\u201cShe was so sweet and positive,\u201d remembers Jorgensen Director Rodney Rock. \u201cWe asked her, \u2018If you don\u2019t get this scholarship what will you do?\u2019 and she said, \u2018Oh, I can go out and find a part-time job that will cover the cost of lessons.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018You\u2019re in.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
An Early Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n Jorgensen Outreach for Youth<\/a> started in the mid-to-late 1990s soon after Rock took the helm at the theater in 1996 and sought a way to introduce area children to the arts. At the time, he conceived a much smaller program that quite simply gave free tickets to performances to children in eastern Connecticut who\u2019d come to the attention of social service agencies and schools.<\/p>\n Nearly a decade later in 2007, he wanted to expand on the idea and help high school students from disadvantaged backgrounds who were interested in music stay on par with their peers who more easily could afford instruction outside of school.<\/p>\n He says he noted empty spots in the 2,000-seat Jorgensen auditorium that those students and their families could fill and worked into performance contracts the possibility of providing masterclasses for area teenagers. That first year, the SBM Foundation in Manchester supported what became known as the JOY! Conservatory with an $11,000 donation for an initial pilot.<\/p>\n With hopes high and a plan in place, only six students applied, a disappointed Rock says, and \u201cit was a miserable failure.\u201d<\/p>\n He offered to return the remaining $5,000, but now-retired SBM Executive Director Sheila B. Flanaghan urged him to keep the money and try again the following year. Six students became eight, and then 10, and the program grew.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s class has 29 students. Before the pandemic, up to 40 annual scholarships were being offered from among 80 applicants and financial support swelled; the Jeffery P. Ossen Family Foundation and the Jorgensen CoStars<\/a> offered their backing. This year the program benefitted significantly from UConn Gives<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not out to discover the next Yo-Yo Ma,\u201d Rock says. \u201cBut we\u2019ve had some kids in the program who have gone onto the Eastman School of Music. They\u2019ve gone onto the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. We have one student who\u2019s getting his doctorate at Julliard. Those are all great successes, but the one that touches my heart the most was this young lady from Chaplin.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s Gracie – who was in the conservatory for the maximum four years and used her scholarship for weekly lessons with Jaime Marci at Summit Studios in Manchester. As a first-generation college student, Martin came to UConn in the School of Fine Arts<\/a> and is set to graduate in December with a Bachelor of Arts in music.<\/p>\n \u201cJOY! is such an amazing program for people like me. It\u2019s completely changed my life,\u201d she says. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be a professional musician without it. I\u2019m so thankful for it.\u201d<\/p>\n Reaching for Students, Reaching for Goals<\/strong><\/p>\n Rock says, \u201cWe initially started out targeting kids who came from a really deserving background. And what we found through the years is it\u2019s really hard to find kids like that because oftentimes the last thing they\u2019re thinking about is playing the piano or taking violin lessons. They\u2019re more worried about having a roof over their head and food in their stomach and clothes on their back.\u201d<\/p>\n So the focus became helping those most in need first, and secondly those who just need an extra lift for an activity that can run $2,600 to $4,100 each year per child.<\/p>\n A student clarinetist, for instance, would spend roughly $160 per school year on a rented instrument from a music store, or between $400 and $3,000 on the one-time purchase of a clarinet, depending on condition and material \u2013 plastic or wooden. Of course, other, bigger instruments, like a baritone horn, cost more.<\/p>\n Owned or rented, a clarinet needs a reed to function, and a young player needs a box every few months at $25. Then there\u2019s $120 for the occasional tune-up if the instrument is owned, and about the same amount for repairs if a key breaks or an air leak appears.<\/p>\n Lessons most often run an hour and can range from $60 to $90 a week over 10 months. Teachers tell students what sheet music and books to purchase, which can cost between $15 and $30, and private lessons oftentimes lead to group ensembles that can be as expensive as $300 to join.<\/p>\n Music summer camps for the most avid players can be $300 for a month-long day camp to $500 for a week-long overnight camp. If they want to trade up to a professional mouthpiece, the cost could be $175.<\/p>\n Most JOY! students come from east of the Connecticut River – Mansfield, Tolland, Ellington, and Vernon – but high school music directors from New Hartford eastward get application notices prior to the June 1 annual deadline.<\/p>\n Several years ago, the program drew a student from Jewett City, who, it was later learned, was living in a car with her mom. In Willimantic, a young cellist kept saying that for fun he only practiced his instrument; he didn\u2019t ride bikes or play basketball. When Rock had reason to visit the boy at home, he no longer was puzzled by that claim, and understood when looking at the surrounding neighborhood; it wasn\u2019t safe to be outside.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are the kinds of kids we really love to have in the program,\u201d Rock says, noting that most students aren\u2019t in such extreme circumstances and many just need a financial boost as they advance and more is asked of them \u2013 like the twins from Manchester who played cello and violin with JOY! for four years and went on to be college music majors. \u201cYou could see over four years these girls, they both grew musically. And because they reached for something, they\u2019re going to end up in a much better spot.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, there are students like cellist Amy Goto, a Kingston, Rhode Island, teen who started playing her instrument when she was 3 and has studied at the Manhattan School of Music since she was 12. For the last two years, she\u2019s been in France working with renowned cellist Gautier Capucon and JOY! has helped pay her bills.