One Conductor’s Mission to Diversify Music in "The Orchestra Chuck Built"

The New Yorker

Christopher Stoudt's film tells the story of a conductor leading the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles and of the transformative power of music.

Transcript

00:30most youth orchestras do not live and breathe in the inner city most youth

00:46orchestras operate in communities that are all white and so if you look at

00:51those youth orchestras all the kids are all white we are the largest primarily

00:59african-american orchestra in the country so we really were able to fill a

01:05void that existed within our community

01:20okay thank you very much

01:29I see Ola is the inner city youth orchestra of Los Angeles it's an

01:44orchestra that is specifically designed and created to offer opportunities to

01:49african-american and Latino young people to be a part of a youth orchestra

01:54program. One, two, three. It's too long. I'm getting da da da da I'm asking this da da da da da da can you play it right

02:09there please Roy to pick up before that C yes G G G G flat F F sharp F sharp G F A flat E flat D yes you got it

02:25there's no audition process to become a member of our orchestra we don't

02:31require that they pay a tuition or a fee you walk in the door you're part of the

02:37family we present a season of eight to ten free concerts to our community every

02:44year and that season culminates with a season finale at the Walt Disney Concert

02:50Hall we play Disney Hall on July 10 so from this point forward we're really

02:59gonna be pushing hard to prepare for this concert thanks for your

03:02concentration thank you for your commitment to the rehearsal schedule and

03:06thanks for making this just be the greatest orchestra in the world I

03:13founded ICO at the urging of about nine young african-american instrumentalists

03:20and they approached me about helping them to just run through some repertoire

03:24that summer from that we have spawned the great big orchestra that we are

03:31today yeah yeah come on

03:49growing up there wasn't really any black cellist for me to look up to

04:20until I came to ICO it's very enriching to be surrounded by people that look

04:29like me and love music like I do

04:39American orchestras are not a very diverse place that's an historic problem

04:46African-Americans make up only approximately 2.3 percent of the

04:52American orchestra workforce

04:53stop somebody's playing a be natural concert be natural there should be no

05:11concert be natural there should be a concert see I think it's in the

05:15trombones we don't play abridgments we play the actual scores

05:34so our young people come to us frankly a little bit behind but we demand just as

05:40much of them that's a major challenge no no no come on play it by yourself

05:49yes thank you do it again my parts not easier no literally is it's harder

05:57because I plan a harder instrument and also because like how high I gotta go

06:01the main part the main theme of the Tchaikovsky our part is harder than your

06:06part it's no but no can we can we agree that the cello sounds better than the

06:12violin that's not that okay but then why does violin get all the main parts

06:16because the only instrument a lot of people know music has always been a form

06:30of expression in writing and playing that's what music is for a lot of people

06:34especially for us and mr. Dickerson gave us that opportunity when we started

06:44playing video games when we were younger and we played Super Mario Galaxy right

06:49it's hilarious but we just fell in love with the music for the game because the

06:54music is orchestrated music like it's not synthesized yeah like when we got

06:59our we got the we when we were like eight years old it came with the

07:03soundtrack for one of the games and it was like all orchestrated yeah so then

07:09we were like hey why don't we do this yeah it's cool so this is a song that my

07:14brother and I put together and we're gonna play it with I see Ola at Walt

07:18Disney Concert Hall it's called trial and triumph

07:33I'm not amateurs anymore

07:44my French horn is one of one the Alexander 103 it's the same French horn

08:10that they use in the Berlin Philharmonic the only difference between

08:14my French horn and theirs is that my French horn is 100 years old as you can

08:23imagine this priceless this vintage horn but I see Ola has helped fund that so I

