Pictures from DSC Workshops in Philly, Los Angeles

On February 10th we visited the Teen Lounge at Fleischer Art Memorial in South Philly.  Teen Lounge is a free daily program in which kids can drop in and explore the arts.  We worked with the students (most of whom were not musicians) on a rhythm from Salvador called Samba-Reggae.  By the end of class we were totally grooving!  Thank you to Linda Fernandez and Maryan Captain for helping make this happen.

The adventures continued as we traveled to Los Angeles to attend and present at the LA Phil's Take A Stand Sympsosium, a convention celebrating El Sistema and congregating most of the El Sistema-inspired program directors in America and the world.  During the last day of the symposium we gave two classes about our project.  One was for 20 students in the YOLA program, the flagship El-Sistema inspired orchestra of the LA Philharmonic. The second class was for adult symposium attendees.  Both classes were about music and percussion from Salvador but each was presented in a very different way.   It was a pleasure getting to share our ideas with so many inspired and dedicated people.  Thank you, LA Phil for setting an amazing standard of what it means to be part of a community far beyond your subscribers!

Check out DSC's lunchtime performance of arrangement of Avamunha song and dance.  Thank you to Rosangela Silvestre and Gabi Guedes for the guidance and inspiration!

UPCOMING WORKSHOP WITH BRAZILIANS, DO NOT MISS

On Wednesday, March 5, DSC will be presenting a workshop at Gesu School in North Philly at 12:30 with three of our BEST friends from Salvador! They will be teaching 2nd graders various dances and songs from Bahia.  RSVP to drumsocialchange@gmail.com if you'd like to attend!

New Videos in Resources Section

Hey Everyone,

Please check our new resources section to this site.  We will be adding all types of content over the coming weeks.  We are hoping to create a database for percussion and world music curriculums to inspire teachers and students!

DSC Workshop Performance at Los Angeles Philharmonic Symposium

Check out DSC's lunchtime performance of arrangement of Avamunha song and dance.  Thank you to Rosangela Silvestre and Gabi Guedes for the guidance and inspiration!

DSC Live on Venice Beach!!!

DSC collaborates with Detroit Symphony Orchestra for school workshops

While playing drums with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Gabriel had the opportunity to visit the Detroit School for the Arts to present a DSC workshop.  For two hours the students explored samba-reggae rhythms from Salvador.  Check out the video and pics!

Brad-Three Months Back

Hello Cyber-Followers!

It's been WAY too long. I'm finally getting a small break to update you on what I've been doing since returning to the States after a summer that was nothing even close to short of life-changing!

I learned so much from those three months that one post would never be able to do it justice. But I'll give you the highlight reel of the before and after. Being away for 3 months definitely propelled me into action mode when I returned home to Philly.

BUT, of course, (with me, anyway) you can't have a truly entertaining story that doesn't include some elements of the dramatic. My summer was booked ended with some pretty heavy "dramaticals" that even Shakespeare himself couldn't have scripted!

I'll begin with my return:

Gabe and I booked roundtrip flights out of Rio de Janeiro for this whole adventure. So, after finishing our work in Salvador, we had to fly to Rio before returning home. Names are changed to protect the innocent here, ok? So, Fabriel Joebus-Monique books a flight that leaves Salvador before the Sun's alarm clock even goes off. Naturally, since this is our last night in this beautiful city, with our amazing new friends, for who knows how long, we get very little sleep. And by little, I mean none!

A friend of ours taxis us to the airport at around 4am and we proceed to reenact scenes from "The Walking Dead" as we stumble into the airport like newborn babies. Cell Phones - check. Wallets - check. Computers - check. Bags - check. Hoard of instruments - check! We were on our way.

"Please empty all of your pockets of change, cell phones, and wallets and place them in a container," said those people who do that thing at that place.

"Thank you. Please step through and make sure to grab all of your belongings." Yeah, yeah, I thought. We were the only people in "line" and all I had my eyes on was the oasis on the other side of the metal detectors, which was: the terminal beds!

Seats, of course.

I grabbed my items and stumbled off. Off to Rio...

