September 5, 2018
Page 9
Mississippi
Alberta
North Portland
Vancouver
East County
Beaverton
Portland students create their own music as part of the Bravo Youth Orchestras, a classical music training program serving high-poverty schools in north Portland.
Orchestra as a Garage Band
Music training
program adds a new
dimension
A new classical music training program
working with disadvantages students in
Portland Public Schools dubbed “Collec-
tive Composition” combines the brilliance
of Beyoncé with the power of Beethoven
This summer, the BRAVO Youth Or-
chestras added a revolutionary new aspect
to its ongoing work. They turned the or-
chestra into a garage band.
Gone were the music stands. Gone
was the sheet music. Instead, the students
formed a circle with their instruments and,
with guidance from a team of Teaching Art-
ists from across the country, began to use
the skills honed in their regular program to
create music from their own experience.
Executive Director Seth Truby put it this
way: “For our student musicians, this was
a transformative experience. When you
create the space and context to help the
kids create their own music, there is a new
sense of urgency and a powerful relevance.
They can write about what they want, what
compels them, what worries them. It’s a
fundamentally different experience than
playing from sheet music.”
And what came out of it? A new musi-
cal creation, created in the midst of the na-
tional furor over separating children from
their parents at the border, called “Break
the Cage.”
Now in its sixth year, BRAVO Youth
Orchestras serves nearly 800 students in
five high-poverty schools in north Portland
with intensive music programs during and
after the school day, including winds and
strings.
BRAVO students have played with vio-
linist Joshua Bell, Black Violin and Hyp-
notic Brass, and performed onstage at the
Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall alongside
the Oregon Symphony under the direction
of Maestro Carlos Kalmar.
BRAVO plans to serve all the schools in
the Roosevelt High School cluster by about
2023.