08:32am just so grateful for that

08:35growing up in South Central LA you realize that there's not many people

09:04that's in the same field as you I've learned so much in my career just from

09:10being around Chuck just having a mentor you have that guidance

09:19so I'm teaching students myself

09:24that inspiration came from being around Chuck

09:30it's a huge influence in my life

09:35I joined I see Ola about three weeks ago

09:55but I would use my third finger

09:59see try it the music that we play is very hard and I consider myself a

10:14beginner

10:20but I think I'm doing pretty well

10:24music can change everything about your life it's the discipline of music it's

10:35the consistency of practice doing something over and over and over again

10:45it's the pursuit of perfection the pursuit of excellence it's the pursuit

10:51of the highest come on play louder E-flat E-flat

11:21I started playing double bass when I was 12 but I play a whole ton of

11:29instruments being an orchestra is probably one of my favorite things in

11:55the world you get to see yourself as a small part of something greater that you

12:05work towards with others

12:08I am so happy that I have people from so far back in my life that I can talk

12:27to I feel it really is a fantastic family

12:58I came from a very musical family my parents put me in piano lessons when I

13:08was three years old my father and mother both sang both my parents played the

13:17piano there was music just infused within me because it was in the home it

13:25was in the church where we went I really grew up in Compton we went to

13:34church at 109th and Compton Avenue which is the middle of the hood that was the

13:41first time that I really became aware of the difficulties that black people were

13:46having in this country now this was a transitional period for Compton from

13:53being primarily a white town to primarily an african-american community

14:00at the time there was KRLA and KGFJ in Los Angeles those were two major black

14:10stations and they would play all the black music we would listen to Smokey

14:15Robinson the miracles the temptations the four times Aretha Franklin so I knew

14:23the church music I knew the stuff that was being played on the radio I had been

14:29taking piano lessons and learning Chopin

14:34I practiced law in Los Angeles for about 30 years but music has always been in my

14:40life

14:53all orchestra members to the stage immediately please

15:13when we take the stage at Disney Hall

15:18the best analogy I can give to you is it's like being on a rocket and just

15:23taking off

15:48here we are now at the pinnacle of everything that we've done for the

15:53entire year and here's everybody from our community in front of us looking to

16:00see what are they going to do today

16:17now we're going to do something that we have never ever done before we're going

16:36to play an orchestral piece of music that was written by one of the young

16:40people in this orchestra so please hear trial and triumph please listen for the

16:54trials and listen for the triumphs

17:10I feel it has had a very profound impact on my life it's given me an outlet to

17:40express the love that I have for music and it's taken me to places that I

17:45couldn't have even dreamed of going otherwise

17:53I see Ola has had an incredible impact not just on the way I play but an impact

18:00on who I am as an individual and how I see my own culture and identity

18:12I love the relationships that I formed I've just been very lucky to have

18:20experienced so much at my young age of 18

18:27it feels great to know that my abilities can serve as a reflection of what our

18:38community can do

18:45it gives me great joy to see them succeed to see them accomplish a goal to

18:52see them take a difficult piece of music and play it with perfection

18:59if the inner city youth orchestra of Los Angeles can help the young people who

19:05are part of our orchestra believe in themselves to know that they are capable

19:11and can even exceed their own expectations then we shall have done our

19:18job

19:22yeah

19:35way to go you guys

19:52yeah

19:55yeah

20:19I sometimes joke around and call him grandpa Chuck

20:25Chuck or Charles, but that one's not that funny, but it's funny to me.

20:32Chuck is always there to push us, to help us, to make us improve.

20:40He does it out of the kindness and grace of his heart, and we love him for that.

20:49Yeah.

20:50I get to be the one who's with them.

20:54When they play the right notes, when they play the wrong notes, I feel a sense of responsibility

21:07to make this happen because so much has been given to me, and if I don't pass it on, I'm

21:17not paying my rent to walk the face of the earth.

21:47I love you, Chuck.

21:54I love you.

21:58I love you.

22:02I love you.

22:06I love you.

22:10I love you.

22:16I love you.

22:22I love you.

22:28I love you.

22:34I love you.

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