The Music Makers

...They were proud of themselves and of their music...

...It is an approach from which everyone benefits...

...much of their work involves traveling to centers where music and dance programs happen...

...Revelli and his offer, and contacted him about the possibility of setting up a band festival in Israel...

...Their performance, in his honor, was the very first time they had played together as a group...

...Jimmy Reynolds, an American professor of music, who began in-service training for local conductors and taught young musicians...

...It was clear to everyone that continuity was crucial...

...He emigrated to Israel from Morocco with his family when he was 10, did community work in Kiryat Shmoneh for five years, spent three years in Poughkeepsie, New York, as a shaliach...

...Clearly, they were exactly where they wanted to be...

...In an effort to avoid hurt feelings on the part of either the youngsters or their teachers, the decision was made to hold auditions...

...Existing community facilities are where programs happen...

...And they need banes and mirrors that are correct...

...People from the development towns are isolated," he explains...

...They're now in the fifth grade...

...The enthusiasm and pure joy in what they are doing is evident in everyone who is associated with the Ashers and the Foundation...

...William Revelli, father of the modern day band movement and a professor at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor...

...His lovely, gentle, silver-haired wife, tiny gold cross gleaming at her lapel, stood with us as we watched him approach the podium to conduct the National Youth Band in rehearsal...

...It is important not to take the fish out of the water...

...youth were characterized in Europe as flower children...

...On the occasion of our visit, the maestro was Dr...

...Her obvious pride and pleasure was reflected in the demeanor of the young musicians...

...Each of the band directors in the municipalities where the in-school programs are held is a Pied Piper, although they are as different from one another as can be...

...Raphael Amram is the only fulltime employee of the Matan project...

...When the first student comes back to Acco to teach, we'll known we've succeeded...

...As diverse a group as a small ingathering from, yes, the four corners of the earth...

...George Wilson who, for 30 years, served as the administrative director of the national music program at Interlochen...

...Even after having been thoroughly briefed about the scope and nature of the program, we were unprepared for the scene at the dance rehearsal studio to which we were escorted at Hadassim, site of the Chanukah minicamp...

...It is a year-round project of education in the performing arts jointly sponsored by the Foundation and three Israeli agencies: the Community Center organization, the Department of Youth of the Ministry of Education (which supervises informal, after-school programs) and Omanut La'am (which sponsor?s cultural performances, particularly in development towns where exposure to such events is rare...

...Meanwhile, some 95 kilometers to the north, at a regional school facility called Hadassim, very near Netanya, visiting conductor George Wilson stood, baton poised, before 70 rapt young musicians, members of Israel's National Symphonic Youth Band...

...Now, all non-Matan programs are under his administrative direction, and his address became, and remains, the Foundation's office in Israel...

...Was it the setting, or the sound, or the sight of the children, or was it the juxtaposition of time and place and the sense of the absolute Tightness of those young Israelis doing exactly what they ought to be doing—in utter contrast to the frustration and/or futility of the comings and goings of the diplomats in Jerusalem—that had us reaching for handkerchiefs before very many bars were finished...

...on a Saturday, and in the next five hours, they organized, on paper, the start of the project...

...With the permission of the Ministry of the Education, the Foundation set up a oneyear experimental program in Acco...

...Discussions are under way with the Foundation to establish a full program of performing arts there...

...She remembered Dr...

...Mary Jane attended, and met Boehm at the conclusion of the concert...

...Mary Jane Asher says of him, "He knows how to think in others' shoes...

...Early in the effort, he offered to be the Foundation's on-site music director...

...Finally, a marathon concert took place at the Jerusalem Theater with the five best bands performing...

...But now," he continued, "you tell me something...

...He is the consummate professional, with a slow, easy smile— especially when the music pleases him—and a soothing voice—even when it does not...

...And he, in his wisdom, returned their respect...

...The philosophy is simple: before anything of quality can even begin to happen, there must be skilled teachers who know what they are doing...

...As the program grew, Mary Jane and Bob found that they were spending more and more time in Israel...

...The local band directors, especially, saw what Dr...

...the next moming...

...The visionaries in this case are named Mary Jane and Robert Asher, a Chicago couple who, since 1977, have been planning, implementing, building, convincing, cajoling and creating with energy, enthusiasm and love...

...Revelli to undertake such a program...

...And the concept of a National Youth Band gave tremendous impetus to the young musicians to raise their sights, to go beyond the level of their local groups...

