Access and exposure: How a Memphis nonprofit brings classical music to young musicians

When Isabelle Nieves wound up in the band class at Germantown Middle School in 2017, she didn’t want to play the flute. As a matter of fact, she wasn’t eager to play any instrument. Her mother had made her take piano lessons for a few years when she was in elementary school, and she had hated it.

But if you’re going to be in a school band, you’ve got to play something, so Nieves decided she would pick the clarinet or trumpet. At least she was familiar with these. Students, however, got to select their instruments alphabetically; and by the time the teacher got to her last name, the flute was all that was left.

“They say you don’t choose your instrument; your instrument chooses you,” she said.

Nieves couldn’t help but wish she had been “chosen” by a different instrument. Playing the flute, she thought, would be horrible. It was difficult to carry, and she felt she looked weird holding it.

“I was like, ‘Man, this is really going to suck,’” she said.

Initially, Nieves struggled to play the flute and thought about quitting. But as time passed, her attitude changed. She got better and learned to read music. In seventh grade, she won an award at the school’s band banquet, a major confidence booster. She started playing more difficult pieces and began to see all the creative possibilities the flute could offer.

She developed a love for the flute ― and fostering that love was a Memphis nonprofit, PRIZM Ensemble.

Creating community with chamber music

Nieves is one of the many students in the Memphis area who has worked with the organization that looks to build a diverse community through chamber music ― typically classical music performed by groups of three to nine people.

A major component of the organization is its two-week summer music camp, which is slated to run from June 3 to 15 and boasts seasoned, professional musicians as faculty. The camp draws a diverse group of sixth- through 12th-grade students from a wide variety of schools and neighborhoods ― it has 102 participants this year ― and gives them the opportunity to work closely with veteran musicians.

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For students at the camp, which is held at Shady Grove Presbyterian Church, the small ratio (the faculty-to-student ratio at the camp is 5:1) is a major benefit. Not all of them can afford private lessons and otherwise must learn how to play instruments in large school classes. Nieves was among the students who couldn’t pay for private lessons; and when she started with PRIZM as a middle schooler, she didn’t know how to read music.

“PRIZM is very individualized,” Nieves said. “It's very small. Like you learn in smaller groups, whereas in a regular class setting, it's you have like 30, 40, 50 kids in one class all learning at one time.”

Another PRIZM student, Anjali Jackson ― who did take private lessons ― also found her sight reading improve through the summer camp. And playing in the small chamber groups helped her get better at picking up on cues.

“I’m just better as a musician,” she said. “It’s been really great.”

The camp isn’t free; it costs $400 for both weeks and $200 for one week. But it offers an array of scholarships to make the offering more accessible. A major goal of the organization is to provide classical music exposure to people who might not otherwise receive it.

“We’re going to get the young kids whose parents know about the benefits of chamber music and classical music,” said Gavin Wigginson, the executive director of PRIZM. “But what about the young people who don’t have that? So how do we present ourselves in such a way that we’re accessible, and that they can benefit from it?”

Top performers

One benefit is the chance to see world-class musicians perform.

PRIZM has made a habit of bringing in top-tier performers for its International Chamber Music Festival, which goes hand-in-hand with the summer camp.  This year, for example, it’s bringing in the Grammy award-winning chamber music quintet Imani Winds and the Dior Quartet, the quartet-in-residence at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

When PRIZM selects music groups like these, it keeps diversity in mind.

The nonprofit believes in bringing youth from different socioeconomic backgrounds together, and it wants the makeup of the summer camp’s faculty and student population to reflect the demographics of Memphis. In that same vein, it tries to bring in diverse groups of world-class musicians for the festival.

“We invite students out to that so they can actually hear musicians playing, and the goal is to keep them not only engaged, in terms of building their skills, but helping them to experience chamber music,” Wigginson said.

'All the important things for music'

PRIZM also offers a college and career prep workshop for its students ― to help them prepare for auditions ― and a winter workshop. It runs a program called PRIZM Connect, which involves bringing instruments and chamber groups into schools that don’t have music programs, to give their students the chance to take up instruments.

And throughout the year, it gives its students opportunities to perform.

Nieves has taken advantage of these opportunities and she fondly remembered performing at LeMoyne-Owen College.

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Her time with PRIZM is nearing its close. She started attending the summer camps in middle school and continued to attend them during her time at Germantown High School. But she recently graduated, and she’s set to attend the University of Mississippi and study music education in the fall.

This upcoming summer camp will be her final one as a student. But she isn’t likely to forget about PRIZM any time soon.

“I learned fundamentals here. I learned different techniques that have helped me through auditions here,” she said. “Pretty much all the important things for music [I’ve learned] since I've been here, have carried me through my music career.”

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis nonprofit PRIZM brings classical music to Shelby Co. youth