Episode 43: Community Music Center

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A transcript, lightly edited for clarity and length, follows.

Show Guests: Julie Rulyak Steinberg, Executive Director, Community Music Center

Voices of the Community Introduction: Welcome to voices of the community which explores critical issues facing Northern California communities. We introduce you to the voices of community thought leaders and change makers who are working on solutions that face our fellow individual community members neighborhoods cities and our region. This is George Koster your host. 

Series Introduction: This episode is part of our series exploring COVID-19’s impact on nonprofits and small businesses in San Francisco. Back in April 2020 when we decided to create this ongoing series on Covid-19’s impact first on nonprofits and then on small businesses in the San Francisco Bay. We like you had no idea how long the pandemic would go on and what the health and economic impact would be on our community. Going into 2021 the pandemic is now killing more people, shutting down more nonprofits and small businesses, along with wiping out the lively hoods of families, neighborhoods and communities.

We will continue to shine a spotlight on the nonprofits, and small businesses that make up the fabric of our community along with the founders and staff who are struggling to deal with the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on their operations, services and sustainability until we can all get to the other side of the pandemic. Along the way, we will also share with you all the amazing solutions that our nonprofits, small businesses, foundations, and government leaders are working on to help us all get to the other side of the pandemic and come together to rebuild our communities with more economic, social and environmental equality

Show Guest Julie: We are hosting community hubs. Where students who are, you know, some of the most in-need students in San Francisco are coming to our site in person five days a week, getting support with their distance learning getting other supports that are needed by their families, including nutrition support and things of that nature. And they're also doing immersive music and dance and art-making. And this is part of their everyday experience, it's giving them that socialization, that students are so missing right now. And you really giving them an opportunity to have a little bit of normalcy, in an otherwise really unusual and really tough time.

Episode Intro - Show Host George: This is the Executive Director of the Community Music Center Julie Rulyak Steinberg. We wanted to feature the community Music Center because it is an anchor in our arts and culture ecosystem that has been supporting the training, cultivation, and celebration of music from children to seniors since 1921.

Show Host George: I'm joined remotely via zoom by Julie Rulyak Steinberg. She's the Executive Director of Community Music Center. Thank you for being here, Julie.

Show Guest Julie: Thank you so much for having me on George and for talking about CMC.

Show Host George: And as we were just talking a second ago, I feel like the Community Music Center is, again, one of those really hidden gems of a nonprofit that provides a really deep, rich, and wide cultural, arts, experience, and skills training that people don't know about. So please provide us a little overview of the Community Music Center and all of its wonderful programs?

Show Guest Julie: Sure. Thank you. I think that's right. CMC has been a part of the cultural landscape of San Francisco for a hundred years this year. And for us, what that means is providing music and music opportunities to everyone, sort of regardless of their ability to pay or play.

We have students that are very young, just a few months old who are participating, in our Musical Story-time classes and our Music for Children classes. And that kind of runs the gamut all the way through our older adults. Hundreds of whom participate in our Older Adult Choir programs.

So, we've got a hundred professional faculty who are working for us who offer just this real breadth of experience and depth of experience. So, if you've got a banjo or a cello in your closet that you've thought about, or you've always wanted to play the guitar, you know, we've got somebody who can meet you there and begin you on your musical journey.

If say you really were a trained pianist and you want to kind of get back to that in your life. We have faculty members who already sort of support you at a higher level. And you know, for us, it's always about access. How can we create the most access for our community? CMC does that through a lot of different ways, including scholarships.

And Tuition Free programs. We have more than 1400 folks who participate in our Tuition Free programs every year. We give out more than $2.4 million in direct aid to students, and that allows us to serve about 3,500 students all over the city. In the before times, we served them on two campuses, one our flagship in the Mission District on Capp Street as well as our campus in the Richmond District.

We're part of SFUSD so, we work with their Mariachi Program as well as some other site-specific specific programs. You know, we, as I mentioned, have a really robust partnership with Senior Centers all around the City where we're offering tuition-free choir programs for adults. You know, for being kind of a best kept secret organization, I think we're really reaching a lot of people and have had the opportunity to rethink what it is we do in this really tough time with the pandemic.

George: And speaking of which, how has COVID-19 impacted the operations, of the community music center? As we were speaking before, so much of the experience of, arts and culture, specifically music is the in-person experience.

Julie Rulyak Steinberg: Yes, and CMC, you know, up and until last March our work was in-person. It was sort of that in-person relationship and the transformative moments that happen when you're making music with others. And, for us, it has completely changed the way that we operate. When the shelter in place order came forward in March we sat down at the table as a staff and with faculty and said, how are we going to do this? And everybody was just ready to jump into the unknown. They were ready to move forward. So, we took a weekend and the very first place we started was around how do we get all of our teachers and students online, learning together?

