Berklee today is the official alumni publication of Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. It is a forum for contemporary music and musicians.
Issue link: http://berkleetoday.epubxp.com/i/180042
"I'm not a teacher but an awakener." —Robert Frost Juri Ify Love Morales '01, who had an active teaching practice in Bogotá. She dreamt of opening a music school, and the prospect intrigued Cajiao. Preparing to return home, Cajiao bought books, acoustic pianos, computer software, mixing consoles, and more in Los Angeles and sent everything to Bogotá via shipping container. Once in Colombia, the Morales cousins and Cajiao formed a partnership and pooled their resources to develop the startup school. They found two adjacent houses suitable to retroft as classrooms, a recording studio, ensemble rooms, and more. The Alejandros spent the next fve months remodeling the facility. During that time, Cajiao also hired faculty members, including pianist and arranger Pablo Schlesinger '98, who became a partner and later, the dean of students. Maria Morales (aka Majo Rivera) had built a reputation in Bogotá as a jazz and pop singer and voice instructor, and when EMMAT opened its doors, her students focked to the new school. "Without the students Maria brought here for that frst semester, EMMAT would not have made it," Cajiao says. She now teaches voice, songwriting, and ear training and is an active performer and recording artist after hours. Cajiao's marketing campaign through local newspapers and EMMAT's website and Facebook page drew students. The school currently operates near capacity. In 2008, Matteo de los Rios '05 came onboard, bringing his expertise in music technology and Latin and folkloric music styles. He soon became EMMAT's assistant director. "When I came in, we built the recording studio and technology center so we could teach programs such as Logic, Pro Tools, Reason, and a basic MIDI course," de los Rios says. He designed courses in production, recording, and mixing techniques and hired faculty members to help him teach them. De los Rios also spearheaded the effort with Colombia's secretary of education to obtain accreditation so that EMMAT could offer a three-year music production certifcate. Certifcation for the music curriculum is in the works currently. EMMAT never misses an opportunity to teach—even in classrooms that bear the names of music luminaries. The school's technology center—equipped with digital audio workstations—bears Robert Moog's moniker. Classrooms are named after Jaco Pastorius, Duke Ellington, Olivier Messiaen, and other musical giants. "We want the students to become curious about these musicians," Cajiao says. "We are working toward becoming certifed as a university corporation, which is comparable to a college in the U.S.," Cajiao says. "That will require more capacity." To that end, EMMAT purchased land, developed architectural plans, and is seeking funding to construct a three-story building. Cajiao's hope is that a larger EMMAT will ultimately receive accreditation to grant college degrees. Cajiao and crew have also just begun offering online courses to reach musicians in other South American countries. In August, EMMAT became a member school in the Berklee International Network. "Berklee has always been our inspiration," Cajiao emphasizes. "We emulate its spirit of openness to all kinds of music." "The educational philosophy at Berklee is very different than in Colombia," de los Rios adds. "Having teachers give you the tools and tell you to use them in whatever music you wanted was new to me. I had never experienced that mentality before. We wanted to start something here with that focus." Genuine Mentor Juri Ify Love is the founder and CEO of Genuine Voices, a nonproft that provides free music lessons and life mentoring to incarcerated youth in the Greater Boston area. With a team of dedicated volunteers, she has spent much of the past decade rescuing young people who are living on the brink. Her efforts have offered hope to youths already in prison for offenses ranging from narcotics possession to armed robbery. In 2001, Love was a Professional Music major, trying to decide what to do for a senior project. Then the sky exploded. "After 9/11," she says, "I decided I didn't want to do a recording 30 Berklee today or a recital. I wanted to do a community service project. I had seen a documentary about a guy who taught journalism to incarcerated youth in L.A., and that inspired me." With some guidance from Peter Spellman, the director of career development, and Berklee's Career Development Center, Love reached out to the Dorchester District Court. The probation offcer cautioned her to take a step back. "'You're from Japan,'" Love recalls him saying. "'You don't know anything about gangs. Start with at-risk youth and work from there.'" Love took the seasoned offcer's advice and began teaching music sequencing at the Boys & Girls Club of Dorchester to six students. Two years later, the program had a roster of some 200 students and 11 teachers. Love resigned from that post to focus on her original plan of serving incarcerated youth. (After she left, the Boys & Girls Club program that she established continued to thrive. It now serves roughly 600 students.) "This work isn't for everybody," Love confdes. "We fnd that people self-select for it. We tried some recruitment, but because of the population we serve, it takes people who are very independent and confdent to come and work with us." But this doesn't seem to have held the program back. Genuine Voices serves 10 to 15 students a week across four facilities, and has mentored more than 100 youth to date. "Right now we have 10 teachers—almost all of whom are Berklee students and alumni, and we have interns and volunteers across the country who help with graphic design, marketing, Web development, fundraising, and grant-writing." These back-offce concerns are new challenges that Love discovered in the course of growing her nonproft organization. "I was able to launch the program with help from the [now discontinued] Berklee alumni grant program. But it took fve years to get 501(c)(3) status, and I have realized how little I know about things like accounting, liability insurance, and how to set up a board." Love recently completed a core certifcate from Boston University School of Management's Institute for Nonproft Management and Leadership, and established a monthly founder's circle where she can meet with other nonproft leaders to discuss problems and solutions. "It's a lot of work," Love says. She supports herself and the program with a dizzying schedule of private piano students, church and wedding gigs, composing, and performing gigs for the Boston Ballet. "But it's totally worth it," she says. Many alumni of her program have corrected their courses and rebuilt their lives. One student developed his musical abilities to the point where he was offered a scholarship to Plugged In, a music school in Needham, Massachusetts. Another took a job in a nursing home where he also plays piano for the residents and hopes to attend medical school to become a neurologist. Love also continues her dedication to the students well after they leave the program. One alumnus recently became a father and was surprised when Love and one of her volunteers showed up on his doorstep in Connecticut with baby gifts for his new addition. Another felt her life so profoundly changed by Genuine Voices that she asked Love to play at her wedding. The goal is to make Genuine Voices a self-sustaining nonproft organization, and Love spends much of her time securing grants and other funding to support her work. Recent stories in the Boston Globe and other publications, coupled with the recognition she received at the recent International Association for the Study of Popular Music conference in Rome, make it clear that her work is making a difference. For Kids About to Rock, We Salute You Countless public-school music programs have been hampered by budget cuts. In 2002, the nonproft Little Kids Rock was formed to fll this gap. From its humble beginnings as a handful of children and guitars (and a dedicated teacher), to its current standing as the largest nonproft music education program in the country, Little Kids Rock has been a game