Kids and Jazz

Today I went to a performance at Berkeley. Cal Performances is an org that brings peformers to Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley to perform for a subscribing audience - this year they'll have violinist Hillary Hahn, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Alvin Ailey, and John Cleese, just to name a few. They also do "schooltime" performances for classes of elementary school and middle school kids.

Today, I attended a schooltime performance with Kathy Henschel, who is on the board of Cal Performance, and has been really important in introducing me to lots of arts ed people in the area (after about 6 degrees of separation, I met Sabrina Klein and lots of arts ed people in SF through Kathy). Kathy is great - she spent all her life in corporate america, but mostly loved the teambuilding aspect of her work. Now she sits on various boards of arts organizations in the Bay Area, and enjoys cultivating the next generation of performers, audiences and donors - she invites young people to performances with her, she volunteers at Ailey Camp through Cal Performances in the summer, and she sits on the Young Audiences subcommittees of a number of boards in the area. she also says things like "it was a hoot and a half!" which i find kind of funny.

Today we saw a performance that introduced elementary and middle school students to the history of jazz in the US - cartoons of jazz greats like duke ellington and thelonius monk came on stage and answered questions about learning and loving music. a live jazz band based in nyc played their great hits, and a fabulous energetic performer and singer hosted the show, mediating among cartoon conversation, audience singing, and jazz band playing. the feeling in the hall was electric- students were screaming with joy. the host passed his microphone around for students to scat and sing with the band, and most of the kids jumped at the opportunity. he had the whole place hopping.

it was a really potent moment - one of those times when you see the direct impact of a program. kids in the audience were sparked today, and you knew that while not all of them would become professional musicians, most of them would grow to appreciate jazz and live performance. and starting that spark is the most important of all.