Spring 2004

Northwestern brings sound of music to community

By Marilyn Idelman Soglin

Thanks to several outreach programs, Northwestern University students and faculty are sharing their love of music with the Evanston community.

Sarah Wolffe, a junior in the School of Music, gives a piano lesson to Evanston youth Ashley Sicard at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church.

photo by Stephen Anzaldi

Music Learning Community

Northwestern senior Elizabeth Bennett and junior Jamie Howe are the co-presidents of the Music Learning Community (MLC). “We started MLC two years ago with the goal of reaching out to the community beyond the Northwestern campus,” Bennett said. MLC members go to local schools and churches to work with people who love music.

Northwestern senior and MLC member Anne Carper works with Evanston children, who are innately musical, but who could not afford lessons. The organ performance and music education major is also the choir director at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 1928 Darrow Ave.

About a year ago, Carper had a brainstorm and decided to connect the children with Northwestern music students. Carper created an application form and wound up matching 12 teachers to teach the children on Saturday afternoons. Soon, their mothers and grandmothers wanted lessons too.

Today, Carper has 18 total participants, ranging from 6-year-olds to grandmothers. “I’m having a lot of fun, but this is the most work I have ever done,” said Carper.

A recent spaghetti luncheon and a February fundraiser featuring performers Béla Fleck and Edgar Meyer raised enough money for the five pianos at the church to be tuned. Funds from the Fleck and Meyer event also helped pay for method books for piano lessons and songbooks for voice lessons. Bennett said another fundraiser to be held May 13 in the Gathering Place at the Norris University Center on the Evanston campus will help buy music and instruments and pay for transportation. Tickets are $5.

MLC represents the student chapters of the National Association of Music Educa-tion, the American String Teachers Association and the American Choral Directors Association.

MLC’s mission is to establish a community of musicians who are dedicated to sharing and enhancing music making, and who strive for continuous learning and educating in the classroom and community. More information is available at http://pubweb.northwestern.edu/~jeh298/.

Performance Programs

Both solo instrumental and chamber music programs are enriching the lives of Evanston retirees. Sylvia Wang is an associate professor of music performance studies and coordinator of the piano program in the School of Music. She said Northwestern students enjoy playing their repertoire for retirement home residents. The students are not paid for their performances. “However, the investment in time and effort is mutually beneficial, as the students get valuable performance opportunities and the residents appreciate meeting them and experiencing the live music,” Wang said.

Wang takes piano students several times a year to the Presbyterian Homes, 3200 Grant. “We also encourage students to call various retirement homes within walking distance of the campus and offer their services,” Wang said.

Evanston school children are the beneficiaries of the String Chamber Music and Wind Chamber Music programs. Claudia Lasareff-Mironoff, the coordinator of the String Chamber Music program, said she and Wind Chamber Music coordinator Leslie Grimm work to bring chamber groups off campus to share their musical talents.

“Last spring we started sending a student string quartet to do lecture demonstrations in the public schools. We tried to make each of the presentations personalized to the age groups they would encounter,” Lasareff-Mironoff said.

“You wouldn’t play straight through a full-length string quartet for young listeners. I have encouraged my groups to take the works apart. They perform excerpts, which show certain playing or compositional techniques, and do a fair amount of talking. With a live group, you can demonstrate any combination of instruments,” Lasareff-Mironoff continued.

By doing these concerts, Lasareff-Mironoff said, Northwestern is “reaching out” to Evanston young people who may find that after hearing this performance they will want to study music in the future.