Culture & Community | Education & Youth | Arts & Culture | Musicians | New Haven Public Schools | Wilbur Cross High School | Education | Yale Schwarzman Center
American Modern Opera Company musicians Jonny Allen, Doug Balliett, and and Miranda Cuckson (left to right) in Danielle Storey's chorus class at Wilbur Cross High School. Photos Kapp Singer.
When professional bassist Doug Balliett finds himself in a creative rut, he resolves to write something as bad as he possibly can. It’s then, when he turns off the analytic part of his brain, that he ends up doing some of his best work.
Last Friday, that was exactly what high school junior Michelle Gonzalez needed to hear. “I’ve been trying to make music, but I’m scared about how it could go wrong,” said Gonzalez, a young vocalist, pianist, and drummer who has been working on playing gospel music. “But I feel motivated to just keep pushing. Now it might be bad, but in the future it will get better.”
That interaction unfolded Friday at Wilbur Cross High School, as members of the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC) spoke to Danielle Storey’s chorus class about their work, paths to becoming professional musicians, and learning from failure. For 45 minutes, Balliett, percussionist Jonny Allen, and violinist Miranda Cuckson discussed what music teaches them about other aspects of life and fielded questions from students on everything from work-life balance to career advice.
The visit came before a Friday evening performance of AMOC’s lauded El Niño: Nativity Reconsidered at the Yale Schwarzman Center.
“What is opera?” Balliett asked rhetorically at the beginning of the talk. For AMOC, at least, it goes beyond the stereotypical image of singers hitting impossibly high notes in Baroque costume. The group works across a wide spectrum of performance techniques, including drama, music, dance, film, storytelling, and poetry.
“A century ago, people got very specialized [in a specific instrument],” Cuckson said. “But now, in our day and age, you can experiment with all sorts of things.” She explained that today’s performing arts landscape is more interdisciplinary than ever before, and people play across multiple different genres and experiment with various mediums, often pairing music with other types of visual or performing arts.
Sometimes, they’ll use things that might not be considered instruments at all. “You name it, I’ve hit it,” said Allen. “Marimbas and vibraphones and bells, but also flower pots and metal pipes and bubble wrap.
Allen speaks to the class.
Throughout the talk, the musicians discussed how they balance their own artistic desires with the gigs that pay the bills. All three work as freelancers and, in addition to AMOC, play in a variety of musical groups—from church music ensembles to percussion quartets. They noted that life can often be unpredictable as they string together various performances, teaching roles, and composing jobs, but the creative freedom it affords them is worth not necessarily knowing what even the next weekend will hold.
“That’s the greatest joy of my life,” Balliett said. “To create something and do it with people I care about. And if other people enjoy it, then life is amazing.”
The lessons of the day also went beyond performing arts. Allen pointed to the role music plays in building social and emotional skills, problem solving on the fly, effectively communicating problems, and devising solutions. Throughout his career, Allen explained, he has learned the importance of surrounding himself with people who support him creatively—and how to manage things more banal, like responding to thousands of emails and booking performance space.
“The fact that you’re in this room right now is already setting you up for success in so many fields,” said Allen. “If you want to go into the arts, that’s there for you, but music is also just a process of working with people.”
In a Q and A following the talk, 9th-grader Anijah Downer, a budding actress, asked how the musicians made time for loved ones in their lives amid a busy and sometimes erratic touring schedule.
“Being really clear and communicative is super helpful,” Allen responded. “There’s ways to make sure people know you care about them even if you’re not in the room with them,”
For 9th-grader Demora Yalartai, the musicians’ words gave her a new sense of possibility. “I’m gonna try harder to get into some other [music] classes in addition to chorus,” she said. “I’m probably gonna start playing the trombone again.”