The Evansville Youth Music Collective is crammed into the front room of a Warrick County home, Sunday Oct. 5.
“Where is it resolving,” asks Director and Founder Ethan He, 17, regarding a piece of music they’re working on.
The musicians are mainly highschoolers, many from Signature School but also North High School, Castle High School and Evansville Day School.
They play strings, woodwinds and a piano. An important part of the ‘collective is taking their music out of the living room and into the real world. The group performs at places like senior centers, hospitals and homeless shelters.
He said they’ve performed for many people suffering from Alzheimer’s.
“So we noticed that although our music could help them bring some temporary joy, we also want to help their cause and for future causes, and that's why we are participating in Alzheimer's disease research to help make not just present impact, but also future impact in these people.”
The musical pieces are kept fairly simple to be accessible to almost anyone. It also helps to reduce the number of rehearsals necessary. “Our rehearsals are mainly to make sure that everyone hears the other parts’ music and so we can kind of balance the different parts together,” He said.
Stephanie Panayides, 17, is violinist and social media coordinator. “We each kind of try to contribute what we hear. If we think a part is off, then we speak up, or if we think another part is out of tune.”
This rehearsal is to prepare them for a performance at Melrose Assisted Living in Evansville, Friday Oct. 10.
He said they play both group ensemble pieces, and solo pieces — “to highlight more of the technical skill that they can play,” He said. “And so we try to achieve this kind of balance of collaborative unity and bringing that unity to people, and also letting people's individual musicality help other people."
Group selections included “Concerning Hobbits” by Howard Shore, and solo pieces like Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1.
As the performance ended, resident Sandra Madwar is so moved she has to kiss the hands of their cellist Layne Jenkins.
“I enjoyed it tremendously, just like I was 16,” Madwar said. “I'm actually astounded that high school kids can do this; they really are miraculous.”
Judy Kennedy liked Hungarian Dance No. 5 the best.
“So classic,” she said. “I used to play the piano years ago, and to hear these young people play the instruments, it just brought tears to my eyes.”
He said they’d like to grow their organizations to expand where they play — young players with high skills to low skills are welcome.
“Because we believe that it's not just about the skill of musicians. We believe that it's about how music is used to serve others,” He said.
“Music is a universal language, and we really believe that here at the Collective that our music can speak to them, and not only that, but musicians, our youth musicians are able to see how their music is able to connect with them, and the impact that music can make on our community, on people.”
The Collective is fleshing out future performances. There are also opportunities to play the main orchestral division, jazz division and quartet division. More on the Collective here.
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