[NEohioPAL] talented pianist Yunjie Chen response to request for funding

[Brian Del Bianco]

I seriously doubt that anybody on here would question the need for the arts.  I'd love to see football games held during intermissions in band concerts.  The primary question was about why a scholarship student with a career needs to be handed more than many freelance musicians make in a year.  

Try to imagine what a $20,000 grant would do for the music education department of the public school system. That would be life changing and much more far reaching than giving it to a student.  If you want more practice rooms filled, you need to educate and inspire.  I do not want to think of how my life would be if it was not for the music program in the Pittsburgh Public Schools when I was in high school.

How far could $20,000 go in local theaters?  Upgrades, staff, education...it could be invested in the region.  Perhaps the best solution would be to spread $20,000 among regional orchestras like Akron, Youngstown and Warren with the stipulation that each group use part to hire this young man as a soloist.  They get some assistance in a difficult period and can allow him to earn a living at the same time. 

The arts are hurting all over this region and it seems like a waste of precious funds to spend that much on one person which brings us back to just what the heck is that much for?

Nobody questions the work involved in a career in the arts, but that much money could do wonders if invested in the community rather than in an individual that may split right after graduation.

Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2010 10:11:58 -0400
From: megan.denman at gmail.com
To: neohiopal at listserve.com
Subject: Re: [NEohioPAL] talented pianist Yunjie Chen response to request	for funding

Concerning Yunjie Chen asking for money for his career:
Number one, he should have said more specifically what the money was intended
for, I agree with that. Number two, perhaps he should have taken a different
route to try and ask for support, like asking wealthy individuals, or writing
personal letters, so he would not receive what I consider uncalled-for
responses from anyone on NEOPAL.

That being said, I am amazed and quite appalled that on an
email system like NEOPAL which claims to support the arts, someone could write
a response like the one that was written. 
I personally believe that , just because I may have to work part time jobs
I don’t enjoy , that doesn’t mean that everyone else should be subject to my
fate. If someone is ABLE to spend all day in a practice room, then that is a
sign that our culture cares about the ARTS, CULTURE and BRAINS of our humanity.
Playing music has been scientifically proven to increase the connections
between the left and right hemispheres of the brain. It also has been shown
that more areas of the brain light up when musicians perform than any other
activity yet observed.(check out the Cleveland Clinic’s symposium on Music and
the Brain) So  sitting in a practice room
is actually a LOT of work. You are literally, drastically changing how your
brain works by practicing a musical instrument. If anyone thinks that playing
an instrument or being in a musical or play is easy for some people, or just
about “having talent”, I assure you: The reason concert pianists spend all day
in a practice room is that it is 98% sweat and 2% talent. It is EXTREMELY
difficult to get noticed in the intense, cutthroat world of concert pianism.

But besides the objective observation that playing music
changes your brain, people can do whatever they want. Young people can start
businesses of their own at age 17, like Ashley Qualls who in 2007 built a
million dollar website. And movie stars can get paid many times 20,000 dollars,
when they are only mediocre, just because our culture supports it. But concert
pianists never take the easy way up. It is always a lot of work, and even if
you don’t believe that, wouldn’t you rather support something that has
spiritual, physical and intellectual value in our society (or that SHOULD have
value if it indeed doesn’t)?

And if you don’t want to support it, just let it sit, and
let 20 wealthy individuals give 1,000 to a cause that has proven worthy by the
competitions Yunjie has mastered, and all the hurdles he has managed to combat
thus far in his career.

 		 	   		  
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