...Then Boehm, so as not to neglect his responsibilities as a good host, took them to see the Western Wall...

...We want them to learn how it's done...

...Donations to the Foundation are used for substance—for instruments and instructors, for scholarships and seminars and camp tuitions...

...Tell me," she asked him, "why Israel spends so much money to send youngsters to this festival year after year...

...Here, too, quality counts...

...And each of the bands was scheduled, as well, to play at various sites in the city...

...At the camp, there is a bank of flags representing each nation from which there is a camper...

...In addition to granting several one-year Israel teaching fellowships to music education graduates of American universities, the Foundation also sponsors twoweek to one-year visiting professorships for outstanding music educators...

...And in addition to the formal in-school projects, the Foundation currently lends band instruments to community youth programs in 21 locations...

...In 15 years, we'll known whether or not the program is a success...

...It was only then that they turned to one another and, in the same breath, began to say aloud how deeply each had been moved by the moments at the Wall...

...We were privileged to watch Dr...

...It has been a wonderful experience to be with you, and with the National Band at Hadassim...

...Now, most of us have had some experience in the minor miracle department, enough, at least, to know that whatever measure of intervention is attributable to a Higher Authority must be supplemented by human persistence and hard work...

...While they were excited and pleased with the accomplishments, it was the potential that really whet their appetites...

...THE MUSIC MAKERS They come from Chicago and Ann Arbor, from Acco and Dimona and Kiryat Shmoneh, to Hadasshn—and they make a joyftil noise CAROL KUR The December morning was grey and dreary...

...All musical instruments are new—the best we can afford...

...Participants included 15 municipal bands—500 youngsters—who performed under Dr...

...It was Shmuel Kahane, director of the Acco youth band, who helped do just that...

...Certainly, we had heard more skillful musicians perform more elegant arrangements in settings far more grand...

...I'll think about that," she promised...

...When they were finished, he gave a two minute lesson in breath control, then asked if they would play the piece again while he conducted...

...In every area, commitment to quality is first on the priority list...

...Now, through the efforts of Dr...

...Jointly sponsored ventures with such diverse agencies as' the Celebrity Guild of Great Britain, Project Renewal and the Rothschild Foundation are part of the Music Foundation story...

...He became so caught up with the work—and the place—that he now lives in Israel permanently...

...Simple...

...Finally, at the 1976 Vienna festival, she was given a message by the director of the participating Israeli band to call Boehm...

...There, for five years, the Ashers—who had always been involved with music—organized and ran a festival for bands, orchestras and choral groups of young people from all parts of the world: (They began that project in the early 1970s, when U.S...

...Thank you for the privilege,of working with you...

...Wilson interact with young Israelis in several different settings...

...If they respect the surroundings, they'll respect the substance...

...They help on-site teachers to improve their skills, they conduct seminars, workshops and clinics at locations throughout Israel during the year...

...This summer, a string program will be added at camp...

...Wilson listened intently, stooping to correct the finger positions of one youngster...

...And this minor miracle is no exception...

...Instrumental music is now taught in every elementary school in Acco and similar programs have been added to elementary curricula in Lod, Ashdod, Beersheva and one neighborhood in Jerusalem, all under the auspices of the Music Foundation in cooperation with Israel's Ministry of Education...

...At each step along the way, the Ashers have turned to the very best professionals for advice, counsel and hands-on participation...

...The purpose is to reach aspiring young musicians, particularly—but not exclusively—those from development areas where opportunities are most limited, by bringing them together in a camp setting...

...And so the first National Youth Band came to be...

...we might well have been invisible, so intense were the concentration and the discipline in that room...

...Although I don't speak Hebrew," he said, "and you might feel shy about speaking English, we can talk together through our music—not only the music itself but the notes and the words around them...

...He is a public relations specialist and convention organizer who is also affiliated with the Jerusalem Music Center...

...In the following months, the Foundation ran a second successful festival and co-sponsored, with the AmericaIsrael Cultural Foundation, a one-year guest professorship...

...Meanwhile, during that year, the Foundation began buying instruments to lend to municipalities so that their band programs could expand...

...To donors of full summer camp scholarships, the Ashers send pictures of "their" young musician, along with some background information and progress reports...

...They were thoroughly respectful of the master teacher who stood before them, an elderly gentleman of less than average height whose stature changed dramatically as he lifted his baton...

...Meanwhile, she began a year-long correspondence with Yohanan Boehm to provide an official letter of invitation for Dr...

