Using music as a means for social change has been a deep interest of mine ever since I learned about the El Sistema program, which originated in Venezuela. Through this program, children from low-income and often high-violence communities are provided with free orchestral training, which includes providing them with instruments. Children in such programs (referred to as núcleos) attend classes up to six days a week and learn about music theory, playing an instrument, musicianship, and more. The philosophy behind such a model is that the children will become a part of a community that gives them an escape from the at-risk community they live in. Now spread to all over the world, El Sistema programs have produced amazing results, both in nurturing extremely talented musicians and improving the lives of at-risk youth. I have decided to devote my life as a musician to working within such programs, which I currently do at the YOURS Project Chicago.

Working with youth in detention centers really is not much different than working with youth outside of them; really, they are just teenagers that an El Sistema program (or something similar) did not quite reach in time, and it is not too late for them to gain the same benefits. In reality, they are so similar to other kids their age with the exception that they came from more unfortunate circumstances and made some stupid mistakes. Having worked with them for the past six weeks, every weekend I am realizing more and more how they are just normal kids and have great amounts of potential. I am constantly impressed by their musical abilities and levels of maturity, and my idea that music truly can act as a catalyst for social change is being even further reaffirmed.

Community Service Through Music

I've been a volunteer and a drummer since I was twelve. There are many opportunities that I've taken to combine the roles, and perform (no pun intended) community service through music. AMPED has been one of the coolest and most rewarding thus far. Prior to volunteering as a mentor at the Cook County JTDC, my inspiration for musical community service came from an ASB Spring Break trip where I spent one week volunteering as a musical therapist's teaching assistant at The Pace School in Pittsburgh, PA. After observing autistic children communicate through music (when words were too difficult), I began to better understand power of music beyond entertainment.

After that trip, I was looking for a way to keep up with music therapy. I checked out academic opportunities through Northwestern's Auditory Neuroscience Lab. While the research was intriguing, I wanted to be leveraging my own musicality as well (instead of just conducting controlled studies and analyzing data). Luckily I stumbled into a really cool guest lecture by Florida State University Professor Alice-Ann Darrow. She presented compelling case studies that showed the positive impact of music (and music therapy) on diverse populations that are usually removed from music (the elderly, the incarcerated, the homeless, etc.).

Immediately after, I got involved with the development of AMPED and try to spend most of my Saturday mornings volunteering through the program. The experience has been tremendously rewarding and I look forward to our students final products!