A Winning Formula for Music Education in the Windy City

What are the essential elements of an education outreach program? We take a look at Music of the Baroque’s Strong Voices program, supporting promising young students and choral music in Chicago’s public high schools.

Music of the Baroque, a 60-member professional chorus and orchestra, is awash with talented musicians, many with active operatic, teaching and recital careers.

Their Strong Voices program puts this resource to use where it is needed most, offering a menu of services designed to enhance the vocal music programs in five Chicago public high schools.

“When we thought about our chorus’s strengths,” Jennifer More Glagov, special projects manager, said, “we kept coming back to our fabulous musicians.”

Music of the Baroque currently works with five partner schools: Hubbard High School, Kelly High School, Lake View High School, Lane Technical High School, and Lindblom Math and Science Academy.

The chorus provides each school with a teacher—one of the chorus members—who goes in once a week throughout the school year to work with students and their choral conductors.

How Does It Work?

Strong Voices teaching artists work with chorus directors in partner schools to create individualized programs that fit each school’s needs. The schools choose from a menu of services including private voice lessons for selected students, small group vocal instruction and choral coaching, masterclasses, and other in-school events, such as short performances by Chicago area vocal artists.

In a couple of schools, the Strong Voices teacher also serves as piano accompanist for concerts and competitions. “That is a real need for some choral programs where the choral director is wearing all of those hats,” Glagov said.

All activities, as well as teaching materials developed and produced by Music of the Baroque, are offered at no cost to students. The chorus also offers tickets to concerts—especially those featuring teaching artists—to high school students and their families at no charge.

A key offering of Strong Voices is individual vocal study. “The choral conductors have goals for their students,” Glagov said. “But they don’t have time to work one on one with each one. Our teaching artists provide students vocal lessons and mentor them. Every year there are students who are able to get music scholarships because of the help the teaching artists provide.”

Elizabeth Gottlieb, a soprano with Music of the Baroque, is in her fourth year as a Strong Voices teacher at Lane Technical High School, a 102-year-old school with a long-standing and well-regarded music program.

“Like almost all Chicago public schools, there are many underserved students at Lane Tech,” Gottlieb said.

“They may be in a great church choir or have had a great junior high music teacher. But few have taken piano lessons or had an opportunity to learn about music theory. We do a lot of work to bring them up to a musical level to match what they are capable of vocally.

“So many students would never dream that they could stand up in front of people, announce their name and the name of a classical piece of music, and then perform it with all notes and rhythms in place, with expression, and with an understanding of why it was written,” Gottlieb said. “They amaze themselves. They are dazzled by what they are capable of.”

The Lane Tech choir is currently tackling the challenging middle movement of the Brahms’ Requiem—“Mäßig bewegt” (“How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place”). The music director, Mark Carrera, asked Gottlieb to support the effort by coaching the students on German diction.

“The most important thing is to forge a good relationship with and to always respect those who are in the trenches and working with these students every day,” Gottlieb said. “We turn to these people who really know the important needs of students in the program and say, ‘What do you most want us to do?’”

What Are the Essential Elements?

While Strong Voices is committed to working with under-resourced high schools, the schools must have an existing choral program and at least adequate facilities—such as practice rooms.

“As much as we would like to create high school choirs where none exist,” Glagov said, “we have found over the past 20 years that the amount of time required to do a good job far exceeds our available resources. Working with schools with existing choral departments allows us to focus all of our energy, teachers’ talents, and funds on the students themselves.”

The school choral departments must have the capacity—and the desire—to incorporate Strong Voices teachers into their programs, which requires handling scheduling and logistics. “In some schools the choral directors are just too overworked or overwhelmed to work with us,” Glagov said. “We look for schools that really want us to be there.”

Strong Voices staff visits a prospective school before making a commitment. “You can tell pretty quickly if the relationship will work by going into the school,” Glagov said. The principal has to believe that arts education is important, she said, but it is the choral director that must do the work to incorporate Strong Voices.

The program remains vigilant throughout the school year to make sure that teaching artists are being well utilized. “If a teaching artist is being underutilized or overworked,” Glagov said, “we increase communication and work to make the relationship a success.” In some cases in the past, those interventions have not worked. “Then we seek to partner with another school,” Glagov said.

The program also emphasizes safety and security. “We pay close attention to situations in which the choral director has lost control of the class to the point where the teaching artist isn’t comfortable with the situation,” Glagov said.

“We have been fortunate in the past five years to have a very strong group of partner schools,” Glagov said. “The only partner we’ve lost was a school that cut its choral department.”

How Is the Program Funded?

Music of the Baroque expends $75,000 a year for Strong Voices, out of an artistic budget of $990,000. Funds for the program come from individuals and foundations. Major funders have included the Chicago Community Trust, Polk Bros. Foundation, Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, and Farny R. Wurlitzer Foundation.

How Does the Program Measure Its Effectiveness?

Strong Voices administers the same survey at the beginning and the end of the school year to school teachers and students to measure changes as a result of the program. The end-of-year survey also asks for specific written feedback and suggestions for improvement

Strong Voices teaching artists evaluate their private vocal students three times a year on technique, musicianship, and general attitude and enthusiasm.

What Are the Challenges?

"We work in places that are low on resources,” Glagov said. “The choral departments don’t have big budgets. They may not have the right facilities. There’s faculty turnover and sometimes you don’t know why.”

The teaching artists that thrive in Strong Voices have an ability to roll with the punches. “It can be frustrating and the more flexible you can be, the better,” Glagov said.

The teaching artists also must be able to work with students at vastly different levels of musical literacy. There is no arts requirement for Chicago public school students until they reach high school, so many students come to Strong Voices with little or no musical knowledge.

“Because the need was so profound,” Glagov said, “Strong Voices offered a basic musicianship workshop. We are really glad we did it, but we decided that it exceeded the bounds of our resources.”

The chorus would love to expand Strong Voices—including a joint concert with the high school choirs and Music of the Baroque—but funding is tight, with little extra to pay for logistics such as busing students from the school to a concert venue.

“You have to realize that you can’t do it all,” Glagov said.

What Has Music of the Baroque Learned?

  • Strong support from the school—both the principal and the choral director—is essential.
  • Sometimes what is most useful for the school is not the flashiest program.
  • Having a sustained presence over the course of a year, or years, is better than singular events.
  • Every school is different. You must be flexible.
  • Do what is practical within the mission of your organization. You can’t do it all.

Can Other Choirs Do Something Like This?

Glagov says an emphatic “yes.”

“One of the great things about our program is that it’s very straightforward,” she said. “All you really need is a willing teaching artist and a school who needs him or her on a relatively regular basis.”

Apart from the fundamental mentor-mentee relationship, there are few bells and whistles, Glagov said. Choruses can add additional schools and special events in support of program goals as funding permits.

“Using a simple concept, we’ve been able to help many students achieve their personal goals,” she said, “and help even more have better musical experiences by supporting choral programs from within.”

For More Information

Jennifer More Glagov: [email protected] or (312) 551-1414.
http://www.baroque.org/about/education/