WMI 6-Week Secondment Reflective Statement

Secondment Report

Carnegie Hall - MusicalConnections:Music Makers

Crossroads Juvenile DetentionCenter

Brooklyn, New York.

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Secondment Report

Zachary ScottThe Royal Conservatoire of

ScotlandGlasgow, Scotland

June 2015

Reflective Report

Where Am I Coming From?

I come from music.

I come from a living room where everyone would sit around together, offer points for discussion, debate,laughter and mostly, music. I come from a family thatgifted me with access and opportunity to creating newmusic. I came from a family that wasn’t so interestedin re-creating past conventions, I came from a place where my own voice mattered.

For the past four years, I have been studying Contemporary Performance Practice at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow. This degree hasallowed me to develop my performance practices as a theatre maker as well as a musician. I also have had the chance to apply my performance practices in a variety of different contexts, to participate on placements with organisations in Glasgow and beyond.

Being accepted on Paragon Music’s Practitioner Training at the start of 2014 was a significant

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Secondment Reportmilestone for me in my practice, where I truly embraced the outcomes of my upbringing. I relished within the concepts of “inclusion” that I was being exposed to and began to define the term for myself. Having such a wonderful opportunity to put the theories into practice by working on a wide range of Paragon’s inclusive music and dance programs, I started to get the feel for what one key strand of myprofessional practice might look like, how I would operate and what influences would affect my pedagogy.Never did I envisage at that time having an opportunity to place all of that learning into practice at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute in New York City.

You may be familiar with the joke, “How do you get toCarnegie Hall?” The origin of the joke will probably always remain a mystery, but the best explanation I’ve found comes from the wife of violinist Mischa Elman. One day, after a rehearsal that hadn’t pleasedElman, the couple was leaving Carnegie Hall by the backstage entrance when they were approached by two tourists looking for the hall’s entrance. Seeing his violin case, they asked, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” Without looking up and continuing on his way, Elman simply replied, “Practice.”

Well I got to Carnegie Hall by complete and utter accident. Last year, I wrote my dissertation, “The Music Teaching Artist – How Can We Effectively Embody & Employ An Inclusive Pedagogy?” based on my interest and research into the field after reading Eric Booth’s book, The Music Teaching Artist’s Bible, which exemplified some core competencies required for artists who are keen to facilitate creative learning experiences as part of their practice. In a vain attempt to quote Eric

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Secondment Reportdirectly, I emailed him via his website – unfortunately I did not receive any response. It wasn’t until January of 2015, when my dissertation was 6 months old, that I received word. Following this interaction, Eric put me in touch with associates at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, where I had enquired about fulfilling a secondment placement for 6-weeks. I duly accepted the opportunity to observe the work that Carnegie Hall isdoing in social contexts in the vast community of NewYork as well as have the opportunity to facilitate and lead a project of my own.

I wanted to find an opportunity to balance my performance practices of music, songwriting and devised theatre with teaching artistry. I know that working in social contexts really suits my ethics, mypolitical voice and affirms the voice within me that asks me to always help and guide others. I know that I have a good knowledge of the inclusive landscapes in Glasgow, the current language used and the pedagogies of opportunity that are being practiced. Iknow the core activity of art and learning is to makepersonally relevant connections between oneself and new things. I know that teaching artistry is the artful, effective, engaging, successful, joyful, transformative, proven way to guide, support and nurture humans into and through life’s unpredictable experiences. I knew I was ready to delve into the world of teaching artistry more, meeting ambassadors at one of the most prestigious performing arts institutions in the world.

I had also hoped that my decision to travel to New York would embellish me with a lot of new connections, as well as giving me the opportunity to

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Secondment Reportdiscover new voices in fields that are similar to my own. I was pleased with the synthesis of my ideas in a cognitive, written way but I needed something else that would help me realise some of the more human, embodied aspects that I believe music – its creation,its practice and its performance – can espouse in absolutely anyone.

How Does Music Bring Us Together?

I decided that, in the spirit of community and in relation to how I chose to define Inclusion at that point – as a means to reduce barriers to participation and learning - I wanted to choose a question that acted as something that over-arched thewhole experience.

I chose to constantly refer to the question “How DoesMusic Bring Us Together?” I felt that this intention was ambiguous and beautiful – it allowed me to reallyfocus in on the ways that communities are built, how people are brought together and what the outcomes looked like.

