Irondequoit Community Orchestra to offer free children's concerts featuring works by local minority composers
The Irondequoit Community Orchestra has been awarded a $5,000 grant by the Rochester Area Community Foundation to produce a children's music program focused on underrepresented and minority composers.
The program, titled Amplifying Local Voices: We Write Orchestra Music!, will feature new compositions from local minority musicians Alyssa Rodriguez and Kevin Leysath II.
The concerts will take place at four local libraries in November.
"I think it's vitally important that we show kids that all kinds of people make orchestral music," orchestra conductor Evan Meccarello said. "There are people in our own community who write music for orchestra; this is a tradition that's living in people in our own community."
Meccarello became the conductor of the Irondequoit Community Orchestra in 2019.
"We're keeping in mind where kids are at and what they may have heard before, which may not be very much," Meccarello said regarding the orchestra's effort to keep children engaged in the program. "I'm not going to program something that's an hour-long piece. This is going to be something that's interactive."
Meccarello said Rodriguez and Leysath are two musicians he encountered during his "musical life in Rochester."
Kevin Leysath II, born in Rochester, has been surrounded by music his whole life. He's a composer and saxophonist currently studying Music Composition at Nazareth College School of Music. He plans to go on to graduate school to pursue a career in film scoring.
"I've been a part of the music community here in Rochester since I was a kid," Leysath said. "I really wanted to motivate kids that have the same skin color as me to write music because I don't see a lot of composers of African descent taught in college," he said.
Kris Bowers and Terrance Blanchard are Leysath's role models. "I want to do that for the kids," he said.
Alyssa Rodriguez earned her bachelor's degree in music composition from Ithaca College. In 2021-2022, Rodriguez received a prestigious Fulbright Fellowship to study and research Nordic folk music in Helsinki, Finland, at the internationally renowned Sibelius Academy music conservatory.
When Meccarello asked Rodriguez to participate in the program, she jumped at the opportunity to write orchestral music and work with children.
"I think it's important that children of all backgrounds see representation in all fields," Rodriguez stated. "As someone who grew up in the classical music tradition, I didn't see a lot of even female representation, not to mention people of mixed race like myself; I'm half Puerto Rican. It was hard to enter a field with no representation," said Rodriguez.
'I'm very persistent and stubborn'
Data compiled by the League of American Orchestras shows that Black and Brown musicians comprised 4% of American orchestras. A study by Equality and Diversity in Concert Halls reports that under 90% of concerts across the globe exclude the work of women composers.
"I'm a very persistent and stubborn person," Rodriguez shared while speaking about her career. "It's a brutal field to be in, especially right now."
A booklet of original illustrations will accompany the program by internationally recognized children's book author-illustrator Rosemary Shojaie.
"I think it's a fantastic effort," Shojaie said.
The author-illustrator also plays in the orchestra and is excited to incorporate her two passions into a children's concert.
"It's a wonderful idea for kids to see young people making music and sharing it with the community."
"I hope it'll make more kids interested in different types of music other than pop," Irondequoit Community Orchestra President David Weiss said.
"We want word of these concerts to be spread as wide as possible," Weiss said. We want to attract children who might think that classical music only belongs to dead white men."
Amplifying Local Voices: We Write Orchestra Music! Concert Dates:
Saturday, Nov. 5, 11 a.m. - Monroe Branch, Rochester Public Library, 809 Monroe Avenue, Rochester, NY 14607
Saturday, Nov. 12, afternoon time TBD - Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County, 115 South Avenue, Rochester, NY 14604
Sunday, Nov. 13, 2 p.m. - Irondequoit Public Library, 1290 Titus Avenue, Rochester, NY 14617
Saturday, Nov. 19, 11 a.m. - East Rochester Public Library, 317 Main Street, East Rochester, NY 14445
Contact Robert Bell at: rlbell@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @byrobbell & Instagram: @byrobbell. This coverage is only possible with support from our readers.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Irondequoit Orchestra concerts feature local minority composers