<\/p>\n She might be the outlier in talent, but \u201cit\u2019s good for these kids to see someone like that,\u201d Rock says, remarking that the hire of Ryan Burns as JOY! coordinator lends the program even more credibility.<\/p>\n \u2018What would life be like without music\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Burns \u201912 MM, \u201917 DMA joined JOY! in 2015 when he was doing graduate work at UConn, first as a voice teacher for program participants and later in a leadership role.<\/p>\n \u201cI came to work in the arts because of the people in my life, teachers and family who supported the arts not as something that was secondary, but as a vital part of who we are,\u201d says Burns, who has quite the musical resume, having been named the National Winner of The American Prize in Vocal Performance \u2013 The Friedrich and Virginia Schorr Memorial Award in the professional opera division for 2017-18 and performing with opera companies as a baritone throughout Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. He\u2019s also director of music at The Pomfret School.<\/p>\n \u201cSomething like music, everyone, regardless of how they\u2019re connected to it, appreciates it,\u201d he adds. \u201cIf we asked the question what would life be like without music or some kind of organized sound, it would be really hard for us to comprehend that. If we want that to continue, both in having artists who perform and create and those who attend shows in the audience you have to start that young. That\u2019s why music education is so important.\u201d<\/p>\n And that\u2019s what drew him to JOY!.<\/p>\n Students are provided scholarships for private lessons, free tickets to Jorgensen performances, and the opportunity to sit in on masterclasses with UConn SFA faculty, Jorgensen artists, and visiting musicians from places like the University of Hartford’s Hartt School of Music. In exchange, they\u2019re asked to think about what they\u2019ve been learning, how it\u2019s affected their playing, and what new goals they have for themselves in several reflection essays during the year that take inventory of the investment being made in them.<\/p>\n They also perform in three recitals \u2013 fall, winter, and spring – to put on display the progress they\u2019re making. One by one they ascend the Jorgensen stage, try to find their family and friends in the audience despite the bright stage lights, swallow hard and showcase their best four minutes of music.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we\u2019re performing, it\u2019s not just the song or the selection that we\u2019re offering,\u201d Burns says he teaches the students during rehearsals. \u201cThe performance begins as soon as they walk out on stage. They learn how to carry themselves, how to introduce themselves, and making sure they\u2019re not taking that for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n He adds, \u201cSome of the students say, \u2018I\u2019m nervous,\u2019 and I tell them that if they\u2019re nervous that means they care, and that\u2019s never a bad thing. The more experience students have with these types of things the easier they get. There\u2019s always something to be learned from that.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s an exercise that\u2019s been thwarted the last several years, yet another casualty of the pandemic. Recital performances were videotaped at home and submitted virtually in spring 2020 and in 2021 and were to resume in early this month until quarantine forced another in-person cancellation.<\/p>\n Next year, Rock and Burns say they hope to resume recitals and again offer masterclasses, which also have been waylaid. While being safe, they want to bring together students to learn from one another and collaborate musically.<\/p>\n Martin says she attended several masterclasses on piano and woodwinds: \u201cIt was pretty cool to see other musicians talk about their instruments. I can watch a musician play and say that was really great, but when you\u2019re in the masterclass and watching it, you can really see people\u2019s thought processes and almost watch their brain work.\u201d<\/p>\n Burns says there\u2019s value in stepping outside the familiar.<\/p>\n \u201cI always stress this, even as a vocalist there\u2019s something to be learned by attending an instrumental masterclass and vice versa,\u201d he says. \u201cThis idea of appreciation is not just for the instrument that someone calls theirs, but there is opportunity for things to be learned from all types of artists.\u201d<\/p>\n This means a pianist working with a tubist, an oboist working with a trumpetist, together making harmony, exchanging ideas, and loving music for music\u2019s sake.<\/p>\n \u201cYoung people, and really everyone, need regular creative outlets,\u201d Burns says. \u201cThey\u2019re happier and healthier when they\u2019re doing that. We recognize that not all students may go on to major in music in college, but that doesn\u2019t make the experience of JOY! any less for them. We love it when students go on to do music, but if they don\u2019t there\u2019s going to be an appreciation and it\u2019s going to be a part of who they are as adults.\u201d<\/p>\n The application deadline for the 2022-23 program year has been extended to Wednesday, June 15. Students need to submit a letter of recommendation and video audition, in addition to the application form that\u2019s filed online<\/a>. Visit the JOY! Conservatory website<\/a> for full instructions on how to apply.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ‘It’s completely changed my life. I wouldn’t be a professional musician without it’ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":186714,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,1711,1715,2235,2198,2225,2195],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2368],"class_list":["post-186748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-arts-culture","category-community-impact","category-today-homepage","category-tolland-county","category-uconn-storrs","category-windham-county"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 23:52:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186748"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186786,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186748\/revisions\/186786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/186714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186748"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=186748"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=186748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Jorgensen](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/rodrock.png\")
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<\/p>\n