A Sustainable Journey: A Year in the Life of New Programs at Idyllwild Arts
by John R. Newman, Dean of Students, Idyllwild Arts
We have talked a lot this year at Idyllwild Arts about sustainability, and we have achieved measurable successes. We are grateful to the Earth Witness Foundation for sponsoring a fundraiser at Quiet Creek’s downtown gallery in support of our students’ efforts to “green” the campus. Together we raised $1,400 that will go directly to student sustainability programs at Idyllwild Arts, including our proposed new campus garden. We discovered through this event, and in our work on other projects this year, that sustainability is a rallying cry for community; it is an opportunity for us to come together and celebrate a constant that keeps us connected.
Many people from our community have responded favorably to this column in the Town Crier, offering feedback and support, input for future ideas, and gratitude for our attention to matters of environmental stewardship in Idyllwild. For this we are grateful to the community and to the paper for the opportunity to share our goals and progress. Likewise, many folks have attended talks we have hosted on campus and have inquired about how to become more involved in our initiatives. As a school community, we have met more frequently this year to discuss how we can make improvements in our daily operations, and in our arts, academic, and student life programs.
As we near the end of the school year, I thought I would provide a brief synopsis of what we have accomplished so far, and encourage others in the community to join us in our efforts. We are all very fortunate to live in such a beautiful place, where we see reminders everyday of the importance of taking care of ourselves and our environment.
One of our earliest initiatives at the start of the year was the wholesale elimination of disposable plastic water bottles from campus. This includes plastic water bottles for sack lunches when our students and faculty travel off campus, water for catered events we sponsor on and off campus, and cases of water bottles we routinely stocked in offices and elsewhere on campus. We estimate that since September, 2011 we have eliminated approximately 15,000 disposable water bottles. Knowing how important it is for our students and staff to stay well hydrated, we instead provided eco-friendly Idyllwild Arts Academy canteens to every student and faculty member at the start of the year, in preparation for our an annual all-school hike in Mt. San Jacinto State Park.
We have been extraordinarily fortunate to have had a chance to work throughout this year with Evan Mills, an expert in energy conservation and a member of the Nobel Prize-winning team of scientists who advised Al Gore in the wide range of administrative climate change initiatives featured in the acclaimed documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. Evan has helped us identify areas of our operation where we can make significant improvements, in part by providing analysis of past utility consumption data we have gathered for future planning.
We have developed a water conservation plan with a goal of 10% reduction over five years. Our first year goal of 2% has been achieved, owing partly to the installation of low-flow shower heads and air-assisted flush technology for toilets throughout campus, and a 50% reduction in irrigation. We have also made a concerted effort to raise awareness of the importance of water conservation, knowing it will take effort from the entire school community to effect real change.
We have established six sustainability subcommittees, each one committed to a different facet of our overall goal. The subcommittees are, Buildings and Campus; Fuel and Energy; Curriculum and Education; Food; Recycling; and Marketing. We have instituted a policy for all new public buildings on campus to seek LEED certification. LEED certification process is underway in our design work for a new campus health center and concert hall. New faculty housing units slated for construction this summer will be Energy Star certified homes, and we will aim for a NetZero carbon footprint with the proposed new president’s residence on campus.
This winter we completed a comprehensive energy audit, sponsored by Southern California Edison, and have retrofitted close to 100% of the campus with compact fluorescent light bulbs and motion sensors. This includes pathway and exterior “barn” lighting, which was converted from high pressure sodium to CFLs. We have instituted new “shut-down” protocols during extended vacation periods. All classrooms and dormitory thermostats are set to 60 degrees; 95% of all barn lighting is turned off; dormitory hallway lights are turned off; and the Troy practice rooms and area to the east of campus are “blacked out.” We began an initial energy audit for our Ceramics program with kiln expert/conservationist and former Idyllwild Arts Summer faculty member, Bruce Dehnert, and have begun a full-scale weatherization audit for all buildings.
We have purchased and installed programmable thermostats in 70% of all classrooms and in our biggest residence hall, Pierson Dormitory. We have plans to upgrade other dorms with locked, programmable, centrally-located thermostats to monitor and control energy usage. In order to be more fuel efficient in our Transportation and Plant vehicle fleet, we have contracted with a fleet management firm to acquire, maintain, and cycle new passenger vans with considerably improved fuel economy and lower mileage to accommodate a huge demand for student transportation. We are exploring options for introducing highly efficient “mini trucks” to the Maintenance fleet, and possibly some electric and/or hybrid vehicles on campus.
