IT’S MORE THAN MUSIC: MY VOICE MUSIC TRANSFORMS YOUTH

Matthew Bernstein sits down again with MVM Founder/Director, Ian Mouser to learn about some highlights from the last year.  You can read the whole interview here:  It’s more than music: My Voice Music transforms youth.  Below is an excerpt.

OMN – Please share some highlights from this last year in terms of your students’ successes.

Ian – “I have many highlights, but two specific ones stand out. First, MVM has been able to participate in some amazing partnerships this past year. In particular, MVM was recently invited to co-host an open mic poetry slam at Donald E. Long Detention Center in partnership with students from PNCA as part of a class taught by PNCA Instructor Micheal O’Malley. As an icebreaker, we ran an activity where all the inmates, staff, guests, and PNCA students were asked to sing separate harmony lines together in order to create a full contemporary choral music piece… on the spot, in less than five minutes. The goal was to illustrate that we are all one, connected, each breathing in air and exhaling into the same space, together. Each person has the power to change that space, no matter what it is, or where they are.

I assumed this exercise would be tolerated, at best, and I was absolutely surprised and amazed when both the incarcerated youth and the staff joined in wholeheartedly with the activity. They enthusiastically learned their parts and slowly joined in a growing chorus of voices as each part was learned.

Indeed, the participants turned a locked-and-guarded (jail) gymnasium into a music hall bursting with harmony as their voices filled the room, intertwined, and echoed off the walls. It was a beautiful reminder that music can be transformative, foster connection, break down barriers, and help us transcend circumstances that can seem hopeless.”

Read the rest of this Interview here:  Oregon Music News – It’s more than music: My Voice Music transforms youth