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About two weeks ago, the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra announced a new director for its Tune-Up Philly (TUP) initiative. Paul Smith, a Queen Village resident, will lead the successful after-school musical education program as his predecessor and colleague, Delia Raab-Snyder, assumes a new music teacher position.
The Juilliard School graduate got his Philadelphia music start in South Philly, too, at the Caring People Alliance South Philadelphia Community Center, 2433 S. 15th St.
“Paul was always capable of coming up with something that was really engaging to them,” Rebecca Sapolsky, the site director for the Boys and Girls Club that specializes in both after-school and summer programing for youths and the aged alike, said. “We always have a music specialist in the summer, and Paul was for a couple summers in a row — when he was working we were in the Fels building (formerly 2407 S. Broad St.) and those summer camps were about 150 to 160 kids. I remember him doing lessons about harmony and harmonizing and lots of rhythm-based stuff.”
Sapolksy’s Center is in line with Tune-Up in one distinct way: They share the mission of enriching kids’ lives in a city where one’s address can determine access to educational essentials like art and music. Charter schools and community centers contract Tune-Up to come in and conduct programming that’s often far more available outside of the city, in private schools and for households that can afford private lessons and instruments to purchase.
TUP is a musical training program for underserved Philadelphia neighborhoods at eight sites throughout the city, sometimes to generate a band, orchestra or chorus where the school lacks one, other times to guide gifted musicians towards trained specialists and encourage them to lead their community through music.
On Smith’s time at Caring People, he remembers the community as strong and tight.
“The cool thing was that it was all students from South Philly. It was families that came from the same block, it was families that had a lot of history with that community center,” he said. “They brought me on to do an entire music curriculum for the summer, and they had nothing, no instruments, no staff. They said ‘We want music. How do we make this happen?’”
He was a hit.
“We jammed super hard all summer. We made up our own music and performed for the senior citizens,” Smith said, taking what seemed like a challenging set of circumstances at first and turning it into a familiar success story. “Engage them through music, and we’ll build community around it. Let’s get along with each other through music.
“What we’re doing is getting people to share, communicate and care about their neighbors,” he added, having practiced Tune-Up’s mission at a South Philly Boys and Girls Club long before he became its director.
Philadelphia Youth Orchestra, it’s worth noting, is a 74-year-old institution that was led for 51 years by a South Philadelphia hero, Joseph Primavera. “Joe’s kids,” as they were known, became a world-class youth orchestra led often by members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, but always by the late Primavera.
“He was the South Philly Italian conductor who really galvanized the group. They went to Taiwan and Europe, and they really became a nationally-known brand for youth orchestras,” Smith said, “and he had the character to back it up.”
“Music has to be recognized as an agent of social development, in the highest sense because it transmits the highest values: solidarity, harmony, mutual compassion. And it has the ability to unite an entire community, and to express sublime feelings” is a quote by the great Jose Antonio Abreu, a legendary Venezuelan educator, conductor, pianist, economist and activist who founded the organization called, and philosophy of, El Sistema, which is that even our poorest children, perhaps especially those kids, can be rescued by music. Abreu’s made it a huge success since 1975.
Smith explained Abreu’s story and said “Music can really be a social positive changer, and it’s not about a path to virtuosity, but a path to community.”
Justin King, the Program Manager for Art, Music, and Athletics for Mastery Charter School sites, sees great power in Tune-Up’s mission and sees Abreu’s influence on PYO and TUP as a blessing. “With the social component, the community-building, it’s bringing the joy and positivity of music to kids who might otherwise not have it,” King said.
He sees bringing Tune-Up into his schools “as a way to really get an instrument in every under-privileged kid’s hands. Tune-Up is modeling that kind of instruction and that philosophical drive to make the world a better place. Let’s save the world with instruments — I love that,” he added.
King’s contracting Tune-Up to lead an after-school program at Clymer Elementary in North Philly that was piloted with a small group of students at the Thomas campus schools (kindergarten through sixth grades are at 814 Bigler St. and grades seventh through 12th at 927 Johnston St.). Students will be offered a “full-on Tune-Up program for 30 kids. Three times a week for an hour after school for string.”
Climber’s buying some instruments and, the hope is, perhaps the same program could come to Thomas schools.
Tune-Up also helps guide students toward magnet schools like the Girard Academic Music Program, 2136 W. Ritner St., and Smith is confident that, under his guidance, he’ll be a part of creating musical leaders in communities across Philadelphia.
“Engage them at any level and then use them and performance to engage with the larger community — it’s about creating arts ambassadors,” Smith said, the aim being to “bring up faculty and teaching artists and have them become more fleshed-out leaders and increase the number of names around.”
As King and Smith point out, the children involved in Tune-Up’s programming aren’t the only ones affected: so are their siblings, friends, parents and neighbors.
Sapolsky isn’t surprised Smith’s been tapped for leadership and sees his unique blend of talents as fitting for the organization’s goals.
“It really takes a unique talent, someone who’s not just passionate about music but also about education and kids and trying to find that connection to draw them in and get them hooked,” she said. “I would sit in the back of the classroom and I was always amazed. Paul was always outstanding at that. It was so great how he engaged them.”
Staff Writer Bill Chenevert at bchenevert@southphillyreview.com or ext. 117.
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