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Secondment Report

My Experience at the Weill Music Institute

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Secondment ReportMy experience contained the following:

* Providing onsite support for a music composition project.

* Providing production support for the final performance.

* Conducting general program research and assessment,to support future program planning.

* Participating in the planning and implementation ofrecruitment and transition initiatives - helping young people in juvenile justice settings transition into other opportunities to continue their music making.

* Performing daily office tasks such as copying, filing, mailing, scanning, etc.

As part of my experience, I had also arranged to meetwith a number of internal staff, external partners and friends of WMI to discuss my ideas of inclusion, along with the question that I had set myself at the beginning of the process. I had the chance to speak to Eric Booth, Tom Cabaniss and Barli Nugent from TheJuilliard School, Clive Gillinson, Artistic & Executive Director of Carnegie Hall along with many other performing artists and educators from New York City.

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Secondment Report

Learning Conference:

I was fortunate enough to visit the American Museum of Natural History, where I participated in a creative learning conference organised by the NYC Hive Learning Network. Hive NYC is comprised of 55 non-profit organizations such as museums, libraries, code clubs, advocacy groups, higher education institutions, afterschool programs and tech ‘start-ups’. They create equitable and accessible opportunities for young people to explore their interests and gain skills that prepare them for success in the ever-growing “information age.” The concepts of equity and accessibility form the basis of my understanding of what a social and political idea of inclusion is, so I found myself thrilled to be a part of these conversations. I also wanted to see what other creative forms were bringing people together too. I used this as a fantastic opportunity for me to disseminate my knowledge of inclusive music practice,contributing my understanding of where Paragon’s interests lie (as well as their creative use of technology in their music and dance workshops) as

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Secondment Reportwell as starting to compare the learning landscape inNYC to that of Scotland.

The conference brought together lots of educators andarts projects based in the city who are using digitalmedia as part of their practice. I thought of Paragoninstantly, as we utilise music making technology in our workshops. The conference also asked us questionsabout what we (as artists and advocators) value, whatwe desire, what are our agendas for the short and long term, what is the role of learning and innovation and how we nurture it, how will we respondto the different landscapes that are constantly shifting.

One of these new ideas that have been exposed in the last week is called “Connected Learning.” Initially, I realised this could have a similar core to the ideaof “Project-Based Learning” – I understand this as a dynamic classroom approach in which students activelyexplore real-world problems and challenges and acquire a deeper knowledge. I recognised this as an active approach. I looked at this idea of an “active learning environment” through the lens of a teaching artists within my dissertation.

My year-and-a-half experience facilitating sessions at Paragon’s Play On workshops has brought me to noticethat it is within the Artist’s agency to facilitate and construct an environment for “dialogical learning” to take place. With this in mind, one of the main premises that Paragon’s Play On sessions work on is that participants can communicate their thoughts, ideas and emotions through musical and compositional activities. This is viewed as an ‘active learning experience’ that allows participants

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Secondment Reportto consolidate their musical ideas within the contextof an individual lesson and when working together in a larger group. I understand ‘active learning’ to mean ‘learning through practical, engaging and enjoyable explorations.’ This notion of active learning in music is further justified by Charles Byrne, who in his seminal essay ‘Pedagogical Communication in the Music Classroom’ writes:

Active learning in music engages learners in experiencing musical concepts and features, during which they learn how to play and recognise these features, during which the explore how to (…) enrich their understanding through short compositional tasks which makes useof them.   (Byrne, 2007, 301)

I am beginning to realise that there is wide agreement that we need new models of education, and not simply new models of schooling, but entirely new visions of learning better suited to the increasing complexity, connectivity, and velocity of our societythat is increasingly closer to endless knowledge. We now have the capability to re-imagine where, when, and how learning takes place and I would argue that an inclusive approach allows for key opportunities for nurturing the needs of anybody. Everybody can learn. Learning is an environment, an ecology of engagement, passion and discovery.

In the two weeks of observations, I recognised that the Weill Music Institute are arguably leading the way in providing the kind of music environments that challenge the status quo. One could assume that Carnegie Hall’s prestige would distract its desire tocommit to working in all parts of New York, shooing away the prospect of making music accessible to all. I am becoming aware of the sheer quality and scope of

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Secondment Reportthe WMI’s programs and I believe that they exemplify the vision to re-align the landscape of creative music making. Music plays an essential role in the development of communities and in our understanding of the human experience, so it is fascinating to see that somewhere that you may, on first glance, believerepresents classical music prestige and elitism, actually has a strong, committed, progressive community programmes department.

