Support Music Scholarships for Mexican Youths

Warm hellos from all of us at Arquetopia! Our small but focused music programs continue to expand, mounting a uniquely renowned presence in these regions of southern Mexico where quality music programs and facilities are indeed a rare find. Our students have been progressing rapidly, well exceeding expectations.

Expanding his presence as an up-and-coming artist in different regions of the country, 16-year-old Ángel, one of Arquetopia’s most accomplished students, recently performed as soloist at the Universidad del Mar in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca. Ángel gave a public recital as part of the university’s concert series, drawing a large crowd. Ángel continues to work on an especially challenging curriculum of varied repertoire including a solo concerto he will be performing as invited soloist with a symphony in Oaxaca, and several jazz pieces he is using for upcoming recitals. Ángel also now teaches two young clarinet students of his own in the city of Oaxaca, using much of Arquetopia’s educational model and materials in his own teaching methods.

Another rising star in our music programs, Giovanni, recently completed a two-week music study residency at Arquetopia’s secondary center in Oaxaca while also participating in practice sessions at the Escuela de Bellas Artes of Oaxaca’s University of Benito Juárez along with Ángel, who lives in Oaxaca and who has been mentoring Giovanni since Giovanni joined the music studio last year.

We are happy to report that both Giovanni and Ángel have been able to upgrade from their previous, rather limited plastic student instruments, to very nice wooden professional-model clarinets since our last report. With program director Christopher Davis’s help, Giovanni was able to purchase a very special instrument at an affordable price with help from the donations of our generous Global Giving supporters. He is now using a vintage Buffet R13 clarinet in immaculate condition with which he is currently preparing for a round of auditions for various music schools. With your help through Global Giving, Ángel is now in process of purchasing an equally tremendous instrument himself from Mr. Davis.

We continue to produce more remarkable videos with our advanced students as part of our YouTube practice session series in order to keep the students constantly practicing and rehearsing intensely as if everything they are preparing is p for immediate public solo concerts. The students are motivated to work harder knowing that their informal performance in class will be presented on YouTube and Vimeo (whether they are ready or not), ensuring that the students are well-organized and managing their time wisely. The video series project pushes students meet goals in fulfillment of their obligations as full-scholarship recipients while also eliminating stage fright, as they have become accustomed to being watched and critiqued regularly vs. only when on stage and in front of a live audience.

For the past two months, Arquetopia’s music programs have been accepting applications, recruiting new students, and screening potential scholarship recipients. Final selection will take place in May for the instructional courses as well as for the advanced performing group currently being assembled.

Soon we will be celebrating the return of our good friend and mentor, Ms. Jenny Wright-Tolen, a respected professional clarinetist and prominent music director in Las Vegas, Nevada, who will be here this summer to work once again with Arquetopia’s music students in intensive chamber music workshops and individual lessons. It is a pleasure to welcome Ms. Tolen who will share her experiences and wisdom as a successful performer and teacher with Arquetopia's excited and impressionable youth.

With the ongoing and generous donations Arquetopia has received from you, our Global Giving project supporters, we were recently able to obtain more necessary equipment including new, ergonomic chairs and and 25 professional orchestral music stands for the studio; new, professional mouthpieces and tuning barrels for the advanced students; maintenance supplies for all students such as pad kits and tools; bulk orders of reeds; large filing cabinets for the sheet music library; new shelves for the audio media; and other important accessories. Numerous educational resources were also recently purchased for the program including multiple method books; new sheet music; and scores for the music library; and even a small computer for the students’ research use. We are currently having a new and improved lighting system installed in the music studio while we continue to search for an affordable digital piano for music theory classroom use.

For your continued support of Arquetopia’s music programs and impactful opportunities for marginalized youth through Global Giving, we sincerely thank you all again and wish you a safe, memorable, and musical summer.

Warm salutations from all of us at Arquetopia in Puebla and Oaxaca, southern Mexico! We are pleased to report that, thanks in large part to you, our Global Giving supporters, our young music students have had an exceptionally productive and memorable year.

One of the most exciting highlights of this year was the late-summer visit we received from Ms. Jenny Wright-Tolen, a respected professional clarinetist and prominent music director in Las Vegas, Nevada. We were privileged to have Jenny with us for a week during which she generously took time to work with our students intensely on the chamber music of Mozart. We are anxiously looking forward to Ms. Tolen’s return next year when she will be able to work even longer with the students.

Making remarkable progress since our last report is young protégé Ángel, who has recently completed one of the most important method books and is currently preparing to perform the virtuoso Concerto No.1 in F minor by C.M. von Weber, as soloist with a regional orchestra as well as a number of other standards in the clarinet repertoire for upcoming recital. He is becoming increasingly comfortable in playing jazz music, to which he has especially gravitated over the past year or so. His outstanding flexibility in this area is obvious from the outset. Though Ángel now receives instruction locally from Arquetopia director Christopher Davis at the Escuela de Bellas Artes, a music school housed inside of a former Catholic convent in the town of Oaxaca, Ángel regularly commutes via a five-hour bus trip and stays in Arquetopia’s residency center for several days at a time while receiving more intensive instruction in Puebla.

Another of the studio standouts, young Giovanni has now established himself in the local symphony scene, serving as principal clarinet in his orchestra since winning a full music scholarship to university this past summer. He performed in numerous concerts over the past several months and in a musical-theatre pit orchestra. Currently, he is working on a research project on the vast repertoire and composers of the clarinet as well as preparing a broad range of orchestral excerpts for upcoming auditions and pieces for public recital. He has made exceptional progress over the past several months and has shed the shy and timid nature he had when he joined the studio this past spring. Clear evidence of this can be found especially when he plays in his ‘altissimo’ range, the highest notes range of the instrument, with which he is now quite adept and confident. We are expecting great things from Giovanni over the coming months.

We were fortunate, since our last report, to be able to purchase numerous repair supplies for our students’ instruments (tools, pad sets, and other emergency items) with the donations we received through Global Giving, as well as much-needed sheet music and method books into which the students have graduated. As there are no qualified instrument repair technicians in this region of Mexico, the repair kits were especially necessary and appreciated; in the studio, when students are not receiving musical instruction or practicing, they are often learning how to repair and maintain their own instruments as professional musicians would. The workshops in repairs and maintenance that our students receive are not only to help the students save money but to help them in understanding the acoustics and science of their instruments, why even tiny things can cause either positive or very negative changes in the sound and response, and to prevent fatigue and discouragement that many young students face when their equipment inevitably falters or fails them due to its age or climatic changes.

Another wonderful benefit we are seeing is in how much our programs have grown. We are now ready to offer another open-enrollment term and scholarship auditions in Puebla in which more serious but financially marginalized young students will be able to access quality one-on-one instruction and ensemble training at little to no cost (more info on that to come in our next Global Giving report).

For your ongoing support of Arquetopia’s music programs and opportunities for young students through Global Giving, we sincerely thank you all again, and we wish the happiest of holidays to you and yours.

Links:

• Music Programs - Arquetopia Website