New England Conservatory

This year we will feature four outstanding CPP individuals and ensembles, from our fellowship program! We are thrilled to share the reflections and stories of students that are so passionate about their work in the Boston Community. Next are Taylor Blanton and Shishi Zhou from our Musical Storytelling Fellowship!

SHISHI Why did you decide to get involved in CPP?

I knew that music has a lot to do with community and I knew that NEC does a lot with [the community]. Once I made a friendship with some of my classmates I said "why don't we bring this to a wider audience" and the CPP audience was a great resource to help us.

Why did you decide to do musical storytelling?

I always wanted to get into the storytelling part of music making. It just naturally happened to be very interesting to me. I was aware that there was a musical storytelling fellowship...and it tapped into my interests directly.

What have you learned from this particular program and what have you taken away from it?

My case is a little bit different than some others I know. Many people have a story they want to work, but I came from the opposite direction. I had [a piece] I really wanted to bring to more people because it's a Chinese composition. My challenge was finding a story that fit to the music and a plot that was interesting for the kids, as well as people who aren't familiar with the culture and music. To make this come across really does take a lot of extra effort, which Tanya [Maggi] helped me with.

Do you have any favorite moments from a CPP performance

One moment was when I taught a group of kids and they sung the tune back to me and they sounded so amazing that I was moved [to] tears. [Another] moment was when I really felt "ok, this program is effective" and I was really happy that I was achieving a goal and I was having the kids learn.

Any thoughts or reflections you'd like to share for someone who is thinking about doing CPP?

I would definitely recommend it, it is a great practice and learning experience to get out of the box of playing our instruments. I think doing outreach you build a real relationship with people!

TAYLOR

Why did you decide to get involved in CPP?

I originally wanted to do the teaching [fellowship] but it's very difficult to find Trombone players. [Instead], Tanya [Maggi] thought I would be great with musical storytelling. I was thinking I wanted to teach and make money, then she suggested musical storytelling and it has presented the world of community engagement to me, and really opened my eyes up to arts education.

Why do you like the musical storytelling fellowship, and why do you keep coming back?

I love being able to educate children who, a lot of the time, have no music program in their school. It is a great creative outlook for me especially as I am an intern with the BSO right now for their community engagement and arts education department. This is a field I want to go into and CPP presented that to me. I really love getting to present art to people for the first time, and get them interested in it. I think doing that through musical storytelling is a great way because it engages children with something they are familiar with and then something that they are less familiar with.

What have you learned from the program and what have you taken away from it?

When you're a music student you just learn how to play, you don't learn how to interact with your audiences. This has helped me to program, and entering the world of community education has helped me see what programs are out there. I love getting to teach these kids and it's a really fun experience for me.

Do you have a favorite story from a CPP performance?

Oh yes! I did a program last year at one of the public libraries. My program was about a cow that dances around the world, and there's a little bongo part when the cow is trying to learn how to lead the herd. We have this little bongo rhythm and we teach it to the children so when we get to that portion of the book they can do it with us. At the end we say "if you want to come up and touch the bongo come on", so there was this girl there who was with her grandmother, and she had just gotten cochlear implants. That was such a special moment because at the end of the program she came up and did the rhythm and I thought that was really really really cool. That was a standout moment for me, that I could have that impact on a child especially one who had just learned how to hear.

Any thoughts or reflections you'd like to share with anyone who is thinking about getting involved in CPP?