The educational piece is hugely important for us, not only because we are a school, but because we want to instill values and habits that allow us to continue to grow and prosper in our efforts. We are exploring curriculum design for a new course, tentatively called, “A Sense of Place,” focusing on our school’s connection with the land, the rich history of Cahuilla culture in Idyllwild, principles of sustainability, and the history of Environmentalism as a cultural movement. Our Environmental Studies class undertook extensive work in analyzing lighting use on campus, which helped inform operational decisions. Their work revealed the following:
Outdoor light electricity usage before retrofitting was 42,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) each school year, equating to 64,700 pounds of carbon into the atmosphere. After retrofitting, usage is 11,400 kWh each school year, or 17,600 pounds of carbon. Retrofitting the outdoor lights therefore saves approximately 30,600 kWhs of electricity each school year, or 47,100 pounds of carbon from being emitted into the atmosphere. Total school electricity use through lighting before retrofitting was 243,400 kWh each school year, or 374,800 pounds of carbon, while total school usage after retrofitting is approximately 212,800 kWh each school year, or 327,700 pounds of carbon. This is the kind of extraordinary teaching and learning our school is experiencing this year, and which is serving the community from a financial and educational standpoint.
We were thrilled to send a staff member and four students to the National Green Schools Conference in Denver in February, 2012, where they participated in summit-style discussions with other students and leaders in environmental activism. The students came back charged up and motivated as advocates for continued change. We sent a group of faculty and students on a field trip to Anza Borrego Desert State Park in March, 2012 to facilitate “a sense of place” and further foster students’ connection to the land.
The Environmental Studies class, led by Martha Ellen Wingfield, has also spearheaded plans for our proposed new campus garden. Students have developed a planting schedule, maintenance plans, and design schematics for an 8×8 plot with raised beds divided into four equal sections, each holding three plant varieties. It will be centrally located on campus and will also include a green house, a tool shed and storage space, an “outdoor classroom,” and a compost heap.
Some of our students and staff are most excited by the work and future prospects of the Food subcommittee, which, among other goals, works closely with our contract food service provider to implement greater purchases of local, organic produce and other foods. This year we initiated and have promoted a “trayless” option in the dining hall to help reduce food waste and save water. We are laying the groundwork for a food composting system to lessen food waste in landfills, and we are recycling waste cooking oil – approximately 250 gallons a year – which is reused for energy. We are seeking community partners to identify local farms and wish to continue to reduce ours and others’ carbon footprint by partnering for food delivery on the hill.
We have been researching a variety of recycling programs to improve campus recycling efforts. We have always had a basic recycling program, encouraging students and staff to be responsible about separating trash and recyclable materials in clearly-marked receptacles around campus and in the dorms. We are working with the Idyllwild School recycling and fundraising projects to collect electronic recyclables such as cell phones, batteries and computer parts.
We are converting to a fully paperless student record-keeping system in our health center and main administrative office to conserve paper and comply with state and federal privacy mandates. We have written two letters of support for Idyllwild Water District’s proposed water reclamation project, and have met with representatives from Mountain Communities Fire Safe Council regarding ideas as far reaching as a biomass generating station that would address issues of fire abatement and ”gasification” for renewable energy.
In our marketing, we have done extensive public and internal messaging about our school’s sustainability efforts, again as a way of garnering support and energy, and generally educating the community. We are coordinating the information gathered from each of the six sustainability subcommittees to publicize our goals through social networking channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and the Idyllwild Arts Academy online publication, “Centerstage.” We have established an Idyllwild Arts “Greenies” group page on Facebook to raise awareness and serve as a platform for discussions, ideas and projects related to sustainability. The community of Idyllwild is welcome to join and participate. Please feel free to contact me at jnewman@idyllwildarts.org , or contact our sustainability guru, Shannon Jacobs, at sjacobs@idyllwildarts.org.
ISOMATA & Michael Tilson Thomas: 1964 Youth Symphony Orchestra
by Sydney Cosselman, Krone Museum Director
Last week, I happened to catch Michael Tilson Thomas on PBS conducting the San Francisco Symphony at 100 Concert. He looked as youthful and passionate as ever and the concert was delightful. Michael, as you may or not know, was here as a student from USC in 1964 and took part in ISOMATA’s 1964 Youth Symphony Orchestra concert tour to England and Wales.
