“The true beauty of music is that it connects people,” said Roy Ayers, an influential jazz musician known for pioneering jazz-funk music in the 1970s.
This sentiment holds true here at American River College. Just taking a walk through the music building will reveal long stretches of hallways with bulletin boards covered in posters showcasing upcoming musicals, bands looking for members, orchestras, music clubs, music tutors, and lessons. In between those bulletin boards are classrooms from which rehearsals of orchestral and voice performances echo through the hallway. Outside the building is a large field and sitting area that inspires creativity and collaboration.
“[The scene is] very vibrant,” said Dyne Eifersten, department chair and jazz studies director, of ARC’s music department.
Music majors at ARC start by choosing a concentration in either classical or jazz, and from that starting point, their music tastes evolve. Many students and professors branch off into various directions and listen to genres outside of their specialty. They agree that this provides them with a more well-rounded view of their craft and opens them up to new musical horizons, both when listening and composing. In addition to classical orchestral pieces, orchestra director professor Steven Thompson said he listens to pop artists Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter over the summer. Anthony Marvelli, jazz professor, enjoys listening to rapper Kendrick Lamar. Lee Hoffman, professor of vocal music, says she feels inspired by Barbra Streisand.
“[She] sings from her soul with no obstacles,” Hoffman said.
Students Iris Perez and Kaden Dayog, who are both second-year music majors with a concentration in classical music, say they enjoy listening to alternative rock band Arctic Monkeys and rapper Noname.
In addition to the diversity of preferences in music, students and professors have unique ways of perceiving and interacting with the music as well. Eifertsen says he likes the trombone because it mimics a human voice, and because everyone has their own unique voice, the trombone can tell different peoples’ stories. Dayog likes to convert violin, bassoon and viola songs to the bassoon as it tends to be an underrepresented instrument in most compositions.
“Music should be available to all instruments,” he says.
For Perez, music is a cathartic expression of her feelings. Her degree in psychology from Sacramento State has provided her the unique perspective of how becoming a better singer requires overcoming mental hurdles in addition to physical ones.
“[The students here] have a great sense of dedication and devotion to their craft,” Dayog says. This is in part due to the creative and collaborative culture within the music program.
“There is the magic of it when you see interaction in a musical setting,” says Kirt Shearer, professor of music.
Music is an art form that has the potential to build community, unlike an art form like painting which is more solitary.
“It’s like a basketball team,” Eifertsen says. “You know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, there is more necessity for bonding.”
Music has a physical energy that it emits, and people can sense that.
“Art is an expression of yourself and it connects you to other people because they find themselves in your expression. I’m feeling like I’m coming out of my shell,” Perez says.
This is a reason why people tend to connect over something like music. Music is very personal and emotional. Expressing yourself in that manner is an act of vulnerability, and vulnerability creates connection. It takes the focus off of oneself and directs it to a communal purpose.
“When playing music together, not focusing on yourself improves performance because I can hear my part in the middle,” Dayog says.
These types of experiences are incredibly valuable, and it’s not just the students who benefit from the collaborative nature of ARC’s music program.
“When you teach music, you learn it better than if you were a student as it creates new neural networks,” says Thompson.
Teaching can cause one to see their craft in a novel way as they have to bridge the gap between their knowledge base and their students’. This can cause a professor to take on new perspectives and intellectual and creative challenges they wouldn’t otherwise have encountered.
“[I’m] kind of the student here. There is a culture of mutual partnership,” says Marvelli.
That’s because teaching is not merely a relaying of facts, information, or technique. It’s a shared experience where multiple people get to be a part of something greater than themselves. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
“[I want to] be part of an event where the music will help in some way,” says Hoffman on why she teaches vocal technique.
It’s not just about the music itself. It’s about what it means and how it impacts people in their day to day life. A wide variety of life experiences can contribute to one’s artistic growth. Sometimes art can come from something serious.
“Suffering makes deeper art,” says Harley Glynn, professor of music.
Pain and struggle can give way to unique perspectives as it causes someone to experience something that the average person would not have. Shearer brings up an alternate perspective.
“[Inspiration] comes from dumb things, like someone whistling in the hallway,” he says.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be some grandiose thing. Even the most mundane or miniscule things can make their way into one’s subconscious and therefore into their art. There is profundity in the deep and serious, but there is also beauty in the trivial and routine. Diverse life experiences make up the individual, and that inspires the music. Therefore, music is something that is part of the musician. This soul-bearing creative expression is something that can help people become self-actualized in their life as a whole.
“Having a discipline helps me apply myself in a particular way that allows all of me to be integrated,” Hoffman says.
Whether it be hip-hop, jazz, classical or rock, the students and professors at ARC have their own unique interests that, when joined together in collaboration, create novel ideas that otherwise may not have come into fruition. This not only contributes to their personal development, but also the living, breathing ecosystem of a creative community.