What platforms are working well, what can we offer?  In the matter of a weekend, we got our teachers online and we really focused on connectivity and just making sure everyone was getting together that they knew how to use the software.  I had never expected in any point for CMC to run an IT operation, but we were offering trainings for our faculty and for our students to really be able to use Zoom and FaceTime and you know, the other platforms that have limitations, but, once we sort of moved through that first phase of just connecting, we then focused on the pedagogy, right. Because it's a completely different experience, learning music online with one another, as opposed to, learning in one of our classrooms or in our concert hall.

And so, as we were thinking with the faculty, you know, what needs to change in terms of how we're bringing students into lessons and our faculty, you know, have done trainings for one another and shared best practices. So, I think developing that new teaching style and what's needed online has been really important.

 Then, once we were able to say, okay, folks are feeling more comfortable. They're feeling more grounded. It's been a few weeks or a month we started focusing on, what is so important at CMC, which is our community. And we wanted to create ways to build virtual community.

So early in the pandemic, that was weekly singalongs that were led by, two of our faculty, artists Maestro Nola Curtis, and their family doing the C Note Sing Alongs. It was free early childhood classes led by Daniel Fabricant making, you know, musical Storytime accessible. Every week.

We started to think about what performance opportunities we could provide for our students and that really culminated first in Field Day and in virtual recitals that have gone on. We also really recognize that, in our community, particularly in the mission district, folks are really struggling.

And so, we wanted to find ways to give back and support the community. We were able to do a sort of co fundraiser with Carnaval and, support the Mission Food Hub by presenting some performances that we shared a while ago, El Son de la Misión which was you know, sort of the story of the mission. And we celebrated that back in our 95th anniversary. So, we did a rebroadcast and a fundraiser around that. And it's really been taking off from there. You know, I think it's been almost a year of us working completely online and, while we've had lots of bright spots, we acknowledged that this is tough.

This is tough for folks to be, sort of isolated from one another.  So we've really tried to create ways where people can still meet, still get together, still experience that stirring passion, that music brings and to keep learning sort of while we’re, starting to gradually prepare for what it will look like when we returned to our campus.

So that's sort of been the remote portion. I also think one of the things that CMC is doing in partnership with other organizations around the Mission our partners at Jamestown Community Center and Loco Loco, and with Dance Mission is we are hosting community hubs.

Where students who are, you know, some of the most in need students in San Francisco are coming to our site in person five days a week, getting support with their distance learning getting other supports that are needed by their families, including nutrition support and things of that nature. And they're also doing immersive music and dance and art making. And this is part of their everyday experience, it's giving them that socialization, that students are so missing right now. And you really giving them an opportunity to have a little bit of normalcy, in an otherwise really unusual and really tough time.

George: So as part of your virtual experience, you have a big program coming up in February I understand as well on free classes, I think you said.

Julie Rulyak Steinberg: Yes, that's right. So, CMC is doing something it's never done before. And thinking about it from, you know, obviously our lens of access, but also wanting to expand our community right now because in some ways the online environment has allowed us to reach people who never would have been in contact with CMC before.

So, we are offering a free lessons February, where anyone can sign up to take a free lesson of their choosing in the month of February. It's a great way to meet our faculty members. It's a great way to sort of see what CMC is all about. I think for, those who are sort of on the fence, it's a way to just dip a toe in the water and see if it's a right for you.

So, we're really excited about that and we hope folks will take us up on it. You know, we do offer lessons year round. So, we hope this is, a catalyst for some new folks coming on. And maybe for those who haven't been with us so far to jump in and see, just how successful online lessons can be.

Another really great program that's going to be starting up in February is our CMC sessions programs. These are workshops that are being led by our faculty who are part of our cultural traditions program. They're going to run starting in February all the way through may, twice a month. They're completely free.

There are workshops and interactive sort of left Dem performances. It's going to span many genres of music. So, tango traditional Latin music, black music, you're going to have a chance to sort of get in depth topics with our faculty and really experience what it's like to learn with them and to see them in their element. So, we really encourage folks to participate in that as well.

George: Thank you. That was great. could you please share with the audience, one of your favorite moments of working at Community Music Center and what you feel has been its impact on youth and their families in San Francisco?

Julie Rulyak Steinberg: Yeah, gosh, there are a lot of favorite moments that come to mind in the last three or so years, since I've started at CMC. I think one of the most beautiful moments at CMC that I can think of was our Virtual Field Day Performances that happened last year. So, field day is a big celebration named after our founder Gertrude Field. And we have hundreds of students who participate every year. They come and they do performances, and they raise money for our scholarships.

And it's always kind of this wonderful carnival like atmosphere at CMC and last year. Obviously, that was not something that was going to be possible. And so, our team, our amazing staff and faculty kind of came up with this way that we would create a week of performances, celebrating our students, celebrating their hard work virtually.

And so, we did broadcast every day for a week at noon. And we got to watch our students and community members and really celebrated local artists do performances all in support of CMC. And when we launched that button that go button on Monday to watch our students take the stage online, it was really moving. I just felt so proud of how our students and our faculty came together and said, we're going to carry on. And so, I think, that's the moment that stands out for me right now. [laughter, laughter]

George: Thank you. That was a great story. So how can folks who are listening to the show support Community Music Center?

