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Community Collaborations Program

Director: Calvin L. Hicks
Community Collaborations
241 St. Botolph Street
Boston, MA 02115
(617) 585-1136 (P)
(617) 585-1135 (F)
clhicks@newenglandconservatory.edu

Since its inception in 1968, Community Collaborations has developed into a
dynamic community music arts program, providing educational services and
music instruction to a wide variety of individuals of all ages, as well as a host
of traditional and non-traditional academic, civic, and social institutions across
the city of Boston.

Project STEP

Project STEP (String Training and Educational Program for Students of Color)
is an independent organization sponsored by NEC, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Boston University School for the Arts. In Project STEP, the sponsoring institutions have developed a program to identify and to train, educate, and guide promising young string players of color toward successful careers in classical music — as soloists, teachers, chamber music performers, and orchestra members.

To introduce kindergarten (K–2) students of color to classical music, Project
STEP has a special program called “FOCUS on the Boston Schools.” FOCUS
allows youngsters with a special affinity for music to participate with their
parents in a 14-week program offering eurhythmics, recorder classes, musical
demonstrations by STEP students, and one or two well-chosen concerts.
For more information about Project STEP and FOCUS on the Boston Schools,
please call the STEP Office at 617-267-5777.

As of June 1, 2008, the Artistic Director of Project STEP is Mariana Green-Hill, who studied at the NEC Preparatory School through Project STEP from 1990 to 1997.

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The Handel & Haydn Society Vocal Apprenticeship Program

Working with musically talented fourth through twelfth graders, the program
provides students with the intensive preparatory music instruction and academic
guidance necessary to audition and apply to college successfully.

Through private instruction and classes, and numerous performing opportunities,
apprentices gain an inside view of the music field by attending performances
and interacting with professional musicians. The Vocal Apprenticeship
Program is a collaboration between H&H, NEC, and the Boston Latin School.

Established in 1815, H&H is among the oldest music organizations in America; its professional chorus is one of the finest vocal ensembles performing today. Auditions are generally held in January and late spring. Please call the Director of Education at 617-262-1815, or e-mail rbaker@handelandhaydn.org.

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Boston Children's Chorus

The Boston Children’s Chorus (BCC) is a multi-racial, multi-cultural arts
organization that brings together a diverse group of children grades 2-12 from
urban and suburban neighborhoods, schools, religious institutions, and community
organizations to discover the power of singing together and serve as
ambassadors for their city.

NEC has established a partnership with the Boston Children’s Chorus, through
which NEC students serve as fellows to the BCC, assisting in carrying out the
instructional and performance programs of the BCC. In addition, NEC and
BCC explore opportunities for joint research projects, and support one another’s
artistic and musical endeavors in a variety of ways. For more information about
the Boston Children’s Chorus, please call 617-778-2242.

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Woodwinds and Brass Ensemble Program

The Woodwind and Brass Ensemble Program accommodates 40–50 students
(grades 4 through 12). The instruments taught in this program include: flute,
oboe, clarinet, tenor and alto saxophone, French horn, trumpet, and trombone.

The program offers basic classical training, encompassing scales, tone, fingering,
transposition, rhythm, harmony, melody, breathing, sight-reading, eartraining,
notation, and various key signatures. Once students have mastered fundamental
instrumental techniques, they will broaden their musical horizon and begin to
develop a repertoire that includes jazz, blues, and classical music. Students will
also have an opportunity to perform their own original compositions.

Students in the program start off with an introductory theory class and 60-
minute instrumental private/semi-private studio lessons each Saturday. As
students progress, they are able to add 60-minute advanced theory classes as
well as 1-hour weekly ensemble classes. The most advanced players are
encouraged to audition for membership in NEC Preparatory School youth
ensembles and orchestras. Learn more...

