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Man bites dog. School gives money to alumni.
March/April 2009
by Christopher Arnott
In a switch on the usual arrangement between schools
and their alumni, the Yale School of Music is handing out money to its
graduates. Its dean, Robert Blocker, has adapted the spirit of "If music be the
food of love, play on" into alumniVentures, a new program that distributes
$100,000 a year to meet his simply expressed mandate: "Advance the cause of
music.”
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The School of Music already grants free tuition to all its students.
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The School of Music is already in the rare position
of granting free tuition to all its students; the alumniVentures fund (drawn
from the school’s annual fund and some discretionary funds) isn’t anywhere near
that scale. It’s not a sizeable sum of money, says Blocker, "but it’s a matter
of priorities. It’s about making certain we are sustaining and encouraging the
cause of music.”
After the call for submissions went out last June,
300 alumni proposals came in. The school has chosen 16 of these, many of them
collaborations, to share this year’s $100,000.
The winning projects are not so much ways for alumni
to advance their own careers as they are attempts at outreach and
enlightenment. Lars Frandsen '93MusM will use his award money to present
concerts in prisons. Terri Sundberg '86MusM will promote music as a means of
improving the lives of Ugandan children affected by war. Arthur Bloom '86,
'93MusM, '94MusAM, has developed a rehabilitative program called Musicorps that
helps injured combat veterans create and produce original music. Pedro de
Alcantara '83MusM will make videos to accompany his book The Integrated
Musician. Julia
Cunningham '97MusM will buy harps she uses as a volunteer in Los Angeles
hospitals.
Many of the projects serve specific small
neighborhoods and communities, most of them in New York. Closer to Yale,
violinists Tina Lee Hadari '04MusM and Michelle Lee '03MusM are sharing their
alumniVentures funds with the New Haven nonprofit Music Haven, which arranges
for musicians to mentor at-risk youths.
The final selections were made by a committee of five
that included the music school’s deputy dean, Thomas Masse '91MusM, '92ArtA,
and four alumni. Blocker is already gearing up for the next round, which will
be promoted in February through the school and at www.yale.edu/music.
"Our alumni are everywhere, in cities all over the country and the world," says
Blocker. "We wanted to ask, 'Wherever you're planted, what can we help you
do?'”  |
