Hometown Hero: Student Mentors: Music and Meaning

Mayumi Kanagawa with Saint Anne Students     Photo Credit Robert Schaefer

Two students walked into music class at Saint Anne School in Santa Monica.  “They were bickering and calling each other names,” said Mayumi Kanagawa, a Crossroads student who is volunteering at Saint Anne School. 
“I taught them to play different lines of a song on their violins, and then had each play one line simultaneously.  When I told them that they'd just made harmony together, they couldn't help grinning.”

Kanagawa is a Music Major at the Elizabeth Mandell Music Institute at Crossroads School.  She, along with other music majors from Crossroads, in satisfaction of their community outreach requirement, work as mentors helping Saint Anne students as they learn to play a string instrument.

Inspiration for the music program comes from “El Sistema”, the Venezuelan success story that, for over 30 years, has reached children all over Venezuela, but especially in the poorest barrios, and has used music as the path to bring them out of the barrios and out of poverty.  Gustavo Dudamel, the conductor of the LA Philharmonic, is a product of El Sistema. He sees teaching classical music as a path to creating a more just social future and has continued the tradition in his work in Los Angeles.

The music program at Saint Anne’s is a part of the movement, inspired by El Sistema, to use music as a way to help children out of poverty and to create stronger and safer communities. The Belgian-born composer Jan Van der Roost said, “I think if all the countries in the world would do El Sistema, there would be a lot less problems and a lot more happiness.”

Saint Anne School started in 1908 with 55 children, to serve the large, migrant farm-worker families in the community. Migrant farm-workers from Mexico worked side by side with those from Oklahoma and the Southern states as their children studied together at Saint Anne School.

Maryann Cummins, a gifted musician and teacher, is the Director of the Elizabeth Mandell Music Institute at Crossroads (EMMI) and, among her other responsibilities, teaches music to the youngest of the children at Saint Anne School.  Cummins said, “When any of the music teachers or any student mentors come through the door the students surround us with hugs, love and happiness. They are hungry for music and the arts.  It feeds me to teach these students.” 

Third, fourth, and fifth grade students who want to study a string instrument, are mentored by EMMI students.  To be in the string program children must commit to working with the student mentors 4 days per week after school, in addition to their lessons during school taught by faculty provided by the Santa Monica Sol La Music Academy.  The violins and cellos they use are provided by donors and through fundraising.  All Saint Anne students study music.  If they decide not to learn to play an instrument then they are taught music through choral training.  And all students participate in the School's Christmas and Spring concerts.

Juan-Salvador Carrasco, a EMMI student, said of one child trying to learn to play the cello, “After a long struggle trying to teach one of my students a proper bowhold, one day everything I had been pestering him about finally clicked. It was amazing to witness his hand fall into the right mold, something I had often deemed impossible. Not only did I feel immensely satisfied, but it also made him feel proud to accomplish something so complex and intricate.”

Mentors take pride in their teaching and the Saint Anne students take pride in their learning.  Mentors for the music program are:  Elisa Abondolo, grade 6, age 11, violin; Seth Biagini, grade 12, age 17, cello; Juan-Salvador Carrasco, grade 12, age 16, cello; Sebastian Carrasco, grade 9, age 14, violin; Marina Chen, grade 12, age 17, violin; Mayumi Kanagawa, grade 11, age 16, violin; Maxwell Karmazyn, grade 11, age 17, violin; Esther Kim, grade 12, age 17, violin; Min-Jae Kim, grade 10, age 15, violin; Mackenzie Kugel, grade 8, age 13,violin; Alexzandra Morris, grade 10, age 16, violin; Avery Morris, grade 11, age 16, violin; Katrina Schaefer, grade 11, age 16, violin; Jeronimo Sexton, grade 11, age 16, cello; Chandler Yu, grade 10, age 15, violin.

El Sistema, as it is practiced at Saint Anne School is transforming life, both for the Crossroad mentors and the Saint Anne students.  One of the student mentors, Katrina Marie Schaefer, expressed the feelings of the entire group of mentors saying, “Music is an essential part of life, allowing an escape from the stresses of everyday routine. It stirs emotion and allows one to communicate with others, as it is a universal language.