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Tuition Assistance Program for Boston Residents

This program gives Boston residents with musical aptitude and limited financial resources an opportunity to enroll in the Preparatory School, the School of Continuing Education, the Summer School, and the Woodwind and Brass Ensemble Program. Children who have shown exceptional ability and are enrolled in the Preparatory Certificate Program will receive primary consideration. Adults and other children may be accepted based upon available openings in a particular instru-ment and/or course of study. Final consideration will be given to students who have shown exceptional ability and who are preparing for entrance into a college-level music program.

All students receiving tuition assistance are evaluated each semester and are expected to maintain a high level of commitment to their studies. All students are also expected to honor required classroom commitments, including on-time arrival for all scheduled classes, and a developed, sustainable, at-home, structured daily practice regime.

Students who wish to apply for tuition assistance should complete the outlined steps:

  • Call 617-585-1130 in early August and/or early January for a teacher placement assignment/audition appointment or a prospective teacher conference appointment. Be sure to notify the receptionist if you are a returning student or a new student.
  • Call 617-585-1130 to set up a tuition assistance interview.
  • Be able to provide the following at the interview: a signed Agreement to Teach form (from the assigned teacher/s) and financial status information (i.e., completed tax forms, payroll stubs, etc.).

Music for Senior Citizens

Community Collaborations offers specially discounted classes in piano to local senior citizens. Free tickets for senior citizens are made available for all NEC and Preparatory School concerts, and senior citizens who are Boston residents may apply for tuition assistance for study in the School of Continuing Education.

New England Conservatory Community Gospel Choir

Community Collaborations has successfully tapped into a tremendous interest at NEC (among students and staff) in having a first-rate Gospel Choir.

The group was formed in 1993 and follows a traditional African-American southern-based aesthetic, as well as an evolved urban-based contemporary repertoire. The chorus’s entire musical stance is rooted in Gospel as a grand celebration of the human spirit, rather than as simply artistic performance or entertainment.

The choir is unique because it is comprised of NEC students as well as people from the greater Boston area.

Currently under the direction of Donnell Patterson, the chorus has performed annually for the last 12 years at NEC’s Thomas A. Dorsey Gospel Jubilee.
Additionally, the chorus has been engaged to sing at Trinity Church, the United House of Prayer For All People, the Mayor’s Office for Cultural Affairs, Arts in the Park, the St. John’s (Beverly Farms) concert series, the Company Theatre (Norwell), Mass. Council of Churches, Bridging Worlds Festival of the Arts, Boston University, University of the West Indies, William Knibb Baptist Church (Jamaica), and in many other venues throughout greater Boston.

Thomas A. Dorsey Gospel Jubilee at Jordan Hall

The Jubilee is a 25-year-old annual tradition at NEC. This annual two-day
February event is a dedicated celebration and a tribute to the evocative spirit
of a particular genre of African-American culture. The Jubilee features gospel
choirs, chamber ensembles, and soloists from the New England area, the
American South, and the Caribbean. Participants perform and explore African-
American sacred music, spirituals, celebratory liturgical dance, shape-note,
traditional, and contemporary gospel, as well as praise and worship singing.
Additionally, the Thomas A. Dorsey Gospel Jubilee now features a 200-
member NEC Millennium Choir. Members are selected by eight of Boston’s
most distinguished Gospel Choir directors.

Each year, since February 1997, the Thomas A. Dorsey Gospel Jubilee has
incorporated the presentation of two NEC Office of Community
Collaborations music awards: the Gospel Music Award, and the Anna and
Bobbit Gardner Lifetime Achievement Award. Each recipient receives
conferred faculty status with the NEC week long Thomas A. Dorsey
Summer Gospel Institute.

