Breaking the Bach

As a fortunate private school student, I was lucky to grow up surrounded by music. In elementary school we sang, played xylophones, and hit wooden blocks together in rhythm. Middle school followed with more xylophones, ukuleles, and recorders. Soon, I was given an option to join choir, band, or orchestra (I chose the latter). As my passion for the viola intensified, I began joining more and more music groups: school orchestra, chamber music, and finally the Hawaii Youth Symphony (HYS).

It was at HYS that I learned lessons that would last beyond my years as a violist. Besides playing amongst the top young musicians in Hawaii, I was exposed to discipline, passion, and leadership that was unique to the HYS program because of the leaders there. Truly, compared to any other program I participated in throughout my high school years, HYS was the one I took the most from.

Unfortunately, the Honolulu Symphony (and subsequently HYS) has been suffering financially for several years. About to go bankrupt a few years ago, an anonymous donor graciously gave one million dollars to the Symphony, saving it from extinction. Big and small donors alike are giving all they can to save the Honolulu Symphony, and the Honolulu Symphony is doing its part to be smart with the donations.

This recent article shares that:

[The Honolulu Symphony] has canceled a concert on the grounds that the cost of it would return the Symphony to serious financial trouble…The decision may alarm some people but the current board said over the summer it was determined to get the Symphony onto more of a secure business footing.

Let the Honolulu Symphony be a model for us all. In these tough times, it is necessary to cut back, make sacrifices, and hold out until the economy improves. The Symphony teaches us not to spend what we don’t have, even if it’s embarrassing or difficult or atypical.

Some people might argue that the arts, during a difficult economic time, are not worth saving. To that I say nay and will support it with a quote from my HYS conductor, Maestro Henry Miyamura:

You can take confidence from music. You can take anger and love from music. You can take all the meanings you know in music and become stronger leaders, because you are the future of our country.

And by leaders he meant in every field: law, business, medicine, education. By training local students in music, confidence, passion, and discipline, Miyamura was training leaders who would come back to their Hawaii home and improve their communities. So, despite these trying circumstances, the arts (especially education of the arts) isn’t only a beautiful concert this weekend but an investment in Hawaii’s future as well.

Without the Honolulu Symphony, mentors in HYS would be unemployed. Mentors to public school music programs would disappear. Private schools would be the only places with orchestras and symphonies. Music would become an elitist art.

But I have faith that the Symphony will survive, as will our economy if everyone can save and hold out till the end. Be smart with your money, and soon the light at the end of the tunnel will shine around us, and we can get our tans back! Shoots cuz, we go.