For Mr. L

A funny thing happens as we get older…we suddenly find ourselves appreciating all those things we were once told we’d appreciate…yup…when we get older.

For me, three things stick out in my mind in particular:

1) Fighting with my dad constantly as a teenager over practicing my trumpet. I was told repeatedly that one day I’d thank him for it…and I do.

2) Nonstop complaining at the health food my mom used to force us to eat. I was told repeatedly that one day I would appreciate it…and I do.

3) Finding a mentor in my 8th grade band director. This one I did appreciate back then…but didn’t fully understand the extent to which it would influence the person I would become until…here I am…older.

So what’s bringing on this trip down memory lane? Perhaps it’s the rapidly approaching big 3-0. I’m about to embark on the last year of my 20′s (yowza that feels weird to say!) and I’m sure it’s bringing up some soul-searching. More than that, however, is a lot of time spent recently thinking about the power of music, the power of what we’re doing with Music Crossing Borders and the power of influence we as individuals, and adults, hold over the next generation.

If you read the past What Made You Get Started in Music blog, you know that in eighth grade I was ready to quit music. It was the arrival of Mr. L, our new band teacher, which would not only convince me to stay in band but would change the course of my life.

To read Mr. L’s bio is…confusing. With careers ranging from owning a bagel shop and  real estate company to being President of the International Make-A-Wish Foundation to his current job as Vice President of the Performing Arts at a very prestigious chain of private schools, Mr. L has-quite literally-done it all.

But what is a bagel-making-real-estate-dealing-nonprofit-running businessman doing in education?

The answer is simple: Changing Lives

Mr. L knew-and still knows-that the same skills it takes to get a room full of millionaires to open their checkbooks to a worthy cause are the same ones that will motivate a bratty 8th grader (I’m allowed to describe them as bratty, as that was me during this hot/cold/love/hate time) to think bigger than the classroom they are in for 45 minutes a day.

Let me give you an example…

While most middle school band students are thrilled at the idea of a class trip to Hershey Park, our trip entailed taking a group of 40-50 middle school students (seriously, picture this) to Europe for a ten-day tour of performances ranging from outdoor parks to castles to children’s cancer hospitals.

Talk about life changing.

While I’m sure there were mundane days in band class, I don’t remember them. I don’t remember ever being told that if I don’t practice my grade will be lowered. I do, however, remember being handed the Holst Eb Suite (a piece most often performed by college and professional orchestras) in eighth grade and told if we wanted to challenge ourselves and blow everyone away, let’s do it. If we didn’t want to take it seriously, we’d play out of our method books like every other middle school band. The thought of ever being like ‘every other middle school band’ became our motivation to work harder than any of us had ever worked up until then.

I don’t remember being lectured for not practicing enough. I do, however, remember making a $50 bet with Mr. L over a very difficult measure in a piece of music. $50 to an eighth grader?! Talk about motivation to practice!

And I don’t remember getting lectured day in and day out about the need to act responsibly with high school rapidly approaching, as is so often the case in middle school classrooms. Instead, I remember being pulled aside by a tearful Mr. L staring at me in astonishment and asking me, ‘You just spent the last hour of your life performing for children with terminal diseases and you still don’t get it? You’re acting like this <insert stupid middle school behavior>…you don’t get it, do you?’ Ouch. There’s a life lesson.

As I get older, I find myself thinking about Mr. L’s methods more and more. Unconventional is an understatement…but powerful is even more so.

Mr. L has a slogan that’s stuck with me and has become an underlying force behind MCB:

It’s Not Just About the Music

When you’re thirteen and performing for a group of terminally ill children half your age in front of a band director with tears streaming down his face, you learn very quickly what is truly meant by the power of music. That’s a lesson I’ve always kept with me and is a founding principle of MCB.

I was very fortunate to learn at a very young age that there’s a very definitive power to music. It can heal, it can change lives, it can bring people together.

So, here’s to you Mr. L…you absolutely taught me that It’s Not Just About the Music. I hope you don’t mind that we’ve put this into our own words:

6.8 Billion People * One Language * One World