Paterson Music Project sees plenty of success stories in its 10th year
Hours before Paterson’s first citywide music festival in nearly two decades, violinist Hector Otero wasn’t nervous, despite the fact that the conductor, who had fallen ill, was still a no-show. As concertmaster, Otero, 17, had to step in and lead his classmates in a final rehearsal.
“It’s not that big of an issue,” Otero said, as the sound of regimented string, horns and drums echoed in a nearby practice room. “We’ve been to so many events and festivals.”
A high school senior, Otero, who earned a full-ride scholarship to study music at Montclair State University, evinces the calm of a seasoned performer. He is one of the many success stories from the Paterson Music Project, a nonprofit that offers affordable after-school and weekend music instruction in a city whose arts education programs are at the whim of state funding.
The Music Project, which began in 2013 with only 30 students, now has two locations in Paterson — at P.S. 16 and the Community Charter School — and another in Woodland Park, together serving 470 students. At Saturday’s event, the All-City Festival, the musical talents of more than 250 student from 28 Paterson schools echoed through the hallways at John F. Kennedy High School.
“This concert is not just for students from our program — it’s the first citywide event since 2007,” said Shanna Lin, director at the Music Project. “What better way to celebrate our 10-year anniversary.”
The ongoing threat to arts education has a historical precedent. In the fallout of the Cold War and the midcentury space race, school curriculums became hyperfocused on STEM subjects, according to Michelle Van Hoven, supervisor of fine and performing arts for Paterson Public Schools.
Districts faced with dwindling budgets — often in low-income communities of color — are still quick to jettison their arts programs.
Van Hoven, who began as a music teacher at Rosa L. Parks School of Fine and Performing Arts about a decade ago, has witnessed the ebb and flow of funding over the years. Now at the helm of the city’s arts education department, Van Hoven advocates from within.
“Music and arts programs are expensive in general,” Van Hoven told Paterson Press. “But in the time since, we’ve realized how vital arts education is.”
Advocates, like Van Hoven, are pushing the benefits of arts education in childhood and adolescent development, arguing that it can even help with mental health, crucial in an age of cyberbullying and pandemic-related trauma.
“It provides opportunities for students to explore themselves as people; it increases their creativity, increases motivation,” Van Hoven said.
The students also create close bonds with other young musicians, said 16-year-old Geanelly Vallecillo. With the help of her sister, Haley Vallecillo, 14, also a violin player, she convinced their parents not to move the family to Connecticut, and instead to remain in Paterson so she could finish out her instruction with the Music Project.
The program for Saturday’s All-City Music Festival included nine compositions ranging from folk songs to Scott Watson’s jazzy "Awesome Sauce." The finale was a “collective composition,” which is an organized improvisation in which the musicians respond to certain prompts and hand gestures.
“We start with something very simple — just a rhythm,” said Rachael Diaz, a 16-year-old junior. “With that one idea, like a spark, it starts a fire.”
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Paterson NJ Music Project hosts festival in its 10th year
