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ART TALKS
THE POWER OF ONE AND THE CAPE AND ISLANDS YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
by Donna Torres
"To some, it is given to create. To others, only to understand the creative act…" Anon … and yet, there are still others, those who defend the necessity of the creation. This is a story about protecting the artist’s need. This is a story about a guardian angel and her cause. This is the story of the power of one person, Marci Nugent and The Cape and Island’s Youth Symphony Orchestras.
It began, as all things begin, with a thought. The thought of a supportive teacher who believed Ms. Nugent’s daughter, a talented flautist, should try out for the Boston Youth Orchestra. Great idea. But, with most great ideas, come great questions. Questions like, "How would a working mother of three very active school aged children with limited time presently, make more time to support this venture without taking away from other responsibilities?" Questions like, "Doesn’t the school have any programs for those student’s who are talented and need to express?" And finally, questions like, "Doesn’t the Cape have it’s own Youth Orchestra?"
Thusly, Ms. Nugent became involved. Already the president of The Friends of Strings Students in Chatham, Ms. Nugent investigated and found schools could no longer aid the gifted due to budget cuts and there was no orchestra on the Cape because, well, there simply wasn’t. There were over 350 youth orchestra’s across the country and the Cape didn’t have one. This was the problem. It was also the solution.
So, in between being a Mom and a copy editor for college books, Ms Nugent wrote and pitched and waited. She wrote proposals. She pitched them to selectmen and schools. She waited for the phone calls. And her enthusiasm was contagious. Selectmen called and the Dennis-Yarmouth Schools gifted their buildings for performances and rehearsals. She wrote grants and the money came. The Cape and Islands Youth Orchestra was born in 1998.
When I asked Ms. Nugent what impels her to such dedication, she said because, "There’s a real need for it." She recounts one story of a shy, ingenious young musician. When he played your soul was touched. His music needed the orchestra. He needed the orchestra. After performing with the orchestra, he found his ego. He found himself.
Persuasive and tenacious, Ms. Nugent procured the consummate conductor and music director, David Grunberg, a New Yorker, whose love for the art and the future of the art, namely, our children, drives him to commute from the Manhattan Island to our little peninsula every week.
Under the direction of David Grunberg, the Senior Orchestra has become renown for their expertise and voracity. The objectives of the Orchestra are " to work on challenging and original compositions of the master composers, to develop musicianship, to encourage friendship and to work with individual students and support their efforts."
Ms. Nugent would humbly say in her lifetime she had never really heard the music until she became involved with the orchestra. I would argue Ms. Nugent not only heard the music, she felt the passion, the pain, the happiness, the sadness, and the truth of the music more profoundly than most of us as she understood the need for the artist to create and provided the safe place in which the artist would be free.
Today, there are two youth orchestras completely funded through grants, voluntary donations, corporate sponsors and staffed entirely by volunteers. The Repertory Orchestra gives the young performer ensemble experience and The Cape and Island Youth Symphony Senior Orchestra is for the more experienced performer.
The Orchestra’s, the people who teach them, the group who supports them, the audience who listens, all live because of the power of one. One woman who changed her world. If you ever thought, you didn’t exist and were not of consequence, look to Marci Nugent as a power of one, whose ideas and actions changed the future for many talented young performing musicians all over the Cape.
To experience the Orchestra, attend their first performance for the year 2001 at the Mattacheese Middle School on Wednesday, January 31st, where all proceeds will benefit The Baby Center in Hyannis.
For more information about the Orchestra and how to audition go to their website: www.capecod.net/ciyouthorchestras
To benefit the Orchestras with a tax-deductible gift, please write to:
Marci Nugent
President
31 Lincoln Ave
West Yarmouth, MA 02673
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