The ways in which young people are learning is changing, more rapidly than we could have expected. This is widely accepted and appreciated by networks such as Hive. Below is a series of images that I believe speak loudly for themselves about ways in which we can sustain our creative practices that wereborn within the conference. I think individually, they capture the richness of the pedagogical ideas, grown out of collaboration, which could influence ourcreative learning landscapes, enabling for the designof new artistic learning territories.

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Secondment Report

Crossroads Juvenile Detention Center – Songwriting Project

Crossroads is a secure detention facility for allegedJuvenile Delinquents and Juvenile Offenders, who are awaiting resolution of their court cases. Custody andcare are provided in a safe, secure and service-oriented program. They have a diverse after-school’s curriculum, within which Carnegie Hall offers its songwriting and music making opportunities.

For three weeks, I worked alongside artist Chad Harper of Hip-Hop Saves Lives, singer-songwriter Bridget Barkan and band Brown Rice Family with a group of 13 young people at Crossroads to create, produce and record six tracks of brand new music to be showcased at a final event for friends, family andcaseworkers.

It was my role to ensure that all of the back-end planning and implementing was completed – I had to form great relationships with staff to ensure a smooth operation. This was slightly unfamiliar territory for me as I am so used to facilitating. I felt slightly strange operating as a project manager initially as I missed being the artist in the room. Ihated feeling detached and out of the loop in that moment. I literally observed the first workshop with my Manager and it was hard – I wanted to jump in and make lots of suggestions on how to make songs better or help a young person realise something. Zac, it’s about the music, not about you!

However, I managed to get my opportunity after much

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Secondment Reportlonging in the second week. I helped to write one of the songs that the youth were struggling with – Loyalty. I contributed a verse of my own as well as helping young people write lyrics and with the song’sstructure.

I was in attendance when the artists recorded the young people’s songs at Grand Street Recording. This was a wonderful experience, getting to hear the work evolve, being brought up to a brilliant standard. When the young people heard back the music, they werevery impressed and this enticed everyone to work hardin the final week as we prepared for the sharing events. I produced the Dress Rehearsal and Concert. It was the young people’s chance to show those closest to them at this point in their lives the hardwork that they had been doing with the artists and with Carnegie Hall.

Both events were successes and heralded lots of positive energy within Crossroads from Staff, Youth and Associates. Below is the album artwork from the CD’s recorded produced by one of the young people at Crossroads.

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Secondment Report

Conclusion

New York was fast and furious – as was my Carnegie Hall experience. It catered for my anxious tendenciesand forced them to be left aside because they couldn’t cope with the exciting pace that was put in front of them. It enabled me to realise several tendencies of mine, several competencies and things that I need to better about myself. To be clear, to

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Secondment Reportinstigate an attitude of less is more and to rememberit’s always about the music.

Arriving back to Scotland has reminded me of the pedagogical strengths we have at home with regards toinclusive, creative music practice. With regards to Paragon’s agency, reach and depth of knowledge I would argue these competencies were something that was evidently missing within Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute. For all of its strengths and prowess– as I mentioned, it does do incredible work - there seemed to be a sizeable gap, or an uncertainty towards specific programs for young people with additional support needs. New York is huge, diverse city and one arts institution cannot possibly do everything to cater the needs of everyone. However, some of the language I found at Carnegie Hall certainly would insinuate this idealistic perspective– hence why I was slightly confused as to why there was no provision for anyone with an additional support need or a disability. Perhaps this was a suggestion that those with an ASN or disability can participate in the sessions already offered. Maybe this was due to funding choices, decisions made at different levels within the institution. I am unsure.

This did not stop me thinking about the work that Paragon do, or re-consider what their work is all about. In fact, it justified my role as a musician working with them even more. Inclusion is about starting with who the person is first, engaging in

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Secondment Reporttheir ideas and beliefs. It is about removing the barriers to learning and participation by providing access and opportunity which has a collaborative, personal feel to it. Finally, it is about celebratingeveryone’s song inside themselves, appreciating everyone’s unique contributions and making them knownin the world.

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