in 1996 ASTA The American String Teachers Association recognized that
there were not enough string teachers for the existing string programs in the
United States and it also recognized that there were fewer string and
orchestra programs around the country then in the past
the National spring project consortium
was formed in 1998 and then in the early 2000s through some federal grant they
were able to open sites across the country and that was really when it
became a larger organization so we started programs at the University of
Wyoming University of Arizona University of Kentucky and Mary wood it was
originally formed under the auspices of ASTA since then we've become an
independent nonprofit organization and we work in collaboration with other
music organizations like ASTA to pursue developing string education across the
country as the director of the University of South Carolina string
project for 15 years I saw how a program like a string project could really
change a community the string project concept itself predated the USC string
project it's based on the program at the University of Texas started by Professor
Albert Gillis that program became nationally recognized under the
direction of cellist and educator Phyllis young the difference is that the
UT program was mostly for graduate students and we changed this idea into a
training program for undergraduate students because we felt like we needed
to attract more young people to the teaching profession at the start of
their college career well string project is a huge reason why I came to Mary wood
because it gives such a hands-on experience from the day you walk through
that door everything that you're doing you're doing with our supervisors that
can help and give us advice each site will have a director and a master
teacher as well as student teachers and then obviously the children
I think what's unique and special about stream project is the idea that it it
guides me like directly right on track with what I
do with my life this experience it's kind of like the free service to being a
teacher in terms that it teaches me a lot about what makes a great teacher ten
years later we had thirty five string projects around the country and now
there are 41 programs in 22 states 3,000 children currently enrolled in these
string projects and about 436 undergraduate students are learning to
become string teachers by teaching in these programs now we're celebrating the
20th anniversary of the NSPCC and it's interesting to see the effects
of the program over that period of time I come from a European traditional
European conservatory training and there was nothing like string project involved
in that training at all stay after I started and got going with it I realized
what an absolute pleasure it is to be a part of this program I was not expecting
to enjoy and experience joy working with children my name is Miriam and I and I'm
9 years old and I play the violin and I played for four years when you walk out
onto a stage with people who come up to your knees and then you stand in front
of an orchestra of kids whose legs don't really touch the floor and you're part
of working with them alongside them and sharing with them the process of making
music how to make music the technique behind making music and then actually
the performance process itself that's just utterly delightful there's
no other way to describe it well I love music too sometimes it's a little
difficult but then we get thinking of it sometimes you get like so we like in the
beginning of class you start playing scales
but you go over our music for workers you
my name is Alissa and I go to North Pocono high school and I'm a senior this
year and I'm planning on going to school for music the instructors are very very
good they really know how to perform themselves but teach at a level that any
student can understand it's a learning experience for the students just as much
as it is for us we get to learn throughout this whole process and really
find what being a teacher means to us I think what has excited me about being a
teacher is thinking back on my previous teachers that I had I really like how
they kind of provoked my passion for music and I think me being that guide
for the students is amazing I'm a great believer that hot cross buns and the
Brahms Violin Concerto are very much the same they are fundamentally the same
process we have the craft of playing the technique of playing we have to
understand how the music is put together we have done send the music and the
magic in the music how that works and then how to communicate that to the
audience and it doesn't matter if you're four and that you are playing hot cross
buns you're in the same process the actual essence of that process is the
same
several years ago I happen to be staying with a friend who's a choral director
and they pulled up Erik whiticus virtual choir and I just thought gosh isn't that
a great idea the virtual Orchestra hadn't come up as
a potential outlet for this idea so it's just sort of storing it away as a good
idea and then when we started talking about this I thought well why not why
shouldn't you have kids playing why shouldn't they get up and film
themselves and why shouldn't you create a collage of children doing this and it
gives us a something afterwards that has longevity and can be shared through all
the online mediums you know if you just have one performance it's it's done it's
over and done and it's great but it doesn't really help us move beyond the
people who are actually in that audience at that time so the virtual auction
allows us to bring all these children together and to really reach a large
audience so that was really the beginning of it and then we we got hold
of Brian balm ages and we spoke to him and what was great about talking to him
was he immediately understood the concept the idea was floated to me by
Beth Reed which is she's with the National string
project consortium and what she said was that they wanted to have a piece that
would feature string projects from all over the country and they wanted this
piece to somehow to be able to involve all of them in a performance and they
had this idea of creating a virtual Orchestra where orchestra is at each
individual project site would record either parts or all of this piece and
then basically send it to an engineer who's going to put it together as is
with all his music he writes just absolutely gorgeous music for beginners
and for early stages of string playing and that's really difficult to do when
you think of the skill restrictions to write something that's genuinely
beautiful is very very challenging the virtual orchestra project is exciting
because I I think it's fascinating how so many different workers just just like
this one get to perform collectively and how I'm able to bring what I see music
as how I am as a player what I've learned here to a larger project for the
I think the first time ever we're using technology to bring that many kids
together through music and they're each individually responsible as they make
their videos but also cohesively responsible their individual
contribution create something much bigger than any of us and I think that's
really special it's all like up with different people like from the different
levels because usually you don't get to like play with the little group from
their buil like are together playing it yeah I did a little I think I still did
