Music, he tells them, is painted on a canvas of silence
May 1, 2017 6:28 PM   Subscribe

“I asked myself, if I had kids here, what would I want for them?” he says. That’s when Wilson started spending his own money. Tom Wilson played trumpet for 36 years before being forced to quit his career as a musician or go blind. While studying to become a teacher he saw a documentary on Venezuela's El Sistema. "That’s social justice mixed with music,” he remembers thinking, “and I can do that.” Warning: may be dusty
posted by Ogre Lawless (7 comments total) 13 users marked this as a favorite
 
Very very dusty. Thanks.
posted by lemonade at 6:42 PM on May 1, 2017 [1 favorite]


“The most miserable, the most tragic thing about poverty,” El Sistema founder José Abreu has said, citing Mother Teresa, “is not the lack of bread or a roof but the feeling of being no one.”

Hearts starve as well as bodies;
Give us bread, but give us roses.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:48 PM on May 1, 2017 [6 favorites]


So many kids stay in school just for the music--or art, or drama, or sports (the latter of which is still pretty well funded). This is an extreme and heartbreaking story of someone who knows this and has been willing to give his life's hours to proffering the gift of music to those who too often do not get it any more.
posted by kozad at 7:22 PM on May 1, 2017


A hero... Thanks, Mr. Wilson...
posted by HuronBob at 8:40 PM on May 1, 2017


This guy sounds fantastic.

That the only reason there's a music program in this Richmond school is because a moderately well-off guy decided to volunteer years of his time and hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy the instruments out of his own pocket is the opposite of fantastic.
posted by eotvos at 9:20 PM on May 1, 2017


Oy. Lots of feels in this one.
posted by LMGM at 5:43 AM on May 2, 2017


A retired high school band director of my acquaintance is doing a similar thing (Crescendo Detroit) in his neighborhood in Detroit. He, too, was inspired by El Sistema. He has found that in addition to helping the kids it helps the neighborhood, as well as the people who volunteer to teach. He's also found that many people are just waiting to be asked to help -- they want to help, but don't know how.

On one hand, it's wonderful that we have people like Mr Wilson and Mr Crutcher (and probably hundreds of others), but on the other hand, it's less than wonderful that we need people like them.
posted by jlkr at 7:38 AM on May 2, 2017 [2 favorites]


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