin Nzingah Smith: “Does your school actually have like traditional band program. Do you have flutes, saxes, etc.?” Elliot Gann: “So, I’m not from West Oakland. I teach and we volunteer in West Oakland Middle School, but we are a non-profit organization that’s completely mobile. We take all our own equipment…” Robin Nzingah Smith: “Right, but do they have like a traditional band program?”

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Elliot Gann: “I think they had one. I don’t know if they still do…” Lynne Morrow: “[?]” Donn Harris: “ [?]” Robin Nzingah Smith: “[?]” Donn Harris: “[?]” Elliot Gann: “I think it’s different from that as well because I had a student who was playing the drums in the band. I think it was during the school day, but it was a very limited music program. It’s only a band of like maybe twelve.” Lynne Morrow: “When you’re talking about band you’re talking about a wind ensemble, right?” Robin Nzingah Smith: “Yeah, pretty much. A band program.” Lynne Morrow: “Not a rock band?.” Robin Nzingah Smith: “Yeah, not a rock band. No.”

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Elliot Gann: “Yeah, it wasn’t rock. They were playing, I don’t know your set of standards or that kind of thing, but they had one of my most talented students was playing drums and he just happened to learn drums at a block party. He sat down at a drum circle and the teacher brought him into the band. But that’s an exceptional student.” Lynne Morrow: “Yeah.” Robin Nzingah Smith: “Yeah, it doesn’t sound like they have much of a wind instrument program. Trumpets, trombones, saxes…” Donn Harris: “ I don’t think they do there. Now we do.” Elliot Gann: “Lafayette is the only school where I see kids carrying instruments into our classroom. That’s phenomenal. It used to be, what West Oakland Music Academy, right?” Donn Harris: “ You’re working in Lafayette, right?” Elliot Gann: “Yeah, we’re there for fifteen weeks.” Donn Harris: “Oh, I’ve got to contact you.We’ve been trying to get in there to get some kids to us. If they’re carrying instruments around we can go there. We can walk over to West Oakland Middle School.”

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Elliot Gann: “Yeah, my kids come in the classroom. So part of what we do is teach the kids basic audio engineering and recording. So we’re trying to get them to incorporate their own, sample their own instruments, record their own instruments. Lynne Morrow: “Great!” Robin Nzingah Smith: “Well, I asked if there was one there and then the second question is I wonder is the traditional band program obsolete? Lynne Morrow: “No.” Donn Harris: “No.” Elliot Gann: “The way that I view some of our work is working backwards. Where you try to be as truly relevant to youth culture… Robin Nzingah Smith: “Take there from where they are…” Elliot Gann: “Exactly! Exactly! So, okay, so you like hip-hop, you like electronic music, you like dub step. And I find a lot of kids in Oakland, across all the schools here I’ve been in Oakland and San Francisco are really into modern electronic music dubstep. And so we say, ‘Okay, guess what!? You can be way more effective if you have some music theory and some knowledge about the music and how you can use these instruments and recall music theory to help guide you.’ Because

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we play on piano keyboards. We teach them A minor because that’s a very easy, all-white key scale and, you know, C major. But, you know, the more; First you gotta’ get ‘em. you gotta’ hook ‘em, right. Then, you can go deeper and deeper and deeper. But, for me unless you get kids young off the bat, I mean really young off the bat, it’s harder, I think its harder to get them completely into it unless you can really create a very strong community and culture where that’s the [?] …” Jashen Edwards: “Can we say a little bit about music teachers and how they’re trained and what you’re seeing at each of your schools. What is the curriculum for music teachers? That’s of interest to me because I’m actually applying for PhD in music education specifically looking at composition curricula. Lynne Morrow: “Well, at Sonoma State the music education program is part of the post-bac education so, a music education major which is a Bachelors of Music now, we upgraded our program. They have to study all of the instrument families. So, they take a class in guitar, they take a class in wind instruments, they take a class in all stringed instruments, they take a keyboard class, they take my vocal methods class, and they are learning, not only how to play the instruments, but also what are the basic resources for teaching [children?] how to play those instruments. And they are also studying privately on their original instrument. We have a really large active wind ensemble. We don’t have an orchestra. We have a small string orchestra because in our area, we have the Santa Rosa Symphony. In our area all the students who live in that area and play orchestral instruments want to go away. But we have a really excellent wind ensemble. That’s why I was saying, ‘No, it’s not dead because that exists for people to go to after high school.’ So, then after they take the Bachelor of Music Education coursework, which is the most unit intensive program on the campus, then they get into the credential program. And in the credential program they take music in the classroom sorts of classes, for classroom management, for more resource specific things. And then, depending on whether they want to do elementary or secondary.” Donn Harris: “At OSA, it looks like a hundred different things going on at the same time for teachers. Luckily in a charter school, every teacher in the arts have to be

