This month, the Donna E. Shalala MusicReach program at the Frost School of Music is bustling with activity and possibility. The young students practice violin, cello, flute, saxophone, singing, and harmony in classrooms across campus.
They are also learning much more sophisticated subjects: to compose and record a song, to improvise and conduct, the range of Latin music rhythms and the history of hip-hop, and how to express story and character in a Broadway song. They are learning that dedication and discipline can change their lives. For some, MusicReach has fostered dreams of a life in music.
There's more. The MusicReach summer program fosters empathy, an openness to different people, and a desire to help others for both its students and the Frost School undergraduate and graduate students who are their teachers.
"This program shaped who I am," says Kadence Caraisco, 16, a flutist who credits her four years with MusicReach with enabling her to get into the New World School of the Arts, one of Miami's top arts school. "It made me more compassionate towards others and more open to other people's opinions. MusicReach gave me the insight that I can learn from everyone."
Caraisco's dedication is evident in her daily practice of four to six hours, a commitment fostered by the program. "This program has shown me I can do more than I thought I could," she says. "I never knew I could learn so much." Her dedication and growth are truly inspiring.
Ayana Brillinessite, a sophomore in the summer camp for the first time, says MusicReach has helped her understand music in a new way.
"Music and singing are a way to tell stories that show how you feel, that people might relate to more," says Brillinessite, who was first inspired to sing by her grandmother, an avid member of her church choir. Now, she aspires to attend the Frost School. "If they are willing to give this opportunity to students like me, it shows how much they care," she says. "So I want to learn here and help other kids too."
The majority of the students in the MusicReach summer program come from two partner schools: Arthur & Polly Mays 6-12 Conservatory of the Arts, in South Miami-Dade, and Miami Arts Studio 6-12 @Zelda Glazer (M.A.S.), in Doral. MusicReach also offers year-round afterschool classes on and off campus and semi-private two-on-one lessons on weekends. But the summer camp, with six hours of classes four days a week, for eight weeks, is its most intensive offering. MusicReach buses the students to and from camp, gives out breakfast and lunch, and provides instruments, all for free. For these children whose families may not have the resources to pay for private lessons or other extras that are key to musical achievement, MusicReach provides a priceless opportunity.
Their Frost School instructors, undergraduate mentors/teachers, and graduate teaching assistants who oversee them, earn salaries, scholarships, and living stipends. But the allure is not just financial. They gain professional skills and learn the value of giving back. Many are inspired by their MusicReach students and by teaching in ways they did not expect.
Ryan Baker and Eli Yaroch, students at the Frost School, lead a contemporary ensemble class where they teach MusicReach students how to write, play, and arrange pop and rock songs. On this day they're working in Weeks Recording Studio, helping the students record the songs they've written. Raul Ramirez, 15, drums fiercely in the studio, while in the mixing room, Baker operates the board, and Yaroch plays a bassline for a line of kids listening or practicing behind him. "That was wicked!" Yaroch, who just finished his bachelor's in music engineering, tells Ramirez.
One of the songs they're preparing is by Luna Meneses, 17. She's been singing since she was seven and is a leader in her choir program at Doral Preparatory Academy. She calls the chance to record in Weeks "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" that gives her a taste of her dream to be a songwriter and producer. "Writing and singing songs makes me feel like I can find common ground with the audience," Meneses says. "This is the happiest place for me."
Her happiness expanded as she headed to a one-on-one session with Amanda Pasler, a Frost School engineering student who gave Meneses an advanced masterclass in vocal and microphone technique. "She's super talented," Pasler says of Meneses later. "I watched her learn the things I taught her very quickly. She was very receptive, very open, hungry to learn."
Ramirez has loved music since he started playing drums in fourth grade. "I like it more than anything else," he says. "It gives me joy." Last summer, he found renewed inspiration with MusicReach. "Before, I wasn't motivated," he says. "After I came here, I wanted music to be my main thing." He started a rock band, which he says packed the house at their first show at Tea and Poets, a café near campus. Ramirez dreams of attending the Frost School, mainly because of teachers like Yaroch, who came to his show. "He understands me," Ramirez says. "And I understand him."
Yaroch, who's been teaching with MusicReach since his first year at the Frost School, is proud of the growth and achievements of his students. "Rock has always been my passion, and it has been a driving force in my maturity," he says. "As my music progressed, my maturity progressed. Without music, adolescence would have been a lot harder." When Yaroch showed up at Tea and Poets, Ramirez "gave me the biggest hug," Yaroch says. "That alone was worth all the early mornings." His pride in his students' progress is evident.
