Spring 2022 Magazine Feature: Amplifying Connection in Challenging Times

Amplifying Connection in Challenging Times NEC’s Community Performances and Partnerships (CPP) Program enriches communities through the power of music.

BY JOHN SHERER

Andrew Hurlbut / New England Conservatory

N

OW IN ITS eighteenth year, NEC’s Community Performances and Partnerships (CPP) Program is one of the country’s most robust conservatory programs for community engagement.

Through partnerships with a wide range of Boston-area organizations as well as thoughtful instruction in best practices for engagement, the CPP Program connects well over 100 NEC students every year with thousands of people across greater Boston, giving people from all walks of life — from children and seniors to healthcare providers and beyond — greater access to music and music education.

Student activities with partner organizations vary widely, and are suited to the needs of each organization and the community it seeks to support. Partners include hospitals, senior centers, schools, and libraries, as well as other non-profit organizations that provide assistance and programming for such diverse groups as LGBTQIA+ seniors and adults in mental health recovery.

While CPP helps to enrich many communities in and around Boston, the program aims to benefit NEC students as much as those reached by its partner organizations. For this reason, it is truly collaborative on all sides. Students are given the chance to reflect on what it means to be a musician contributing to a community, and how their skills beyond music might be expanded in order to make the strongest possible contributions. The program provides a framework of training, mentoring, and professional development in order to ensure that they are well-equipped to get the most out of their hands-on experience in the Boston community.

The program was founded during the 2003–04 academic year by Tanya Maggi, Dean of Community Engagement and Professional Studies, and initially worked with fewer than 10 partner organizations, most of which had existing relationships with NEC at the time. By the 2021–22 academic year, the program has grown to work with over 120 partner organizations.

Although the program started small in terms of

MUSICAL STORYTELLING Tanya Maggi and student Evelyn Song ’23 GD perform at Boston Bridge.

partners, the number of students participating was strong from the beginning, at over 100. Today, between 100 and 250 students — about one-third of the NEC student body — perform and teach in the multitude of CPP projects each year.

Many similar programs at other institutions separate undergraduate and graduate students, or students in different genres, but CPP has them all working together, promoting a rich cross-pollination of varying skills, disciplines, and experience levels. For Maggi, this is one of the most rewarding aspects of the program. “It’s an absolutely magical experience,” she says, “to witness a classical string quartet watching a jazz ensemble develop a program on improvisation for third graders, and then see that string quartet incorporate the concept of improvisation into their presentation on Mozart.”

Because one of the core commitments of the CPP Program is mainWe’re trying to taining long-term relationships with provide as wide partner organizations, a net as possible it is crucial that NEC’s to support all involvement adapts as of these students its partners’ needs change over time. “We’ve in whatever put a huge premium on stage they the people,” says Maggi. may be in their “Sometimes we’ll find a great teacher, for development.” example, who has moved between schools and we’ll follow that teacher. In other cases, a nursing home may add new facilities to its portfolio, and we’ll expand our partnership if it aligns with our mission.”

FOSTERING THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENTS A cornerstone of CPP’s mission is its support of NEC students as they expand their repertoire of abilities beyond performing music. Emphasis is placed on developing such skills as speaking to audiences, managing classrooms, and designing accessible programming. A significant amount of work has been done this year on culturally responsive teaching, in collaboration with NEC’s Center for Cultural Equity and Belonging, to ensure NEC students are responding to the needs of the young people they are working with in Boston-area classrooms.

New England Conservatory Magazine / Spring 2022 15

BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS NEC STUDENTS CONTINUED to strengthen a partnership with the Boston Public Schools (BPS) in the 2021–22 school year through innovative programming, band instrument instruction, and hundreds of teaching hours. This year, CPP learned from its experiences with virtual teaching earlier in the pandemic to create a hybrid approach, combining virtual and in-person teaching. This approach has opened up new possibilities, especially in schools that are harder for NEC students to travel to. In the coming years, CPP looks forward to adding many more teaching hours with BPS, in large part due to the increased capabilities that virtual teaching provides.

Discussing her Musical Storytelling Fellowship, which introduces schoolchildren to instruments through stories told with music, Elizabeth YeohWang ’21 NEC/Harvard reports, “I feel that it has helped me see how music touches people of all ages and experiences, and I came away from each program feeling inspired and excited about sharing music with more people.”