The tour was by invitation of Dorothy Adams-Jeremiah, Music Supervisor from Monmouthshire County, Wales, and one of the founders of the National Youth Orchestra of Wales. She met Max and Bee in the summer of 1962 while teaching music at Claremont College. During the summer of 1963, Dorothy came to Idyllwild to teach at ISOMATA. She then invited the ISOMATA youth orchestra to join the Welsh youth orchestra for concerts in Wales. The ISOMATA group also performed on their own in London and Wales. The tour was planned by Dorothy, Max Krone, and Ralph Matesky. Other supporters were Ernie and Betty Maxwell and Joe and Marguerite Clapp. According to Max it was considered “an experiment in music as a force for creating international understanding and good will.” Money for the trip was raised by students and parents, and on March 14, 1964, over seventy students and chaperones left Los Angeles for London.
This brings me back to Michael. During the trip the conductor, Ralph Matesky became ill, and in 1990 Bee Krone writes:
“We do not know whether this instance was the first “fill in” in the career of Michael Tilson Thomas, but it happened in 1964, in Wales, at a Newport Concert. The Youth Symphony Orchestra was scheduled for a concert with Conductor Ralph Matesky. The trip was highly successful, but Mr. Matesky caught a bad cold and the Newport Concert had to be turned over to the “fill-in” Assistant, the young Oboe player, Mike Thomas. He did a fine job of conducting, and saved the day for the orchestra and the delighted audience.” The rest is history…
I remember reading in an article by Ross Drake that this actually happened again during a concert in 1969 when Boston’s Symphony’s director, William Steinberg became ill during a concert. It seems that he missed most of the season giving Michael the opportunity to gain more experience. 
IAA and Invisible Children
IAA and Invisible Children
by Karin Obermeier, Humanities Faculty
How can you use your art to make a difference in the world? Almost four years ago, this was a question—among quite a few others—that my former colleague, Martin Maaloumi, and I posed to the 9th-grade students in our History and English classes. We wanted to go beyond the classroom, beyond just reading and writing and thinking about world cultures and literatures. We challenged our students to go beyond making art mostly for ourselves at Idyllwild Arts. Our students’ energetic and creative response was several months in the making, and has resulted in an ongoing relationship with Invisible Children, the San-Diego based organization whose “Kony 2012” video has been making news of late.
What have IAA students done to support Invisible Children? In the spring of 2009 I had never heard of Invisible Children. But after students completed extensive research on about 30 different NGOs (non-governmental organizations), this was the one they chose to support. Students worked with each other and the “roadies,” who volunteer two to three months to facilitate the message of Invisible Children. Together they created an event that was meant to inform, entertain, and inspire. It was very much a work-in-progress, where IAA artists came together to design and sell a unique T-Shirt (along with IC merchandise), cook food, make persuasive presentations, and sing, dance, read poems, and make music—all in support of the thousands of Ugandan children and their families, who were suffering at the hands of Joseph Kony and his “Lord’s Resistance Army.” That April we also participated in the Invisible Children international “Rescue” effort, when we went to San Diego with about 30 students for an overnight encampment to help bring greater media attention to the issues. The IAA community has raised awareness of the “invisible children” of Africa, and close to $15,000 for IC.
Who is Invisible Children? Invisible Children has come to the IAA campus three more times, each time providing updates on what was happening in Uganda and central Africa. IC is not an NGO with a “colonialist” attitude that dictates what is needed and throws money at quick-fixes. Theirs are responsive programs initiated and run by local west Africans. These programs include: scholarships and funding for schools; economic development for women’s financial independence; an “early warning radio network” to set up to protect civilians, especially those living in remote areas; and the return to their families and rehabilitation for former LRA abductees.
The “Kony 2012” video has caused a world-wide online and social-media sensation. It has certainly succeeded to make Joseph Kony and Invisible Children more visible, as well as to draw both thoughtful and often mean-spirited attacks on the organization, its methods, its financial allocations, and its co-founder Jason Russell.
The thoughtful critiques have raised justifiable and necessary questions about:
- Invisible Children’s advocacy of continued, albeit limited, U.S. military support of the Ugandan army;
- how it spends the money raised;
- of its over-simplification of the issues in this area of the world;
- of its “slick”, media-savvy film productions and campaigns;
- of its motivations and attitudes in working with the people from Uganda, the DRC, and CAR.