The plane ride was short. I normally listen to music from my cell phone, but I wanted to catch as many Z's as possible for the long day ahead. However, as we neared our landing, the beauty of this new city from the air caught my squinting eyes. We were landing in paradise! I knew I wanted to take pictures so I jumped excitedly to get my phone to snap some images... And then I jumped again... and then my heart jumped!

I had gone three months out of the country with my most precious electronics. Electronics that had helped me document and store all of the research information I was acquiring on these adventures. Siri (my iPhone. Probably yours, too.) had been there from the beginning and I was proud of how careful I had been with all of my expensive toys on such a long journey. But she never made it past the metal detectors in Salvador. Sitting in a small plastic bin.  All by herself...

There I stood. Touchdown in New York City. I had landed in Brazil feeling like Batman. Now I had returned to America feeling like Tarzan! I guess the lesson is they're both heroes.

So here I was. Back home in my concrete jungle sans cell phone. BUT. It was found at the airport, so all hope wasn't lost. I had to simply learn to live without a cell phone for about a month as Siri made her long trek home from Brazil. She finally did. And we were reunited at last. And I made my first phone call on it in over 4 months!

But other reasons why I enjoyed the luxury of the phone is that I am able to listen to music, and take photos and record videos wherever I go. So, Since I had been teaching for over a month by the time I got my cellphone back, I could finally document my kiddies playing some cool Brazilian rhythms in the classroom. Here's two of them performing a famous Timbalada break with me. They were initially camera-shy, so I told them I wasn't recording and that I was "just making sure it works." - They nailed it! :)

The rest of my semester has been filled with lots of teaching and performing. Currently, I work with two wonderful El Sistema-inspired music programs - Play On, Philly! & Sister Cities Girl Choir - and an equally amazing community music organization - Settlement Music School. All three of these programs are "classical" based learning centers, but through these programs I am able to put to practice many of the ideas and musics that I gathered in Brazil and all over the world. At both "Sistema" programs I taught students rhythms, songs, and dance movements of the Orixas. At Settlement, we are currently in the process of building a world music ensemble. 

I've also been continuing as a Guest Lecturer at Temple University in their World Music Department. I present lecture-demonstrations on Arabic drumming and dance. It's definitely a different world of music, but soulful drumming none the less. And it's another culture that wonderfully captures our message of drumming for social change. 

This past summer, before Brazil, I was selected to join an international orchestra called YOA Orchestra of the Americas to tour throughout Central America (more on that later). At the conclusion of the tour members were invited to apply for a fellowship opportunity in their Global Leaders Program. To take a quote from their site: "YOA's Global Leaders Program is an annual yearlong leadership-training course that supports the transformation of exceptional musicians into leading social entrepreneurs. The Global Leaders program combines unique on-site professional experience in diverse international settings with remote classroom training led by a faculty of pioneers in the fields related to social development through music." I was very fortunate to be granted one of these fellowships and have been enjoying all of the wonderful seminars and information that this membership has afforded. I'll be going to Honduras at the end of January for my on-site training! 

To compliment the teaching, there has been some neat opportunities to perform. I'll go ahead and bridge teaching and performing with my association with the orchestra Symphony in C. I perform regularly with their orchestra, but in addition, the orchestra engages in a multitude of community outreach. The sessions are geared towards school-aged children and we manage to combine classical and world music in presenting the performing arts.

I'm also involved with a new West African music group in the Philadelphia area called "World's Ewe African Music and Dance Ensemble." We had our debut performance at the 2013 Philadelphia Marathon. It was a great opportunity to perform for an international audience and amp up all of the runners for the event.

Lastly (but certain not least!), I've been accompanying lots of Spanish Flamenco! I've been falling in love with the palos (rhythms) of Spain over the past few years and I have the wonderful opportunity to work with two amazing Flamenco Dance companies in Philadelphia: Flamenco Ole! & Pasion y Arte Flamenco.

