Orchestrating Diversity performs outside Lemp Arts Center. Photo by Jesse Windels
In our October issue, we wrote about Orchestrating Diversity, the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center program that gives free classical music training to kids who can’t afford formal lessons. OD has made astonishing progress in its very short lifetime; the same can be said of its students. Even those in their first year, including kids who have fallen behind due to a dysfunctional music program at school, leave OD’s summer intensive with the ability to read music, a grasp of college-level music theory, and the experience of performing complex classical works in front of a live audience. OD is similar in spirit to Venezuela’s El Sistema, which started with a handful of music students in a Caracas garage, exploded into countless “nucleos,” across the country, and now exports alums to orchestras all over the globe. (And in fact, OD has recently been designated as one of El Sistema USA’s first wave of nucleos.) The key to El Sistema, as well as Orchestrating Diversity, is it's not just about the music; it is "a new model for social change," as the El Sistema USA site notes. Its philosophy is "loving children first and loving music second"—though it's a very close second. Sir Simon Rattle, conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, observed that he saw "future of music in Venezuela," adding, "I wish Mahler were here to see this as well."
In order to grow Orchestrating Diversity into a larger, year-round program that works with kids of all ages, LNAC is developing the building next door to the Art Center, with volunteer help from designer Jacqueline Winkler and architect Derek Lauer. The building will actually serve multiple functions, including splash-over space for LNAC shows, rooms for private music lessons, and formal rehearsal space for the orchestra (including space for kids to practice solos before playing before a live audience). It will also, says LNAC founder Mark Sarich, house “a xerox library of the writings, written holdings and effects of my mentor Herbert Brün—whose vision for the role of music in social change is the inspiration for all I do.” Hence, the building will be known as Brünhaus. The subhead on the Brünhaus website describes the undertaking as “a historic redevelopment project in Benton Park, Saint Louis, at the crossroads of Herbert Brün, El Sistema USA, cybernetics, and social change.”
This Sunday, December 5, Orchestrating Diversity students perform, along with professional musicians, at the Cabanne House in Forest Park (for an idea of what that might be like, here's a short video outtake from the students’ summer concert at Holmes Lounge). There will also be a video presentation about the Brünhaus development, wine, and food catered by Bon Appetit. The program runs between 2:30 and 4 p.m. and tickets are $25, $50, and $100 and can be purchased at gala.lemp-arts.org; all proceeds go to support Orchestrating Diversity and Brünhaus. To paraphrase one of the little kids in this trailer for an upcoming documentary about El Sistema, Orchestrating Diversity is "moving on...like elephants!"
