The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Program brings youth together
Music connections focus of Great Expectations program
How is some money confiscated from criminals used? The Morning Journal continues today a two-part series on a new Great Expectations Music program providing music lessons for underprivileged children. Nov. 12: How the program began. Nov. 13: A student and a teacher respond.
The Rev. Marilyn Parker-Jeffries heard of a lack of music classes at Lorain City Schools and wondered how children could thrive academically.
After all, education theorists claim there is a strong link between participation in music and
academic achievement.
Parker-Jeffries looked across the street from her New Creation Baptist Church, 1929 W. 23rd St. in Lorain, and wondered how to help underprivileged children who live there.
Then youth at the church said rather than receive tutoring, they wanted to study music, she said.
With two grants totaling $13,000 from Lorain County Prosecutor Dennis Will’s office, and others, Parker-Jeffries launched the Great Expectations Music program offering group keyboarding lessons, music theory class, and now a drum line.
“We started in our neighborhood and with children around the church,” Parker-Jeffries said. “And it spread from there.”
In its second year, Great Expectations Music works with 18 young people with ages ranging from 7 to 16 years old, and holds a waiting list of four, she said.
Thirteen-year-old Marcel Emanuel, son of Mechelle Cave of Lorain and Carlso Emanuel of Cleveland, has
participated in Great Expectations both years.
“When I was little, my dad played the piano,” Marcel said. “Now that I’ve been older, I wanted to play the piano more.
“They introduced this at my church. I thought I would try it. It’s gotten me farther than where I started.
“My knowledge in music has advanced very much. They also have theory class, which helps you get the fundamentals of the subject.”
Sometimes Marcel plays music with his father who lives in Cleveland.
“We did a duet, which was really spectacular,” Marcel said. “It was ‘How Great is our God’ by Chris Tomlin.”
Marcel said he has attended New Creation Baptist Church for about four years.
And he plays other instruments, such as a baritone saxophone in the marching band at Open Door Christian School in Elyria.
He said he appreciates Daniel Spearman and Zaire Darden, the teachers for Great Expectations Music.
“The instructors are very friendly and they’re very open,” Marcel said. “They don’t yell at us all the time. They will work with you at struggling points.
“They will practice with you at your pace. If you’re advanced, they will give you extra stuff to give you extra challenge.”
Music as a profession
Someday, Marcel said he hopes to land gigs as a professional musician or perform in an orchestra.
For now, he said he’s practicing about an hour a day in addition to soccer and marching band with performances at football games and band competitions.
“After school, I would have choir,” Marcel said. “I don’t have the prettiest
voice, but at least I’m in it.”
With a double major in jazz piano and Africana studies, Spearman graduated from Oberlin Conservatory of Music in May. He lives in Oberlin and performs live in several bands in the area, such as playing trumpet in the FunkyardX in Cleveland, keyboard in Kinsman Dazz Band in Cleveland which rehearses in Lorain, and a personal project Sound EVR Collective, an instrumental effort that pushes more toward jazz.
“I take popular songs and arrange them for the band to perform,” Spearman said.
At New Creation, Spearman teaches keyboard in two groups based on amount of experience.
“I think it’s going great,” he said. “This is my second year doing the program. We have some strong little kids.
“I’m really excited to see how everybody develops. As the season progressed, I saw them become much more focused and pick it up more quickly. And the older kids who were in the program last year, I’ve seen their interest in music growing.
“The way I would start with kids who have never had piano before is to
teach them the basics of music, because no matter what instrument you play, we all start in about the same place. I’m trying to get them to listen to music differently, and start to hear different layers of music.”
Spearman said the program is important to Lorain children as a source of music instruction, which is underfunded in the country.
Also, he appreciates those who reached out to him as a youngster in Camden, N.J.
“I know the way music transformed my life,” Spearman said. “It kept us out of trouble and became my career. It’s what I do. It changed the way I look at the world.
“Even if I don’t make these students musicians, I hope I make them more aware of others.”
For now, Marcel echoes the lessons and builds music connections within.
“The music, it keeps me pumping, keeps me going,” he said. “When I play the piano, it’s just me, myself and God.
“Me, playing from my heart, because I have a very deep passion for the piano and other musical instruments.”