That's pretty much my life in Philly since my return to the States. I ended the semester with a wonderful week back home in Louisiana spending Christmas time with family and friends in New Orleans and Lafayette, respectfully. I'm always inspired by being back in New Orleans. The more I travel, the more I learn, and the more I grow as a musician, and the more I grow spiritually, the more I realize how unique and beautiful my home is and just how connected I have become to everything that the city represents. It has been said being in New Orleans is like being in different country within the U.S. And of all the places I've been in the world so far, if I had to name its likeness and essence to another place I've seen... I'd say Salvador, Brazil.

See you in the New Year, my friends. Get ready for some exciting news (SOON) from Gabe and myself.

Peace. and keep drumming!

Brad

Gabriel--Spreading the Joy of Brasilian Music!

Season’s greetings, friends!

As we creep up on Thanksgiving, I can’t help but reflect on the past few months and how incredibly grateful I am for the opportunities I have had.  It’s been absolutely louco, that’s for sure! Since my return from Brasil, I’ve been caught in a whirlwind of teaching and performing.  The day after getting back, I launched GGH and The People of Earth with whom I scrambled to put together a music video for a grant.  Take that project, add a strong dose of different gigs, and well, you can imagine...pretty busy.  

The highlight of the last two months has no doubt been the ample opportunities I’ve had to share the music and culture we immersed ourselves in during DSC:Salvador 2013.  The music of Bahia that we spent 6 weeks exploring is rapidly becoming the cornerstone of my teaching and the opportunities to share that I’ve had since returning have affirmed for me how important our work has been.

In Salvador, it was often difficult to find the practice time needed to internalize the 45 hours or so of lesson material, while still having time to explore the community, attend concerts, interview people, and practice speaking Portuguese.  Now, at home, I am slowly piecing together and reviewing the material, and the curriculum we are building has provided a terrific framework for my studies.  The rhythms of Candomblé (Afro-Brasilian religion) and the rhythms of Samba-Reggae have proved to be potent teaching tools.  I’ve watched children from the ages of 1 (literally) to 21, as well as adults of all ages, get excited about Brasil and it’s music.  In this post, I’d like to share three different contexts in which I’ve shared our discoveries from Brasil with different communities.

First of all, the music of Brasil has been a staple in my weekly sessions at the Gesu School.   As many of you know, I work for The Philadelphia Orchestra as a teaching artist in their School Partnership Program. Every week I head to the North Philly independent Catholic school where I co-teach (with classroom teachers) children ages 7-10, leading a variety of music related classes.  This is my fourth year at Gesu, and I love the students, teachers, and staff.  This year, we’ve been going hard on Brasil and its music since day one.  My secret goal is that my students will be able to speak better Portuguese by the end of the year...we’ll see.  I use Portuguese in order to teach rhythms, and the kids are soaking it up.  As all my students can tell you (most likely with a bit of irritation from me drilling into their brains) if you say it you can play it.  So if I want to teach an Ijexa rhythm, instead of notating it, or just having them copy me as I do it, I teach them: “Ola, tudo-bem, claro, legal”. It fits perfectly over the Ijexa rhythm and teaches some basic Portuguese conversation (the connection between language and music is tried and true). It's been a joy returning week after week to Gesu and hearing how little things about Brasil are popping up in the students' lives.  Sometimes a student will tell me: “I saw a commercial and the man talked about calling Brasil.” Or, “Look in this book we are reading. The main character is from the Amazon in Brasil.” Now that Brasil is on their radar, my students can’t help but see it everywhere and get excited by it.  The same thing started for me about a year ago when I got turned on to Brasilian music, and I’m so glad this is starting with the students at such a young age.  I have big plans for Gesu and Brasilian music.  I’d like us to do another big bucket bash (we had a very successful show last year) and this time use Bahian rhythms as a foundation for the show.  I’d also like to bring in some other other Brasilian music specialists from the community to present to my students.  It’s going to be an exciting year!