What Say You? Construction City

“An unprecedented amount of excitement” was Council Member Kevin McKeown’s characterization of the number of development projects planned for construction over the next five to ten years in the Santa Monica.  His comment was made at the February 1, 2011 City Council meeting, one of two important meetings Santa Monicans held this week to discuss all the development proposals on the table.

McKeown’s comment was in direct response to the City Staff team motto, “BE EXCITED. BE PREPARED.” City staff presented Council with an overview report of the projects planned for construction in the downtown and civic center areas in the next 5 years: Colorado Avenue Esplanade from 4^th Street to Ocean Avenue; Freeway capping at Ocean Avenue; California Incline Replacement Project; Pier Bridge Replacement Project; Exposition Light Rail Downtown Station at 4^th and Colorado; Civic Center Parks; Civic Center Village Housing Project; Olympic Drive extension from Main Street to Ocean Avenue; Civic Auditorium renovation; Early Childhood Center at the Civic Center; Santa Monica High School new facilities; Parking Structure 6 re-build; Bike Centers in Parking structures 7 and 8; AMC Theater project; City-owned 4^th/5^th Street and Arizona site; and plans for the renovation of the Miramar Hotel, construction of the Shore Hotel and a proposed hotel at 710 Wilshire.

The LUCE anticipated and included all these projects, what the Council was being asked to review and discuss was the timing and management of the construction of the projects and the City staff proposals for management of the traffic impacts of the proposed projects.

Speaking at the “State of the City 2011 Santa Monica: Passport to Success” Chamber of Commerce meeting on January 27, 2011, at the Broad Stage, City Manager, Rod Gould, addressed these same issues with candor. “Although the General Plan protects 94% of town from more intensive 

development and only allows larger projects along certain transit corridors, these projects will be seen and felt as they are constructed.  There will be noise, dust, detours, and inconvenience, but the payoffs will be long lasting and allow the City to emerge stronger from this historic recession than when it went in.

“This year begins what is likely to be a period of transformative change in 

Santa Monica. Major public and private reinvestments will yield a more beautiful, livable, economically viable, environmentally healthy, and safe City.”

The City Staff report, presented at the February 1, 2011 Council Meeting underscores the message of ‘transformative change’.  “This exciting vision requires that implementation is carefully planned and managed.  The City has a host of unique and transformative opportunities that few cities are fortunate to have.  With the reality that a range of projects may be constructed in near proximity and within a close time frame, it is important to ensure that the act of ‘placemaking’ allows the ‘place’ to continue to function.  The City will focus on the details of implementation to ensure minimal disruption.”  The main portion of the Staff Report rightly focuses on planning for traffic and parking management during construction of the projects for the next five years to be co-ordinated by a City Staff team. 

City Council Member Pam O’Connor, speaking at the Council meeting, seemed to be expressing the feelings of the Council when she said, “I hope that the 2040 City Council will say that infrastructure improvements made by Council, Staff and the Community in the second decade of the 21^st Century are still serving us well.”  She went on to recognize the problems of traffic congestion due to this level of construction saying, “We have to realize that there may be problems and there may be whining, and I may be one of the whiners.”  I don’t think O’Connor will be alone in her traffic, parking and circulation concerns.

In his State of the City speech Gould said, “Our fair City is well positioned for civic advancement … due to its social, political and economic strengths including: smart, sophisticated, and engaged citizens who strongly support sustainable and progressive local government and a clear consensus

on the kind of City its residents expect and deserve, including issues of social equity, environmental stewardship, and economic vitality.”

So let’s get some of the “smart, sophisticated and engaged citizens” that Gould so well acknowledged to be part of the team that looks at the traffic and circulation problems that are inherent whenever there is construction.  We need to do more than to ‘manage’ traffic problems.  We need creative and fun ideas for alternatives to the car that make Santa Monica a more fun place to live, work, shop, dine and play. 

What didn’t get discussed, at either meeting, was whether or not this was the only, the right, or the best schedule for this quantity of concentrated construction.   Whether or not it is the right, the only, or the best schedule is something I hope will be taken to the neighborhood groups, as well as the Council, for discussion.

The projects are located in the downtown and Civic Center areas, but the traffic impacts will affect all residents and everyone who comes to the City.  It would be ironic indeed if, Santa Monicans started going out of the City to shop or dine because the traffic in Santa Monica made going to our own downtown unpalatable.

What Say You?