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credentialed and that’s a real opening up of the gates for letting people in. On the other hand you have a lot of great musicians who want to come be a part of it and teaching skills have to be worked in. So, part of our job is to make sure they’re supported in that way. But it’s wonderful to have the whole community of artists and musicians able to come into the school without any restrictions as long as we do our work.” Elliot Gann: “Yeah, and we have a very non-traditional model being a small non-profit, has like I said folks, multi-instrumentalists who have studied at Berklee College of Music, or you know, on their own, at whatever schools. And then, folks who are self-taught musicians. You know hip-hop music production at Berklee College of Music with Raydar Ellis hasn’t really been formalized right? And I think there’s positive aspects of that and there’s also negative aspects of that. But we have a pretty intensive rigorous curriculum typically fifteen weeks, because we do fifteen week contracts in various BACR elementary school sites. And that’s Bay Area Community Resources. They’re a non-profit that contracts us. Ah, West Oakland Middle School we have more freedom, and so we kind of bring in a lot of folks from the industry from various different walks of life, people who score movies, people, you know, we had Zumbi from Zion I came in this past Wednesday and was teaching kids beat-making, just kind of free, but because we’re a hip-hop and electronic music oriented we focus on history of hip-hop and aesthetics, and technical aspects of beat-making and that kind of thing. Like I said we integrate some basic music theory: 4/4 time, quarter notes, some major/minor scales, chord progressions. You know we teach the kids the chord progressions to Still Drake. Most of the kids don’t even know that song. Before their time, but. So, we’re thinking about the new songs we can break down for them. I think it looks different and because we have a variety of teaching artists and folks from a more non-traditional form of music it looks a little bit different.” Taiwo Kujichagalia-Seitu: “For us, for the people who teach music specifically there are people who studied music for years. People who grew up studying music in the classroom and who actually got degrees, not in music education but in music performance. So, myself and my sister, we both studied classical voice for years and of course theory, musicianship, and all those things, and then we have my god-father who will come on board to teach keyboard and he has a degree in piano performance.

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His father is a pianist so he grew up from a very young age taking piano lessons. And so for the people who are teaching music they have degrees in performance. But of course all the background in musicianship, in theory, in ear training, and all those things.” Robin Nzingah Smith: “In San Rafael people teaching music come from various backgrounds. My background, I’ve played music all my life. I started piano when I was about five, then picked up the flute, and I picked up the saxophone. I have a BA in music. We have people with PhD’s and we have people who are Orff credentialed. I am Orff credentialed. Just from various backgrounds. It’s a great variety of folks. Head Royce is a little bit different. I’m probably the only teacher there without a Masters. Everybody there has a Masters degree. There’s three, actually four music teachers there in the lower school teaching mostly an Orff based program. And that’s the general music. I’m an after school music teacher. I do the band. And then we have the chairman of the Music Department who is also a math teacher there and he does the jazz band. And then there’s Josh Tower who does the Caravan and that’s a traveling group. They say they travel. But they go to various festivals and they do a lot of performances and they are quite good. We have a great variety of Head Royce. It’s a private school. Quite a bit of money and they have quite a bit of variety in San Rafael too. They have some good funding and good teachers there too.” Jashen Edwards: “I think the reason that question is kind of important about what is the training of the music teacher is because there’s a lot of talk about something called “Community Music” and it’s fascinating. There was a conference in Munich two years… END of VIDEO FOOTAGE.

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ADDITIONAL VIDEO FOOTAGE: 5:04 of Kent Overshown, former student at OSA sharing his experiences of being a student and moving into the professional arena of musical theater post graduation. Kent Overshown: “Prior to OSA I went to Claremont Middle School and at the time they still had the Instrument program. So, I played saxophone while I was there. I also took choir. And after I left those programs were taken apart. I went to Tech shortly thereafter for my freshman year of high school and at that time it was a really difficult time in my life and the way Tech was structured teachers didn’t care about anything. There wasn’t a sound music program, let alone a theater program. So, I applied to Oakland School for the Arts the next year. Started my freshman year of high school over completely and it was one of the best decisions I’ve made my entire life. This woman, in particular (acknowledges Cava Menzies in audience). From the basics of music theory to constructing beats with Logic to having the opportunity, not only to use music as a music class but in all my classes as well. It was amazing. It changed my life. If I didn’t make that decision to go to Oakland School for the Arts, I don’t know where I’d be right now. I don’t know if I’d even be alive today. But afterwards, I went to University of Michigan for musical theater where I got a BFA and have had the opportunity to be in two national Broadway tours, Memphis and Porgy and Bess. Because of the education system and because of the music that I got especially at OSA. It was life changing! (Audience applause) Donn Harris: “Where does the next Kent Overshown come from if the public school system is having such a difficult time making this happen?” Taiwo Kujichagalia-Seitu: “I just want to piggy back off of what you said because I also went to Tech. And I tell people, when they ask if it’s a good school, it is if you’re in the Paideia program. I was in the Paideia program which is a program where all the, if you’re in advanced placement, then you’re tracked literally from your freshman year through your senior year, and you take the