THE CPP FELLOWSHIP JAZZ QUINTET performs in a program through Boston’s Peterborough Senior Center, featuring Miles Keingstein ’22, trumpet; Christopher Ferrari ’23, trumpet; Jonathan Paik ’23, piano; Leo Weiskoff ’19 Prep, ’23, bass; and Alex Yoo ’22, percussion.

16 New England Conservatory Magazine / Spring 2022

CPP’s focus on individual mentorship is one of its most unique features. Students are given a great deal of support to help with any challenges they may face along the way, and to allow them to take risks and grow.

Perhaps most remarkably, the program leaders and staff stay in touch with alumni who have gone on to incorporate education and community outreach into their professional lives. Some have followed more traditional paths — such as playing in a professional orchestra and using what they learned in the CPP to enrich their orchestra’s education efforts — while others have used their experience in CPP as an on-ramp to careers as full-time teaching artists. For that reason, Maggi explains, “we’re trying to provide as wide a net as possible to support all of these students in whatever stage they may be in their development.”

POWERING COMMUNITY THROUGH THE PANDEMIC The changes brought by the COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges to CPP, but also demonstrated the resiliency of the program and the dedication of the NEC students who are its lifeblood. In March 2020, NEC students replaced their in-person activities scheduled for the remainder of the semester with dozens of virtual performances and nearly 200 virtual teaching visits. During the 2020–21 year, CPP focused exclusively on the virtual space, with students giving almost 100 virtual performances and teaching over 1,200 virtual hours.

Students and partners continued to adapt throughout the 2021–22 school year, which proved to be the most challenging of the pandemic as the possibility of in-person events fluctuated. More in-person activities had to be canceled and replaced with virtual ones, but in spring 2022 students were finally able to give a large number of performances and lessons in person. Despite the obstacles, NEC students and partners worked to find new ways of growing and deepening connections with their communities.

For the coming year, the CPP Program looks forward to a new partnership pilot with Carnegie Hall’s Link Up program, which will give children in grades 3–5 the chance to play along in portions of a concert with the NEC Symphony Orchestra in Jordan Hall. Other plans for the 2022–23 school year include further development of CPP’s teaching artistry programs, a substantial increase in the number of virtual lessons offered to Boston Public School students, and a strengthened focus on creative aging and elder choirs.

As the years continue, the CPP Program will continue amplifying connection and community, through challenging times and brighter days, via the power of music.

BOSTON HOPE MUSIC NEC students work with MGH patients and healthcare professionals on a variety of music-related health initiatives, efforts which are more crucial than ever during the pandemic.

BOSTON HOPE MUSIC

Tanya Maggi and Grace Allendorf / New England Conservatory | Boston Hope Music

THROUGH A PARTNERSHIP with Boston Hope Music and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), NEC students work with patients and healthcare professionals to provide musical instruction, music therapy, virtual bedside concerts, and more. The project began early in the pandemic and has continued to widen its scope as hospital staff have dealt with wave after wave of COVID-19.

For Dr. Kathy Tran, the partnership with CPP provided the MGH community with intangible benefits beyond the capabilities of medicine. NEC students, she says, “were able to provide a treatment that we doctors could not.” Their musical offerings “brought smiles, joy, comfort, and a temporary escape from the troubles of sickness — for patients, family, and staff.”

AMPLIFYING COMMUNITY (TOP TO BOTTOM) The CPP Holiday Fellowship Trio performs at Cambridge’s Cadbury Commons, featuring Tiffany Yeung ’24, violin; Sarah Tindall ’24, cello; and Emily Mitchell ’24, guitar/vocals.

Grant Houston ’20, ’22 MM works with students at the Virginia Arts Festival during Trio Gaia’s spring break programs.

The impact on students was equally profound.

CPP Ensemble Fellow Delfina Cheb Terrab ’21 MM lists many unforgettable experiences from her involvement with CPP, including singing with a COVID patient and his family as he said goodbye to his loved ones. “I will also never forget,” she says, “the time my MGH doctor-student broke down in tears, telling me it was the first time she was able to cry since the pandemic started, after singing her beautiful rendition of the song Rise Up by Andra Day.”

New England Conservatory Magazine / Spring 2022 17