Invisible Children has responded to the critiques in a detailed and transparent manner. Go to http://www.invisiblechildren.com/critiques.html for their specific answers.
What next? How can IAA students continue to be concerned and informed artists and citizens of the world?
“We are not just studying history, but are shaping human history.” This is a quote from the “Kony 2012” video, whose message lies at the core of education and teaching our young people. As is true of slogans, it may sound rather grandiose and over-reaching. But, education needs to matter. It should matter on a personal level, and in terms of community, however we choose to define it. I know that IAA students’ involvement with Invisible Children has made a difference in our school community. In the process, the then 9th-graders of 2009 overcame self-doubt, frustrations, and disagreements to feel connected to their fellow students, faculty, and staff. They became connected to the IC “roadies” who have come to our campus over the last four years. Today, as graduating seniors, many remain connected to IC because they recognize that their talents, time, and commitment can indeed make good and meaningful change happen.
We are not without our own critics: students, faculty, administrators, parents who wonder about the validity and effectiveness of Invisible Children. This is a conversation that we must keep going. We can do this in our classrooms, in all-school meetings, on social media, in private conversations, in the art that we create. Whether it is in continued support of Invisible Children—or in finding other worthy organizations—or in creating our own ways, we must continue to become connected to each other with compassion and action, here at IAA and in other communities throughout the world.
IAA Jazz Combo Wins 1st Place at Berklee Jazz Festival
Idyllwild Arts Academy’s Jazz Combo won, for the second year in a row, won first place in the Jazz Combo division at the 2012 Berklee Jazz Festival. Additionally, senior Lake Jiroudek won first place in the outstanding musician combo division.
In the competition Paul Carman, jazz instructor, said, “We were limited to 18 minutes, one second over and we’re disqualified. I was conservative on the timing because I want the students to have control over the length of their solos. Most schools time it perfectly with set solo lengths but this is not how jazz goes in the real world.”
The students performed the three following songs:
1) Moments Notice by John Coltrane
2) Monks Mood by Thelonious Monk
3) Straight Up And Down by Chick Corea
The Festival competition is divided into divisions by school enrollment and there is also a category for specialized “arts” schools. Idyllwild Arts competed in the “arts school” category considered by many the highest level. Paul states, there “were 15 schools in our division. Seating is limited to about 50 audience members and is usually made up of a few parent/chaperones and a hand full of participating students and teachers from other schools. For our performance the room was packed with 70-80 people, standing room only, and others were turned away at the door. Apparently our reputation from last year filled the room with people wanting to hear the school that won last year. So the energy was very high, and the pressure was even higher for the kids, although playing for a packed room helped them to forget the judges.”
“Marshall and I were as proud as we could be. Even though we prepared them well it was up to them to handle the pressure and play great music” said Paul.
To hear a recording of the performance follow this link:
The Environmental Studies Anza Borrego Class Trip
by Martha Ellen Wingfield
Our Environmental Studies class, all seniors, traveled to Anza Borrego State park, the largest in California, early Saturday morning, March 3rd. The students, many of whom had never camped out, had highly anticipated the trip, yet were hesitant and slightly suspicious of my motives for taking them camping in the arid, abandoned and seemingly lifeless desert.
Once we arrived, a short trip to the spectacular visitor’s center in Borrego Springs introduced us to the plethora of wildlife and rich Native American history in the area. Excitement began to simmer amongst the ten seniors as we headed to the Borrego Palm Canyon trail head. As Sorrelle McGill wrote, “We hiked to one of the most beautiful spots I’ve ever encountered: a stunning oasis where we ate lunch, laughed and swam (those of us who were daring enough to brave the freezing water).”
After inspecting the macroinvertebrates living in the crystal clear stream and hearing about specific desert plants, adaptations and their life cycles from each student, we reluctantly left the oasis and hiked back out to the vans to head to camp. As we turned off the paved road onto the dusty, endless dirt road to head up Coyote Canyon toward the Desert Gardens, both vans, full of theatre, dance and film majors, fell silent. “Where are we going to camp? But we’re surrounded by cacti…Is Martha Ellen taking us out here to kill us?” were asked of Shannon and me with growing unease in their voices.