...They drafted the all-important letter, and set up an appointment to see Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek at 9 a.m...

...If you come to Israel for 24 hours," he told her over the long distance line, "I can arrange the letter...

...All Matan instructors are experts in their disciplines...

...For in addition to its direct benefits to Israel's young generation, Matan becomes a leveler, an opportunity for a Russian emigre to make music with a ninth generation sabra on one side and a Yemenite on the other...

...Music, apparently, fostered strong motivation as well as excellent discipline...

...Whether it is a musical instrument that is loaned (not given) or a rehearsal facility or a teacher, Matan and the Music Foundation provide the very best, and ask only that the children respond accordingly...

...Matan began its summer camp program in 1981...

...And then there is another, very special scholarship...

...What was needed—in order to give aspiring young musicians any chance at all— was a formal program of music instruction...

...He can build bridges between children or adults from very different cultures, between Israeli and American minds...

...He told the Ashers that if they ever decided to do anything in Israel, he wanted to help...

...At every level, be it in dealings with government officials or with fifth graders, the philosophy is one of partnership, not of a giverreceiver relationship...

...What he saw convinced him that similar programs could work in Israel...

...To this point, playing in a local band was a nice harmless activity that kept youngsters out of trouble after school was over for the day...

...Instrumental music education became part of the school curriculum for two fifth grade classes—80 children—that first year...

...Of course there were skeptics who were concerned that the introduction of a music program would disrupt the students and hinder their academic progress, so a tutor monitored the youngsters through the school year—and discovered that the music program participants were at the very top of their class...

...Do you know what it would mean if we could do it in Israel...

...They belonged...

...at the same time, what we offer helps these youngsters to shed their indifference and become part of the larger community...

...But we want our people to be part of a worldwide cultural activity...

...Marvin Klein, a physician from Detroit, was visiting one of his own children at Interlochen...

...the Foundation will take care of the trappings...

...Approximately 3,000 youngsters participated in the festival each year, among them, members of two municipal youth bands from Israel...

...And at every ability level, the youngsters quickly learn that the same is expected of them...

...Better...

...Matan offers, educational opportunities in the performing arts to pre-army age youngsters and to local teachers, with an emphasis on serving the more remote locations in the country...

...The first Israeli festival took place in Jerusalem in July 1977...

...Then he smiled...

...Modeled somewhat upon Interlochen, the world-renowned music camp in Michigan, the camp accepts close to 250 Israeli youngsters, by audition...

...Bob had spent seven weeks there as a teenager, in 1950...

...By 10 a.m...

...In 1975, Israel sent to Vienna Jerusalem's municipal band, led by Yohanan Boehm...

...Revelli knew that there was much he could teach, and so, at the conclusion of the three-day festival, he held a seminar for instructors for three more days at the Jerusalem Music Center...

...Mary Jane and Bob were disturbed by the bad press...

...The goal is not only to improve individual skills, but also to infuse local programs with increasingly higher standards of quality...

...The municipality funded renovation of a wing in one elementary school building, and the Ministry cooperated by budgeting additional salary funds for music teachers...

...For this, of course, he needed a demonstration band...

...Abbie Ben Ari is a friend of Mary Jane and Bob's who made ally ah from South Africa in the early 1950s...

...Klein and a small group of friends, a scholarship is awarded to one member of Israel's National Symphonic Youth Band...

...It is a commitment that is instantly apparent to a visitor at any of the projects in which the Foundation is involved...

...they knew that there were more teenagers who were involved with the arts than with trouble, and they chose Vienna to make their point because the city elders were particularly interested in attracting young people...

...But those few minutes at Hadassim were far more memorable, because that gathering of youngsters represented a minor miracle, in the midst of the Festival that celebrates miracles...

...Shmuel Kahane, who directs the program in Acco with an energy level utterly implausible for anyone over the age of six, talks about measuring the results of the program as he darts from the classroom to the auditorium of the elementary school we visited...

...Three years went by...

...In 1980, Matan was born...

...Clearly, there was no ethnic issue here, nor in any of the classes or workshops or rehearsals we saw...

...I hope to heaf you again before too long...

...Mary Jane had visited Israel only once, in 1962...

...And so they began to explore possible relationships with groups and agencies in Israel that had anything to do with children and the performing arts...

...Because," he answered, "it is terribly important for us to show our young people what a world not at war is like, to give them a taste of what our country might someday be...

