BETTER DAYS TO COME

Pat Vandehey Director of Bands, Portland State University School of Music & Theater

I want to reach out to all of you and let you know that the Portland State School of Music & Theater is alive and functioning at full capacity during the current pandemic. We have modified our curriculum, and though it is not exactly business as usual, we are providing a full-service music experience and our students are getting an outstanding music education. I don’t need to tell any of you the difficulties of doing what we do during this time. I am extremely proud of all of you. If there is anything we at PSU can do to help ease the burden and make the process of teaching remotely more effective, please let us know.

We are going through probably the most difficult time I can remember in teaching and I have been doing this for 41 years. I talk with my daughter who is a middle school band director, and she uses the word unsustainable. On Facebook I read posts that say teaching remotely doesn’t work. I hear of band directors weeping with frustration at the end of the day. The best advice I can give is to remind you why you went into this field in the first place. To remember the passion, you had/have for teaching music to young people. You know and I know that arts education, music education in particular, changes lives. It changes and molds lives in ways no other activity can. It is vital. It is vital in spite of budgets, schedules, viruses, and teaching remote or in person.

Teaching remotely is awful. I hate it. Yet, if there is even one kid who is reached and inspired by the experience, it is worth it. You don’t know how far your influence is going to go. That one kid is a seed, and that seed will germinate and grow. Covid-19 will end. We will get back to a normal situation. I’m sure there are ramifications to this that none of us can foresee. We don’t know what the new “normal” will look like. The one thing that will never change is the need for music education. It is a nonnegotiable fact.

I was blessed to teach a music camp one summer to refugee kids in Beirut, Lebanon. I had eight days to teach 25 kids who had never held an instrument and to whom Western music was a novelty and not part of the culture. I was charged to put on a concert at the end of the week. This little band didn’t make a great sound. In fact, it was probably the worst beginning band I have ever worked with. Neither the quality of sound nor the concert at the end of camp was important. The important thing was that a miracle took place. These kids had nothing. Their lives were in shambles. I was able to offer them the gift of music. I saw an enthusiasm I had never experienced before. I saw an eagerness to learn and a communal outpouring that was overwhelming. I have no idea what happened to those kids after the camp, but I know that the experience changed their lives forever and they participated in an event that they will never forget. That’s what music does to a person. This experience proved that to me.

You are changing lives. In-person or remotely. Hang in there. You are going to lose kids. Your ensembles will take a year or two to recover. But you need to be there for those kids who you have already infused with the intoxicating magic of playing music, especially ensemble music. They need you today like never before. In a weird way they are like those kids in Beirut. Their lives have been turned upside down and you need to provide stability and hope. In the process you and the music you are sharing are helping to calm their spirit and soothe their souls.

Bravo to you all. You are attempting the impossible and the immediate rewards are not readily seen. In fact, the immediate is too often a bitter pill to swallow. Still, you have chosen this noble profession and need to charge ahead and move through this most difficult of times. Better days are not far away and the work you do today will ensure that when better days do come, you will have a strong foundation to work with.

We at Portland State University look forward to working with you all soon. You are all our heroes. We are counting on you to stay the course and keep music alive in our schools AND our culture.

Sincerely,

Pat Vandehey Director of Bands, Portland State University School of Music & Theater