Julie Rulyak Steinberg: There's lots of ways to support CMC. I think if you're curious, we really want to encourage you to take part in our programs that are upcoming, that are free and low cost. You can visit us at s f c m c dot org when you arrive at our webpage, you're going to find lots of different opportunities to get involved, to get participate in an event, to take a free lesson.

So that's one way. Of course, right now, and for so many arts organizations it's tough times, right? And so, if you're able to folks are able and they are inspired by our mission of providing music to everyone please donate. You can go to SFCMC dot org / donate. And you're totally tax deductible donation will help to support our scholarships, our operations, our faculty who really need your support now. And I think, you know, another way to support us is just to tune in check out what's going on our social media, our Facebook page, our Instagram page which are all just San Francisco Community Music Center.

You can find us there.  You'll get to meet our community and just having that support means a lot. And if this all sounds good to you pass on the word, you know, let your friends know that this is, something that you heard about.  Our strongest marketing tool is word of mouth we’ve known that for a long time. So, those are some ways folks can help.

George:  Also, additionally, one of the things that you provide are instruments. So, if someone has an old instrument, that's collecting dust in a closet in the garage, can they donate that?

Julie Rulyak Steinberg: They can, we right now are being really careful, just with sort of the health restrictions and wanting to make sure that folks aren't coming into contact too close. If you have an instrument that is taking up space on your shelf and you think that it's in good shape, it can benefit another student, please reach out and contact us. And for those who are interested in taking lessons, but think, gosh, I don't have an instrument, we do offer very low cost or free instrument rentals as well. So, folks can inquire about that when they reach out to us.

George: That's great. So final question, what would you see as some of the positive things that could come out of this crisis, to support performing arts organizations like yourself and, get people engaged, especially our youth and families, especially in low-income communities?

Julie Rulyak Steinberg: I think that that is the question that we are all wrestling with right now.  Where have all the bright spots been and what can we keep from this time? As we sort of imagine transitioning back into a more normal world for us learning that music can be learned successfully online has been kind of a revelation after doing business the way we had for a hundred years.

So, I imagined that we would like to keep a virtual presence online, particularly as it relates to the hundreds of performances that we share in our concert hall typically every year. You know, I'd love to see us keep those streams flowing so, folks from all over can continue to partake in free, concerts.

I also think we're learning a lot from our Community Hubs participation and seeing how really hands-on Arts Rich Learning for students in small environments has a huge impact on their wellbeing. So, thinking about how we can continue to provide those kinds of in-depth supports for students who need it most. And to really make sure that the arts are accessible not just as a visit to a concert hall once a year, but really become part of students' lives. I think that's something that we're thinking about how these digital tools can make sure that that's true for the long term.

George: Thank you, Julie. That was wonderful. And thanks for sharing your work, at a Community Music Center today. We're going to make sure that everyone who's listening has your contact information website, social media, so they can follow Community Music, Center productions, and hopefully get engaged. Take a class, donate, donate an instrument, and of course support your mission.

Julie Rulyak Steinberg: Thank you so much, George. And thank you everyone for listening at home. We can't wait to meet you.

Episode Outro - Show Host George: That’s it for this episode of voices of the community. You have been listening to the voice of Julie Rulyak Steinberg, the Executive Director of the Community Music Center. To sign up for a free class in February, and find out more about all of the classes and education programs the Community Music Center offers please go to s f c m c dot org

There is more support for our arts and culture organizations through the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Programs that are rolling out through the Small Business Administration. Tune in to next week’s show with Julie Clowes from the Small Business Administration and nonprofit and small business consultant Alan Spector to find out more about the new funding programs and how both nonprofits and small businesses can access this latest round of funding in hopes of bridging them to the next round of funding and vaccination rollouts.      

Series Outro: We hope that you enjoy the insights, points of view, and personal stories from the voices of change-makers and their nonprofits and small businesses featured in this series. To find out more and get engaged with the nonprofits, small businesses and staff members, featured in this series please go to my web site george koster dot com and click on Voices of the Community to find links to the extended versions of these interviews and to listen to the entire series. After listening to these stories we hope that you will consider making a donation and volunteering to provide a hand up to your fellow community members.

Series Credits: I want to thank my associate producer Eric Estrada, and Kasey Nance at Citron Studios, along with the wonderful crew at the San Francisco Public Press and KSFP.

Voices of the Community is a member of Intersection for the Arts which allows us to offer you a tax deduction for your contributions. Please go to George Koster dot com and click on the donate link to make a donation to help us provide future shows just like this one. While you are on our web site you can enjoy our archived past shows which feature community voices working on solutions to critical issues facing Northern California communities, and sign up for our newsletter to find out about our future shows as well as shows and events from the organizations that our included in our episodes

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