...They are sabras and new olim, they are Jews and nonJews, and what is most striking about them as a group is their commitment to providing the best that each is capable of giving...

...As he did with the group of fifth graders in an Acco classroom several days later...

...Toward this end, the Foundation has undertaken still another effort by developing, in cooperation with both Tel Aviv University and the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem, special courses in music education for training teachers...

...The competition is keen, and the final decision is always difficult— the ability to be a "good ambassador" is judged along with musicianship...

...But there was none from Israel...

...Eventually, the goal is for the Foundation to be involved with every area of the performing arts...

...It came to be when Dr...

...The Ashers arrived in Israel from Vienna at 4 p.m...

...At his own expense, he traveled to the U.S., where the Ashers, working with an advisory panel of deans of music schools, set up a sixweek trip so he could see in-school music curricula in action...

...It was awarded to Dr...

...At first blush, it was universal—properly mirrored and barred, young dancers who might have been modeling the full line for Danskin...

...Hadassim, for example, the facility where camp sessions are now held, is a regional school built by the Women's International Zionist Organization, Canada...

...There were seven or eight of us who interrupted the class...

...Sunday morning, they had the letter from the mayor, and by mid-aftemoon they were on a flight to the States...

...That means they have four more years of elementary school, four years in high school, three years in the army and then four years at the university...

...Being a bit of a visionary is helpful, too...

...Mini-camp sessions are held during Chanukah and Pesach school vacations as well, reuniting many of the youngsters who shared the summer experience and providing concurrent workshops for their local teachers...

...While each program is, in its way, a showcase, it is at the Camp for the Performing Arts where, to the outsider, the impact of the Foundation is most dramatic...

...But when the effort became more serious, it became clear that after-school, informal involvement was not enough...

...Revelli was invited to the performance, and was much moved by it...

...One day during the festival, the Jerusalem group performed at an outdoor park...

...Dancers cannot dance on concrete floors," says Mary Jane...

...But the Ashers knew that for that to happen, they needed to create a much broader scope...

...And so, that same year, the Music Foundation was chartered...

...Surely, Mary Jane and Bob Asher, and the Music Foundation, will see to it that he does...

...The staff people are as diverse a group as their charges...

...This year, Israel's representative at Interlochen will be a young percussionist from Nahariya...

...Raphi is committed to the concept of providing the best possible training for teachers on-site...

...But here was an English ballet mistress who was directing her class in Hebrew to the strains of "Turkey in the Straw" being played by an accompanist newly emigrated from the Soviet Union...

...One thing the Foundation lacks is an edifice complex...

...For close to a month, they participate in a living experience dedicated to total involvement in performing arts disciplines, guided by first-rate professionals...

...They had one thing in common: they were there to dance...

...That year, the Beersheva band, a participant in the festival, was invited to play at Schoenau, then the staging point for Russian emigrants fresh from the Soviet Union on their way to Israel...

...And the children...

...Of course the band movement in Israel is struggling...

...He had formed the very first youth band in Israel some 20 years earlier, and was music editor of the Jerusalem Post...

...Why is a nice Jewish girl like you doing this in Vienna...

...For many youngsters, it is the first new thing they've ever handled...

...Like so many other cultural achievements of note, this one has its roots in Vienna...

...In particular, it appeared that a focus on dance was a natural next step, because some programs already existed in after-school youth centers...

...They wanted to do more...

...And, of course, there is always something new on the horizon...

...As the Foundation has grown, other organizations and agencies have sought the expertise and thoughtful guidance that have become its hallmarks, resulting in a number of cooperative projects...

...That kind of isolation breeds indifference to society in general...

...Revelli's baton after just two rehearsals...

...With expansion came problems...

...They were intrigued by the young Israeli musicians...

...Revelli was able to accomplish in just three days...

...The Ashers were delighted by the response of the youngsters and their instructors, and what began as a oneshot deal suddenly held out the promise of becoming a continuing—and expanded—activity...

...And the National Symphonic Youth Band is but one facet of a precious gem called The Music Foundation, purveyors of youth music projects in Israel...

...And with a sweep of arm-baton, the instantly recognizable melody of Maoz Tzur, on the fourth day of the Festival of Chanukah, filled the rehearsal hall...

...I respect the work that you are doing...

...In 1972, the guest conductor for the festival was Dr...

...Over the squat buildings of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem, a huge military helicopter hovered, preparing to collect or deposit one or another Very Important Person on an urgent mission of, surely, global significance...