But Yaroch is proud of his entire contemporary ensemble - the skills they've developed and how they've learned to work as a team. "I don't think they realize how hard what they're doing is," he says. He will continue with MusicReach as a graduate teaching assistant and is thinking of pursuing a doctorate where he could study creating a contemporary music curriculum. "This gives me purpose," he says. "I get excited to go to work."
So is first-time MusicReach teacher Athena Pacanins, a junior in the Frost School's Modern Artist Development & Entrepreneurship (M.A.D.E.). She radiated enthusiasm as she circled a keyboard-filled classroom in the Weeks Music Library and Tech Center during one of her three songwriting classes. Her catchphrase is "beautiful, amazing, fantabulous!" Pacanins pushes and encourages four boys. "It's okay if you don't know what to do. That's what I'm here for! Do you want to write about real life? Do you want to write a diss track?" She moves on to a group of girls singing a song they created together, saying delightedly. "Record this! Don't lose it! Beautiful, amazing, fantabulous! That's SO catchy, guys!"
During the next class, which includes Meneses and Ramirez, Pacanins launched a rapid-fire brainstorming session for a new song. They discussed the merits of major and minor keys and ideas for topics. In 15 minutes they came up with a subject (a money-hungry user), metaphors (pets, eating, rollercoasters), and a key (D Major.) They completed a chorus and pre-chorus by the end of an hour-long class.
Pacanins, who has never taught before, created her own syllabus for MusicReach students, who ranged in age from 10 to 18 and had never written a song. She's delved into lyrical tools, metaphors, wordplay, and storytelling, creating melodies and hooks. She improvises and adapts, collaborating and teaching. The MusicReach students have written songs inspired by Olivia Rodrigo and Kendrick Lamar and animated films like "Shrek" and "SpongeBob." Some are arranging their compositions. "They're very fast learners, talented and engaged," Pacanins says. "Their growth is insane."
Pacanins, meanwhile, has been so stimulated by teaching that she has written an album's worth of her own songs. "I see that inspiration can come from anywhere," she says. "I'm often really hard on myself. Working with these students spilling out ideas and turning them into something amazing, I learned to trust the process a lot more."
MusicReach also fosters education and life skills like discipline and focus and encourages kids to stay in school and apply to college – efforts that have been highly successful. However, for those passionate about music, the program also nurtures their ambition for more. Like Jeremiah Aaron, 16, a junior at Mays who's been playing cello for six years and attending MusicReach's afterschool and summer programs for three. "I love the cello; I love how it sounds," says Aaron, who wants to attend the Frost School or another conservatory. "I'm so drawn to music," he says. "I could never let it go."
Perhaps the person who best exemplifies MusicReach's philosophy is Maria Fernanda Guglielmina, a teaching assistant in the program since she began her doctoral studies in flute performance at the Frost School in 2021. Playing and teaching music have been intertwined passions for Guglielmina since she was 13, when her family moved from Peru to Madison, Wisconsin. Music was her "sacred time" and escape from her family's financial struggles and her anxiety. She taught guitar, her first instrument, to children to pay a private teacher for flute lessons, putting her on the path to studying music – while continuing to teach - in college. "When you're a kid, to have someone supporting you can change your life," Guglielmina says. "As an immigrant, I always felt behind – [my flute teacher] taught me that if I love something and try my best and work hard, I can do whatever I want."
She has applied her experience to MusicReach. Guglielmina is constantly encouraging and demanding as she teaches conducting and Latin rhythm classes. As each kid takes a turn conducting, she finds something to praise and something to improve, getting the group to join her in analyzing what they see. She praises an older boy for making eye contact. "I know that can be hard," Guglielmina says. "But we have to practice the awkward things."
"It's fun to see them realize they can do something because someone is pushing them," she says later. "It is a particular skill to meet them where they're at and convince them that practice and perseverance will allow them to achieve things they didn't think were possible. Kids say, 'I don't know my major scales.' I say in eight weeks, you will."
She sees herself in students like Liz Ferrer, 16, a flute player whose family emigrated to Miami from Cuba 18 months ago and has blossomed in MusicReach. "I've seen her go from not feeling adequate in her classes to being a leader," Guglielmina says.
She is also proud of Caraisco, not only for her musical achievement and dedication but also for her empathy. "She is very compassionate," Guglielmina says. "She's taken more of a teaching role in camp."
Caraisco may continue this role. "The knowledge I've gotten here is powerful," she says. I want to pass on what I've been taught."
MusicReach students will perform in a concert featuring multiple student ensembles and projects at 12 noon on Thursday, August 1st at UM Maurice Gusman Concert Hall, 1314 Miller Drive, Coral Gables, FL 33146. Admission is free and all are welcome!
