So this evening I had the opportunity to return to my Alma Mater, Sleepy Hollow High School, to address the newly inducted members of their Tri-M Chapter (a Music Honor Society). I was honored to be asked to be their Key Note Speaker for the evening. Below is a copy of my address to them. They also inducted me as their first “Alumni Member.” Very exiting! Here’s what I had to say to them:
I’d like to challenge you, our “Modern Music Masters,” to help affect a change in our world – a change of perception about the role of music in our lives. I want you to show the world that music is not just the means to an end, but it is an end in and of itself.
We have become very good lately at extolling the strength that studying music has for making you good at other things. We’re especially guilty of this in schools today. We tell our communities that we need music in schools because it will help our children do better at math. Or we point to studies linking higher SAT scores to years of studying an instrument.
This notion – that music derives its importance from the fact that it helps you do other things – negates the true value music has in our lives. Music is, at its core, a form of expression. It is how we communicate our lives, our culture and our experience to the world. Michelle Obama said it beautifully in a statement at the reopening of the American wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art when she said, “The arts are not just a nice thing to have or to do if there is free time or if one can afford it. Rather, paintings and poetry, music and fashion, design and dialogue, they all define who we are as a people and provide an account of our history for the next generation”
This is the importance of your recognition tonight. Tonight we say congratulations for your dedication and excellence in our craft of music – our expression of who we are in this place and time in history.
I challenge you also, to help affect one other change in our perceptions of music. In my current job I have the opportunity to speak often with many fine student musicians about their plans beyond high school. Inevitably in these conversations I hear an exceptional young musician tell me that she loves music, and would love to continue to study it, but she will pursue another avenue in college because she wants to “get a real job” when she is done. Or I have a student who plans to major in music tell me that he has chosen a college based not on the music program, but on a secondary program, so that he will have a good fall back when he gets out.
We must work to change the notion that all professional musicians are “starving artists,” or that a college degree in music is not good training for the work force. This is not born out by the facts. A recent study by Arts Westchester confirms that the arts are a growth industry right here in Westchester County. This past July, Arts Westchester announced that, according to their study, the economic impact of the arts on just our county was $156.4 Million in 2012, and that the arts accounted for 4800 jobs here in Westchester. Just as with any other field, if you are willing to work hard, which you have proven by earning a place in Tri-M, then you can make music a successful career and life choice for yourselves.
So your challenge – promote music as important for its own sake, as our culture’s expressive voice, and a definition of who we are as a people. AND, if it is your passion, pursue a life of music making beyond Sleepy Hollow High School.
Bradley Morrison 