Growing Together - with Program Assistant Katie

It was the final meeting of the year with the Big Sky Orchestra through Google Meet, and the sense of community that I had felt from them since the first day in the fall when I had joined their group as a volunteer mentor was still there. In the first 15 minutes before the actual Big Sky discussion began (to model the downtime when the kids would have their snacks and chat before the group lesson would begin when we were still meeting in person at the MLK before the pandemic), I couldn’t help but smile at what I was witnessing. One of the kids was intermittently playing Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up,” to which the other students responded by either dancing, making their stuffed ostrich and rubber duck dance, or typing in the chat how the song is a major bop. I felt a sense of gratitude to be amongst a group of people who could make the otherwise isolating form of communication over computer screens feel like we were once again together in person, and that 15 minutes of fun only preceded what would be the last of the deep, social-justice-based Big Sky Discussion of the year.

When I enrolled at Salve Regina University this past fall, I had decided to major in elementary education and music, as well as minor in creative writing. When I met my cello teacher at Salve, Jacob MacKay, I learned that he was the resident cellist and director of educational programming of NSP! I quickly asked if I could become involved in the organization. I began going to the MLK every Wednesday as a volunteer mentor, working with the Big Sky Orchestra and the Bright Sparks Orchestra. The first week I came, I was welcomed by a warm round of “Up the Ladder” with the Bright Sparks, and in my second week there I even substitute taught two of Jacob’s cello students. Before hopping on the trolley with my blue cello case (which is a great conversation starter with Newport tourists, by the way) on the way to the MLK center one week towards the beginning, I had told my friends from music theory that I was off to the Newport String Project. Upon being asked what that was, I described it in that moment as being “wholesome and rewarding;” since then, I have never refrained from using that description.

Working with NSP was wholesome through forging relationships with the students and staff and feeling as part of a community, whether through playing games such as “Lucy Locket” and memorizing each item we put in a mouthwatering soup with the soup stirring bow exercise, or through singing and playing “Rocky Mountain” as a whole ensemble at the Fall Barn Dance no matter the students’ skill levels. My position at NSP was also quite rewarding, because I had discovered that this type of program combines all my interests: working with children, teaching, music, creativity, and social justice. After my first semester, I decided to undergo the daunting task of quitting my work study position at Salve in order to take the new opportunity in my second semester to transition from a volunteer mentor into a paid Program Assistant.

In my second semester, I worked with NSP on both Mondays and Wednesdays, in which I could also work with the Pinwheel Orchestra and observe other students’ cello lessons. Before I knew it, the beginning of March came around, and we were planning this incredible March Practice Challenge. I was in awe of Ealain’s creativity with all the different engaging activities and the birth of the practice mascot, Ama the Llama. However, the big plans were slightly halted when a major dilemma came our way: the Coronavirus. It was then when we transitioned into virtual learning, and I have to say that the weekly staff meetings and Big Sky sessions really were the highlights of each week for me in the endless pit of quarantine. Right as the Coronavirus struck, I was also undergoing an incredibly difficult decision generated through self-reflection and soul-searching.

After getting sent home for the year from Salve, I reflected upon my year, and I had realized that NSP was the absolute best thing that could have happened to me. Being involved in NSP opened up a world of possibilities in life that I had never considered before, due to the fact that it combined all of my interests while simultaneously introducing me to more passions that would ultimately help me use my interests to make a difference in the world. I thought back to some of the conversations we had at Hannah’s Big Sky discussions when we were meeting in person and the life lessons I had learned. When discussing community, we agreed on a definition that community is when we show up for each other. At another point, we were pushing the importance of diversity, to which one of the students said that no diversity would be “Plane Jane-Ville,” which would be bad. I synthesized these two discussions, and I had decided for myself that if my career goal after graduating would be to work with an El-Sistema-inspired program, then I would want to be in a community of like-minded musicians who would be there for me to help me become the best musician and cellist that I could possibly be while also pushing me to discover more about different cultures and the impact that this music has on the world.

During quarantine, I had applied to other schools where I believed I could satisfy these desires. Still, I was incredibly torn because of my love of working with NSP, having top-notch cello lessons with Jacob, and being completely in love with the community at Salve, although I juggled these attachments to Salve with the fact that I had felt unfulfilled in being challenged in other regards and yearned for more rigor. Even though I was just exploring other opinions to expand my horizons and ensure that I was not being complacent in the school in which I was currently enrolled, I felt an overbearing sense of guilt that I was betraying Salve. I was ultimately searching for schools that could challenge me more, have a cohort of classical-based string musicians, supply lots of classical music opportunities, and provide me with more multicultural learning experiences.

In the meantime, I continued with life in quarantine as a Salve student, and I had contributed to the online learning experience with NSP, such as uploading weekly music-related quizzes for the Big Sky Orchestra and “Imaginative Illustration” prompts for the Bright Sparks Orchestra on Flip Grid. I also took upon two other challenges that helped me become more aware of my passions: I made two “Listening Calendars” that included music beyond the western classical music trope, as well as two Ama the Practice Llama themed children’s stories that reignited my love for creative writing. 

I had soon begun to hear back from transfer schools, and I was blown away by the opportunities available at the University of Rochester. Rochester is a big, diverse city on its own with opportunities available similar to NSP. As a school, it has a large international student population and an outstanding music department (and connection with the Eastman School of Music). I would be part of the Guaranteed Rochester Accelerated Degree in Education (GRADE) Program and specialize in elementary education to earn my MSEd in a year after my undergraduate education and work in the Rochester school district. As for music, I would take cello lessons at Eastman and have the opportunity to participate in different orchestras, chamber ensembles, and world music groups. As a music major, I would choose a track, which for me would be the Music in World Cultures track. I would also minor in creative writing and have the opportunity to sharpen my writing skills in hopes of writing more children’s literature in the future. Overall, the aspect of Rochester that I liked the most was its motto: Meliora (ever better).

The Meliora motto reminded me of my time at NSP, where we came together as a community to learn music and work for social justice. We all held hands and danced together at the Barn Dances no matter our age or anything else that would divide us. We overcame any nerves of performing in front of a large crowd by spreading holiday joy at the Jane Pickens Theater. We were resilient during remote learning and optimistic even in the face of a global pandemic. We made ourselves ever better, and that is exactly what my goal is for myself, as well, going forward—inspired by the motto of Rochester and the model of NSP. 

Living near Boston, I recently came across a mural of Charlie on the MBTA at the Symphony Stop with a cello; it led me to think that maybe we are all like Charlie (and conveniently enough, I had named my cello “Charlie” back when I got it in high school) in some way. We all eternally take a ride on our paths and never get off. We never lose sight of our values and passions, and we do whatever it takes to not stop prematurely. And that’s exactly what I saw at that last meeting with the Big Sky Orchestra. Yes, we all underwent a global pandemic, but the jovial banter made it seem like we never took this unnecessary stop, and our eyes are always on the future. 

Katie