good of course the number you know three thousand of us all coming together is
really cool I think it kind of brings us back and kind of shows us the main goal
of being in an ensemble which is all of us together working towards a common
goal will make an amazing performance and an amazing project this is a case
where the title came first to me it immediately I was like this
piece is greater than right it's greater than any individual string project site
any individual program it's all about the collective whole and that's where
the whole idea was born the idea of uniting hundreds of different people all
over the country and basically combining their efforts into one massive
performance that they could all share in and be a part of seemed like a very kind
of empowering and inspiring idea Rory O'Neill our tech guy is is good at
working you works with bands then he does all the audio/video YouTube style
stuff for bands so he's putting it all together I don't know how he's doing it
but he did the pilot just fine so he seems to have a system for
figuring it out it starts off in pre-production where it was very
important that we ensured that all of the performers knew the importance of
the sink tone that tone basically helps me sync up every single video so they're
all playing in sync so that I don't have to do it by hand I was thrilled when
Beth read the current executive director of the NS PC asked me to participate in
this project first thing we did is to record the music with the USC university
orchestra and that was basically a regular rehearsal and audio recording
situation then we had to do a green screen recording with me mine conducting
to the audio recording that we had made we had three cameras set up and the hard
part in that situation was trying to sync my movements to the recording so I
was basically following the recording rather than leading the orchestra as a
conductor normally does and this was done so that when the children saw me
conducting they could find the tempos the FIR Motta's the Ritardando is the
crescendos etc that fit with the recording from there we're gonna end up
with upwards of maybe 400 videos and we're gonna basically plot them out in
3d space and by combining all of these components you end up with this illusion
of depth so that in the end people will be tricked into thinking that all of
these people are actually sharing an environment or a space and that they all
were in the same place at the same time greater than was a piece that I just
started writing by hand and you can actually see a little bit of my
manuscript here actually this is the entire piece I sketched the entire piece
by hand and there are moments in here that are very detailed where I hear all
the counter lines and there are moments where I just have the melodic line with
a chord structure written above it starting off at the very beginning I
heard this and this is what I heard without the piano I heard this idea of
so you can hear how everything is building right well this is where the
idea of having the multiple orchestras really comes in because here's your
first orchestra this is the advanced level
by themselves enter the second orchestra with them and you can hear the change in
sound oh you can even imagine it
and the third orchestra
and then the orchestra start to come away suddenly you're left with just the
original and here they are
so all those moments where you can really again use the power of all three
orchestras to completely be a game-changer in my mind versus just
having the the advanced level and then the other two just kind of watered-down
versions of it I think it really is a game changer when you think about those
one and two levels as orchestration opportunities and as Colour
opportunities versus just saying well we're gonna see how we can water this
down to work for kids that don't have the technical ability of an older player
which meets everything that I stand for right I've never written a piece that
says well musically I wish I could do more but I'm just gonna have to water it
down to meet the technical ability of the kid I'm always about how much music
can I throw at them and so this piece was an opportunity to combine those two
things together I think it hopefully will give a large voice to string music
education to the diversity of the NSPCC the role the dual role for student
teachers and for children that the NSPCC serves but also the broader role of
music education amongst our children the more we see that the more thrilling that
is to see and to watch I think that's beneficial for all of us music is
important to me because of so many different aspects of course it allows me
to express myself but at the same time that the relationships that I've been
able to build through music are just indispensable I don't know if I could
have made as many friends this way and how I've been able to make friends
throughout the area even from other country sir music I don't think I could
have done it any other way music to me is all about expression so I
feel as if I can express myself no matter what there any circumstance with
music the music teacher shows the class that music can impact you so much
and I of course I felt that impact and I want to share that impact with others
music means a lot of like friends and like a lot of things to do when you're
like you get to like play a bunch of things that are very exciting and fun
and music makes me so happy enjoy well I think it teaches students not only
individual responsibility of knowing their own part and knowing that what
they do affects the entire group both positively and negatively and I think
they take that with them into life that the things that they do individually in
all aspects of life is something that will affect everybody around them for me
this piece reminded me of the work that we did 20 years ago in starting the NS
PC we started with a small idea that all children should have access to music and
strings in elementary middle and high school and it has grown into a large and
successful national movement with hundreds of teachers and thousands of
students I never imagined that it would affect the lives of really so many
people I hope that they'll have enjoyed the experience of being part of
something greater than themselves we need music because we need music we
don't say we need lunch because it's good for our math you know lunch is good
for all math but we need lunch you know we need music because we're human beings
and it's really that simple I'm always trying to figure out what can
we do for people beyond music right it's one thing to teach about music so that
kids will stay in music but but I'm really looking at what could we do to
shed light on the world beyond music and use music as a vehicle to do that in
this case I saw places all over the world that did not know each other right
I saw kids from all different kinds of backgrounds some of which could not
afford to be in a string program if they didn't have a string project some of
which could afford it but simply had no program to join if it weren't for their
local string project and so I saw the amount of service happening and I was
really I guess affected emotionally by the fact that this is a project that
could take people from all different grounds in all different locations and
bring them together
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