Once we arrived, students turned our dusty, cactus laden campsite into our home for the night, putting up the tents, or actually learning to put up a tent, building a fire and preparing dinner. 
By the time the sun set, we were cooking hotdogs over the fire, eating baked potatoes and s’mores, and telling both scary and hilarious stories over the fire, all unease forgotten. Having grand plans to stay up all night and throw a dance party in the tent, the students retired before the teachers and were fast asleep by 10 pm from the exhaustion and excitement of the day.
The next morning in our slumberous frenzy, we bundled up our gear, checked the campsite for any evidence of our stay, and hit the road. We drove about thirty minutes to the Mine Wash, where we climbed over hundreds and hundreds of boulders, once home to the Kumeyaay. Students explored caves, examined morteros, or grinding stones, and prepared our last meal together under a Honey Mesquite tree.
This trip was an amazing experience for all, teachers and students alike. It reminded us how to appreciate and enjoy life without technology or constant human contact. Many realized they could survive, and what’s more, have a blast, without electricity or running water for more than 24 hours. As Sasha Mercuri wrote, “What I learned on this trip is that there are beautiful places all around us, we simply have to look a little bit harder to find them. I looked up at the setting sun an thought to myself, life is good. Love is friendship, scary stories, s’mores and laughter. Our campground was in the middle of the dessert, but the barren land was one of the most hypnotizing things I’ve seen.”
The question I hear daily has changed from “How or why are camping in the desert?” to “When can we go again?”
Creative Writing Students Attend AWP Conference
by Kim Henderson, Creative Writing Chair
Last week, Creative Writers Scarlett McCarthy, Maria Alvarado-Velasquez, and Becky Hirsch went to Chicago with Kim Henderson and Katherine Factor to attend the AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) conference and book fair. AWP hosts one of the biggest writers’ conferences in the country, which typically features 400 presentations, including readings, lectures, panel discussions, receptions, and informal gatherings. More than 550 publishers are represented at the book fair.
Our students attended author panels on everything from creating a short story collection to writing Young Adult literature. They also gave a reading with students from the Chicago Academy for the Arts at the Palmer House hotel on Thursday night. The reading featured writer Seth Fried, author of The Great Frustration. Kim also read on Thursday night at The Southeast Review’s 30th anniversary party with Dinty W. Moore, Francine Witte, and Carol J. Clouse, while Katherine reconnected with old friends from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, getting the latest news on poetry. The students stayed with homestays from the Chicago Academy for the Arts for part of the trip, and also spread the word about Parallax Online to high school students and teachers—be on the lookout for new work!
The group was able to have lunch and a mini-tour of downtown Chicago with alum Madison Hartzog-Warren, who attends Columbia College Chicago. Our three days in Chicago were packed as we made new friends and reunited with old ones, found tons of new books and writers at the book fair, and kept ourselves entertained during coffee breaks with famous author sightings.
Student Profile: Lake Jiroudek, jazz guitarist
Lake Jiroudek, a senior Music major in jazz from Oregon, first picked up the guitar while he was in the fourth grade. His older brother Evan was in a punk band, which inspired Lake to start playing. He says, “Initially, my Dad and brother showed me a few key riffs and chords to play, and that helped me start to learn.”
Before coming to Idyllwild Arts Academy at the beginning of his junior year, Lake played with the Pacific Crest Orchestra directed by Thara Memory. Lake says that it was during those lessons when “I had to gain selflessness and think more about the music. Mr. Memory taught us many valuable lessons and worked us very hard.”
When asked how he found Idyllwild Arts Academy, he said that it resulted from not being satisfied in his public high school. His Dad started surfing the Internet, looking for options and determined to find a school that would support a student like Lake with significant financial aid. Idyllwild Arts Academy’s Admission Office worked closely with the Jiroudek family to make it financially possible for Lake to attend. The Idyllwild Arts Foundation is committed to supporting talented young artists in need of financial help so that they can attend the Academy and the Summer Program.
At Idyllwild Arts Academy’s Jazz program, Lake has found a community that he says “offers more personal interaction with other players. Last year, I developed a close friendship with saxophonist Jacob Scesney, and Caleb Hensinger, a trumpet player. Before, I’d only played in big bands, but now I was able to focus on inventiveness, getting musical ideas on the spot and learning to be more honest.”
