Equity Arc teen musicians call Symphony Center experience truly awesome

On Sunday, April 6, more than 60 high school musicians from across the country performed alongside members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Civic Orchestra of Chicago during the opening weekend of the monthlong Chicago Youth in Music Festival. More than 1,200 enthusiastic audience members cheered on the combined ensemble, known as the Equity Arc Pathways Orchestra, in a concert featuring Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade in A Minor and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. 

The performance concluded a busy weekend of activities coordinated by the Negaunee Music Institute at the CSO and Equity Arc, a national alliance of classical-music training programs and professional ensembles committed to education and accessibility. Selected through a competitive audition process, the students in this year’s Equity Arc Pathways Orchestra hold fellowships in 16 different “pathways programs” across the United States, which are connected through Equity Arc’s National Collective for Musical Pathways. These pathways programs provide rigorous training and holistic support for talented young instrumentalists from historically underrepresented backgrounds as they prepare to study classical music at leading conservatories and universities.

Hailing from cities such as Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Nashville, Philadelphia and San Antonio, the Equity Arc students quickly bonded during their first dinner together in Chicago, according to high-school senior Rishab Jain, a percussionist from the Washington (D.C.) Musical Pathways Initiative and the Equity Arc orchestra’s timpanist. “Being in a room full of musicians just as passionate as you are makes it really easy to connect with other people,” Jain said in a recent interview. “I was really easily able to talk to people from around the country I had never met before, and even by the end of that first night, we were friends.”

Over the next three days, the students participated in mock auditions with professors from Roosevelt University, sectional rehearsals with CSO musicians, a panel discussion about the future of classical music and a workshop with representatives from colleges and summer institutes. They also attended a CSO concert featuring works by Sibelius, Dvořák and Rachmaninov, conducted by Karina Canellakis. “That was really inspiring to see our heroes on stage and to see what we were really striving for,” Jain said of the concert.

Students spent the rest of the weekend rehearsing with conductor Kyle Dickson in preparation for the finale concert. Currently the assistant conductor of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and conductor of the Memphis Youth Symphony, Dickson is committed to mentoring young musicians and fostering diversity in the arts.

According to Dickson, the Equity Arc students came to their first rehearsal “very prepared” on their individual parts, which allowed them to focus on honing their ensemble skills. “Even if you’re a brilliant instrumentalist, learning chamber-music skills is another beast entirely,” he said. In rehearsals, he saw them “develop these very fine chamber-music skills, listening skills, watching each other. … Those lessons can only be learned in our time together. It’s my hope that they take those principles with them away from this weekend to every other chamber ensemble, every orchestra that they play in.”

CSO musicians joined the students for rehearsals, playing alongside them and sharing their expertise with the younger instrumentalists. “I enjoyed watching the students’ relationships with the CSO mentors, because they were giving them comments and feedback during the rehearsal, and you could tell immediately that that, too, was a very friendly, familiar, supportive relationship,” said Dickson. “To have this partnership with the CSO is really important for Equity Arc, because we can provide access to world-class musicians for these young students who want to get to that level as well.”

This valuable rehearsal time paid off at the finale concert in Orchestra Hall, where the ensemble received a standing ovation from an audience that included families, Chicago community members and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. “The energy that builds within the audience often rubs off on performers as well, and so I think we were able to give an incredible concert because the city of Chicago supported us like no one else ever has,” Jain said. “Truly an awesome experience.”

Jain believes that organizations like Equity Arc are essential to the future of classical music: “We’ve seen throughout history that classical music, art in general, hasn’t been an open door for minorities, for individuals like myself, who often don’t get to have these experiences just handed to us. And of course, we’ve always worked for them, but Equity Arc puts us on that level playing field. They allow us to be on a playing field that can display our talents. And so I think it’s very important to have an organization like that in order to be able to create a sustainable industry for the future.”

As the Chicago Youth in Music Festival continues throughout April, students from local youth orchestras, music schools and Chicago Public Schools band and orchestra programs will participate in side-by-side rehearsals with Civic Orchestra members and masterclasses with CSO musicians. Such opportunities are especially vital at this stage of life, Jain feels. “Supporting individuals in art and music when they’re young is incredibly important to set a foundation for when we’re older,” he said.

“I like to think about [music] like any other language,” Jain said. “If we learn it when we’re young, if we enjoy it when we’re young, if we’re allowed to be a part of it when we’re young, we will absolutely like to keep it in our lives in the future, and who knows what we can do with it? There’s a whole new world to be opened up within classical music for our generation.”