Thomas A. Dorsey Summer Gospel Institute

This institute began in 1999 as an offshoot of the Thomas A. Dorsey Gospel
Jubilee, in order to take a more detailed look into the roots of gospel music. It
now stands as a significant, openended, benchmark setting for the study of
spirituals, art songs, blues, shape-note, classical composition, and jazz, as
well as gospel. The Institute features a rich mixture of 20–25 seminar-style
classroom workshops, student/faculty evening performances, three significant,
topical colloquia/symposia, and a closing event featuring a nationally recognized
ensemble. The 2002 Institute featured a demonstration performance by
vibraphonist/composer Cecilia Smith and her trio, celebrating the sacred music
of Mary Lou Williams. The closing gala concert highlighted the Magnolia
Singers from Charleston, South Carolina. The 2005 Institute featured the NEC
Jazz Orchestra and the sacred music of Duke Ellington.

NEC/ACT-SO
Afro-Academic Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics

ACT-SO is a major project of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Through the ACT-SO project, students who have won local NAACP chapter semi-finalist competitions in the fields of Humaties, Performing Arts, Sciences, Visual Art, and Music, are provided with an opportunity to complete and receive national recognition scholarship awards in their chosen field at the annual NAACP national convention, which runs concurrently with the ACT-SO finalist competitions.

Mentorship is a significant component of the NEC/ACT-SO project. NEC mentorships are developed under the auspices of the office of Community Collaborations and Prof. Robert Sullivan’s Career Skills class. NAACP ACT-SO students receive introductory musicianship theory mentoring along with vocal repertoire performing and planning, and introductory solfège, as needed or desired.

Drums, Pianos, and Voices: Exploring African-based Musics in the New World

This is a series of four professional development workshops for teachers in the Boston Public Schools and NEC students, faculty, and staff. They have been sponsored by the Office of Community Collaborations in association with the the Director of Music of the Boston Public Schools and the NEC Office of Admissions. The workshops, entitled “Introduction to the Music and Culture of Haiti,” “African-American Music in the Teaching of American History,” “Piano Music by Composers of African Decent,” and “Young African-American Musicians: Exploring Advanced Training and Careers in Classical Music and Jazz” (a day-long program for promising students, grades 9–12), are conducted by prominent music professors, including members of the Preparatory School faculty.

Roland Hayes/Marian Anderson Concert Series

Founded in 1993, this concert series, in collaboration with the preeminent
Museum of Afro-American History on Beacon Hill, presents 8 concerts each
year at the museum. Performances cover a broad range of musical genres
including Haitian, baroque, jazz, spirituals, ragtime, and African-American art
songs, and feature the Coleridge String Quartet presenting classical works by
European, South and North American composers of African descent.

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Eastern European Jewish Musical Traditions

Yelena Neplok, Instructor
This course for adult students introduces a unique musical heritage stemming
from Jewish composers and their communities in pre-war Eastern Europe.

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Harmony Grove Research Center for the African Diaspora, Inc. Summer
Project: In Harmony Youth and Song

A three-week collaboration to develop an urban educational music and arts
program and choral festival for children (5th–8th grade). This project introduces
Framingham youth to a broader and informed purpose in preparing for a
continually blending world. They engage in cultural, technical, and spiritual
exchanges between and among people of the African Diaspora and the diverse
communities of New England.

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Additional Community Collaborations Activities

  • Since 1992 the Office of Community Collaborations has played an important role in the creation of innovative Conservatory/community-based recruitment and matriculation strategies in association with the Music History Department, the Boston Music Education Collaborative, the Riley
    Foundation Endowed Recruitment Fund, and the NEC Admissions Office.
  • Community Collaborations has initiated a series of collaborative performances, symposia, masterclasses, and other events for the benefit of Boston Public School students and music teachers, as well as members of the NEC community. These have included the Anderson String Quartet of Los Angeles; the Thomas A. Dorsey Heritage Choir of Villa Rica (Fla.); the Georgia Sea Island Singers of St. Simon Island (Ga.); Makanda Ken McIntyre, professor emeritus, old Westbury State College (N.Y.); and the large a cappella choral ensemble Joy of Africa (Eastern Cape, Republic of South Africa), and many others.
  • For further information related to Community Collaborations, contact
    Calvin Hicks at 617-585-1130.