Lake studies privately with Bruce Forman, adjunct instructor of studio and jazz guitar at the University of Southern California. With Bruce, he’s spent the last year working on his own musicality as well as awareness of the music and other players. Lake says, “It’s important to get out of my own head. Bruce has taught me to be more creative and not rest upon muscle memory.”
As part of the Idyllwild Arts’ Jazz program, Lake talks about being able to work with and learn from the iconic Marshall Hawkins. In the course of Marshall’s long career, he’s worked alongside jazz legends Shirley Horn, the Miles Davis Quintet, Roberta Flack and Richie Cole. Lake says about his studies with Marshall, “It’s an incredible opportunity everyday to work with someone who has had that kind of experience.”
During his two years at Idyllwild Arts Academy, Lake has already received numerous awards. At the 2011 Berklee Jazz Festival in Boston, the Idyllwild Arts Academy jazz ensemble placed first in Class 4 and Lake received the Superior Musicianship award. At the Reno Jazz Festival, the Idyllwild Arts Academy jazz ensemble placed third in their category. From that competition, Lake was selected as one of the top six musicians and was asked to play in the Reno All-Star Combo.
This year, Lake was recognized as a semifinalist in the YoungArts Competition, selected as the only guitarist for the Jazz Band of America and was a semifinalist in the Los Angeles Music Center’s Spotlight Awards where he received Honorable Mention.
Currently, Lake is applying to Juilliard, The New School, New England Conservatory, Berklee and other prominent schools. His hope is to study with an instructor that will help him conceptualize ideas and build upon traditional concepts; “My goal is to continue to evolve to another level and build a solid foundation for myself as a musician.”
Going Green
by Alex Gandionco, 11th Grade
“Going green” – it’s a fairly large statement and even larger commitment to make. For a school to go green, it involves a lot of thinking, encouraging, perseverance, dedication, and curiosity.
Idyllwild Arts Academy is moving toward being a greener school and being part of the green schools movement that has caught fire throughout the United States. One of the first steps towards this movement was our participation in the Green Schools National Conference earlier this week in Denver, Colorado. I was fortunate enough to be chosen to go to this conference, together with three other students, Michelle McMillan (11th Grade), Katherine Kearns (11th Grade) and Devin Debowski (10th Grade). The four of us were initially interested in making the school more environmentally friendly and also making ourselves more aware of environmental issues, but nothing prepared us for what the Green Schools Conference had to offer, and the effect it would have on us.
After settling into our hotel rooms on Monday afternoon in Denver, we immediately started roaming the Exhibition Hall filled with organizations, companies, and products all contributing to making our world more sustainable. The four of us, were constantly on our toes, eager to find out more about certain ideas and products, and how we can apply it to our school. The conference consisted of ‘breakout sessions’ – small hour-long sessions and presentations focusing on a certain aspect of making your school greener. We all chose specific sessions that we were curious about, or that contributed to already-spurred ideas that we had. There were a number of well-renowned and fantastic speakers at the general session, including Majora Carter, the founder of Sustainable South Bronx, Philippe Cousteau, CEO of EarthEcho International, and Laura Turner Seydel, chairperson of the Captain Planet Foundation. These speakers hit home with us, and inspired us so intensely to really care about what is happening to our world, and that we are able to make a difference. We were fortunate enough to have met some of these influential people.
An important aspect of the conference was the relationships and connections we made. Our group was highly active in networking. We were always keen to make conversation with people we would run into who happened to be leaders of environmental organizations, teachers from other schools, or simply interesting people with innovating ideas. The exchange of business cards became second nature to us, as we jumped at opportunities to be able to stay in touch with people from all over the USA that may come in handy in the future. Relationships between our school and these people can be very valuable and useful, and we did not hesitate to build them with whomever we thought we could.
You could say we had a ‘special appeal’ to others, as artists. There is sort of an allure behind the idea of an arts boarding school in the mountains, and adults tend to find passionate and driven young artists very intriguing. We found that there was much curiosity behind how we would integrate eco-friendliness into our art forms and all of us were more than ready to present our ideas. With Michelle a dance major, Katherine majoring in film, Devin in Interdisciplinary Arts with a focus on interior design, and myself, a classical vocalist, there are many ways of incorporating the ideas gained at the conference into our art, and there is always a way to make our art more eco-friendly. As artists, thinking outside of the box is instilled into us, and this is very much essential in the process of creating projects to make our environment more sustainable.