Our journey in Brasil brought me another fantastic opportunity to give back and share this past fall during a week I spent as the Musician-In-Residence at Philadelphia’s Please Touch Museum.  I’m grateful to the Presser Foundation and the Museum for hosting me.  Part of what the museum was looking for during the audition and interview process was a musician who could incorporate music from another culture.  Being fresh off the plane, I was super enthused to create a Brasil-heavy curriculum for my week of workshops. After spending three days observing and learning about the PTM, I developed a series of activities centered around Brasilian rhythms, Portuguese, and Brasilian culture. Everyday I gave three half-hour workshops to whoever happened to be milling around the main hall of the museum.   Having never worked with kids younger than six, I was really excited (and nervous) to get the opportunity to hang with the kiddies.  Some days I had school groups of 27 four-year-olds.  Other days there might only be a three year old and her six year old brother.  Whatever the combination of ages and personalties was, I tried my best to be engaging and flexible.  We covered a myriad of topics: We looked at the Brasilian flag and discussed the colors and shapes we saw.  We tried to find low and high sounds by using Brasilian Agogó bells.  We read about Papagoya, the mischievous Amezonian parrot, and made our own soundtrack.  We used claves to play the Congo (Candomblé) clave.  We played follow the leader call and response, in which I would say some Portuguese words and the students would copy while playing their drums in rhythm with the words. No two of my fifteen workshops were alike.  It was a fantastic exercise in learning how to read when the audience isn’t digging what you’re doing and then being able to adjust accordingly.  Not all workshops went as well as others but I enjoyed every last minute of the residency. Finally, I had the pleasure of presenting three friends of mine in concert on the last day of the residency.   I brought in vocalist Alexa Barchini, steel drummer/trumpeter Chris Aschman, and my brother-in-groove bassist/quatro player Bam Bam Rodriguez to join me.  Together, we paraded around the museum playing a rhythm from Salvador’s Olodum, sang Bossa nova and samba, explored Venezuelan joropo music, and ended with a Soca jam from Trinidad.  We had our young audience on its feet, shaking shakers, playing drums, and having a ball. 

After being in front of an audience far younger than my comfort zone, I found myself in front of a group far older.  One of my high school mentors, virtuoso percussionist Jon Singer, brought me in to present at his Music from Around the World class at Queensborough Community College in NYC.  I didn’t know what to expect; these students are practically my age, and I was afraid that they’d just be texting or tuned out the whole time.  Luckily, one of the traits of Brasilian drumming is that it tends to be on the louder sound (so that the thousands of people marching around you during Carnaval can hear you, no doubt) so anyone trying to do anything other than play the drums and focus on me was going to have a hard time doing so.  Combined with my tendency to be annoyingly enthusiastic about whatever I’m talking about, it turned out to be a recipe for success.  Rather than lecture about our trip, I decided to engage the students by having them on the drums from the get go.  I was curious about my “say it while you play” methodology for teaching rhythms, because adults tend to less comfortable going out of their comfort zone.  However, I kept the pace of the class moving quick, jumping between drumming, some history, personal stories, and more drumming. There was no time for any student to feel embarrassed, and I was delighted to see how into it they got.  We talked a lot about Brad and my experiences watching Candomblé ceremonies.  The students were intrigued about the Orixa-possession process (as am I) and were enthralled by our video of the street ceremony (see early posting).  Of course I made it very clear that I'm hardly an authority on the music and culture of Candomblé or Brasil, and I encouraged the students to explore more on their own.  My presentation lasted two hours, and by the end of it I had more energy than when I had started.  It felt really good to be sharing this music with members of my generation, burnt out by school, homework and end-of-semester pressures.  Watching them open up and get excited trying to follow the drum-break the repiques were playing on our Samba-Reggae Merengue groove was very special for me.

This is just the beginning.  Less than a year ago we proposed that we should be sent, by our community, to Brasil in order to train ourselves in Brasilian music and learn from Salvador’s social programs.  We had a hunch that the information we would find would prove valuable back home.  I have seen joy on the faces of children and adults of all ages, and we’ve only been back for two months (I got home on  September 19).  We are not the first people to do this, and we aren't doing anything more than putting our own spin on a rich tradition that we will always be struggling to master.  I feel more inspired than ever about the power of the music of Brasil and beyond and can’t wait to share it with more and more people.  

As always, if you have suggestions, comments, or (gulp) critiques, please don’t hesitate to send them our way.