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same courses with about the same fifty or so students. It’s an excellent school if your in Paideia. If you’re not, then it’s kind of like, ah, you may kind of get lost in the cracks. But at the time I was at Tech the Young Musicians Program was at UC Berkeley so I couldn’t take any music classes at Tech. I think all they had at the time was choir. But no actual music classes and it was like a gospel choir. You weren’t like reading music or anything. Lynn Morrow: “Right.” Taiwo Kujichagalia-Seitu: “I was blessed enough to be in the Young Musicians Program at the time, which doesn’t exist anymore unfortunately. That’s where I met Angela Wellman who was supposed to be on the panel but she’s not here right now. And at the time that was where students from the Bay Area, a lot of Cole kids actually at the time. The Cole program came through there. You took for six weeks in the summer you took music classes all day long from 8:30 until about 4:30 in the afternoon everybody was in the choir, everybody took musicianship. My instrument was my voice but everybody took piano. I mean it was an excellent vocal ensembles, excellent, excellent program. And then throughout the school year you took weekly lessons on your instrument. So, I had voice lessons weekly and this was free of charge to my parents. That kind of education doesn’t exist, right?! Lynn Morrow: “Right.” Donn Harris: “It’s a long story. It’s a back story here.” Lynn Morrow: “Yeah, it is a big story.” Taiwo Kujichagalia-Seitu: “It’s a long story. I mean funding is a part, but it’s a long story.”

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Robin Nzingah Smith: “Yeah, cause I had a student from King Estates that went there too.” Taiwo Kujichagalia-Seitu: “It was an excellent program. Literally from the time I finished sixth grade up thru my senior year in high school. So for six years straight I was getting weekly voice lessons and every summer intensive music education. I mean it was really an excellent excellent program offered free of charge and for little little money and it was totally income based. I mean, and I’m an identical twin so to provide that type of music education for both my sister and myself would have been, the cost would have been quite exorbitant. So, but yeah Tech is an excellent school if your in Paideia. It was nice because I had the best of both worlds.” Jashen Edwards: “Kent, it sounds like you were in Paideia, right?” Kent Overshown: “Yes, at the time that I was there that was when they were completely stripping music and other things from the school programs and even being on the Paideia track, granted I was only there for one year. There were no arts implemented into any of the classes. And, I think that’s imperative.” Taiwo Kujichagalia-Seitu: “No there were not! There were none and that’s interesting because literally, Paideia was great in terms of critically thinking skills and things like that. You could take world cultures, American history, and of course you’re looking at it from a different view than a standard history class or world culture class, but that you said that there were no arts, it’s interesting because literally I thought that I was just prone to headaches, I didn’t realize until I finished high school that it was just the…” END of VIDEO FOOTAGE.

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ADDITIONAL VIDEO FOOTAGE: 7:44 of Lyric Performing Arts Academy students: CieArra Gibson-Mathis, Jedah-Simone Simon, Saije Awoyefa, performing a medley from “Go Tell It!” a musical drama about Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad told through the use of Spirituals, written, directed, and produced by Taiwo Kujichagalia-Seitu. END of VIDEO FOOTAGE. END OF SYMPOSIUM.

Funding Creative California Communities http://www.cac.ca.gov/programs/ccc.php Oakland Music Programs for Youth Lyric Performing Arts Academy (LPPA) http://www.lyricperformingartsacademy.com/#!about-us/c161y Music For Excellence (MUSE) http://www.oebs.org/community-education/muse/ Oakland Public Conservatory of Music http://opcmusic.org/Home.php Oakland School for the Arts (OSA) http://www.oakarts.org Oakland Spirit Orchestra (OSO) https://www.facebook.com/OakSpiritOrch Today’s Future Sound http://www.todaysfuturesound.org Non-Profit Organizations Bay Area Community Resources (BACR) http://www.bacr.org 51Oakland https://51oakland.org