Ideas for our school were constantly on our minds, and on the van ride back to school from Los Angeles International Airport one would think that four tired teenagers who just spent the last three days on their heels would be fast asleep. In reality, it was the contrary. The post-excitement of the conference was visible, as we spent the two and a half hour-long ride back home, discussing ideas that we had. Everyone was already looking forward to putting what we learned into action.
A special thanks inevitably goes towards our chaperone Shannon Jacobs, student life and leadership coordinator at Idyllwild Arts, who not only fully organized and put together the trip (needless to say, it could not have happened without her), but also dealt with four very excited teenagers successfully.
For me, personally, this conference enriched me in more ways than one. I have not only learned and been educated, I have been inspired and motivated to push for this movement like no other. The conference, in short, made me care. There is nothing like the feeling of wanting to go out and save this planet.
And how could you not want to? Idyllwild, California is beautiful and so rich in its nature and wildlife. As students that live here everyday, we can sometimes take its magnificence for granted, but we all must face the facts – if we do not act now towards becoming more eco-friendly, this may all be lost. I know that none of us could even begin to imagine what Idyllwild would be like without the abundance of the beauty it currently holds. For us, the idea of ‘environment’ and ‘nature’ is not distant or detached – we are living in it. And that is why we feel so strongly that this green movement is extremely important.
“Idyllwild Arts is going green”- yes, it is a large statement, but it is nothing short of possible. It is something that us four students, our leader Shannon Jacobs, together with the rest of Idyllwild Arts, are absolutely going to put in everything we have, to make happen.
Students Create Word Cloud
At All-School on Friday, February 17 every student wrote down the first word that came to mind when they thought “Idyllwild Arts”. Diane Miller, executive assistant to Brian D. Cohen, then entered the words at Wordle.net and generated this word cloud.
Word Cloud created by Idyllwild Arts Academy students
February 23, 2012 at 12:45 pm Idyllwild Arts Leave a comment
How I Came Back to Gustave Mahler
by Brian D. Cohen, President, Idyllwild Arts
reposted from The Huffington Post
When I was a teenager I got made fun of for, among many other reasons, my taste in music. My choices didn’t seem to make sense taken together (Gustav Mahler and the Doors).
Music was for me a private as opposed to a social pleasure, so I didn’t care too much what people thought of my record collection. But I did seem to put on the record player the kind of music that you’d hate right away if you walk in the room while it’s playing. You just don’t get this stuff right away — it gets into you, and stays inside you.
Despite the genre-bending, I think I liked music that was fearless, outrageous, overwrought, petulant, grandiose, defiant, changeable, ecstatic, desperate, excessive, unapologetic, and impetuous.
These are in some ways quintessentially familiar adolescent qualities, along with the tendency to think a lot about love, sex, and death.
I don’t think about those things so much anymore, probably because I’ve become a responsible adult, and because it’s hard to keep up all that intensity for very many years. It’s also a little unseemly to be so exposed — maybe a little self-indulgent that I let myself be moved again and again in the same ways, or a little shameful that anyone knew about it. I’m sure it’s been 25 years since I’d listened to a Mahler symphony in recording or in person.
I returned to Mahler, just last month. Gustavo Dudamel, the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic have been performing all the Mahler symphonies as part of the Mahler Project. I heard the Symphony No. 5 at Disney Hall. The Simón Bolívar Symphony itself is made up of instrumentalists between the ages of 18 and 28. Dudamel himself was the eldest on stage at 30.
All are products of El Sistema, the Venezuelan state foundation for musical education. 75% of the children who enter El Sistema live below the poverty line. “For the children that we work with, music is practically the only way to a dignified social destiny. Poverty means loneliness, sadness, anonymity. An orchestra means joy, motivation, teamwork, the aspiration to success.” (José Antonio Abreu, founder of El Sistema). Playing an instrument well takes time and discipline, and often a supportive teacher, and playing in an orchestra requires close listening, responsiveness, and collaboration. That alone might be enough to keep kids off the streets.
But the intensity, anguish, and tenderness of music is what touches so many young people, and what draws them to the world of (even classical) music. These qualities are what moved me so much in the Dudamel/Simón Bolívar performance. There are things adolescents know that we forget in middle age; sometimes it takes young people to remind us of them.
