Musical relief

Detroit's MSU Community Music School brings positive note to struggling city

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The MSU Community Music School’s expansion into Detroit is music to Kimberly Whitsett’s ears. Whitsett, who lives in Detroit, enrolled her 13-year-old daughter Erinn in a youth jazz band program offered at the new location after she read about it in a flier.

“I was telling a friend of mine you know you’re in the right place when your child comes to you during the second break saying ‘I can’t wait to come back next week,’” Whitsett said, laughing.

The first classes at the MSU Community Music School in Detroit began about two weeks ago, offering MSU an opportunity to tap into a new talent pool, said Rhonda Buckley, associate dean for outreach and engagement for the College of Music.

Buckley serves as the executive director of MSU’s new Detroit Community Music School and the East Lansing school that has existed for 16 years.

Jazz studies sophomore Marcus Miller spends his Wednesday nights in Detroit serving as a mentor to Erinn Whitsett, who began playing the alto saxophone about eight months ago.

“It’s just wonderful to be able to give back,” Miller said, by joining MSU faculty and Detroit-area professionals in teaching at the school.

“What we’re trying to do here is have classes that benefit the community of Detroit, but that also benefit our students from Michigan State because they get really valuable teaching experience,” Buckley said. “They get to teach in an urban environment, which you don’t necessarily get to experience in East Lansing.”

In May, MSU signed a seven-year, $500,000-per-year lease on a 22,000 square-foot building located at 3408 Woodward Ave. The building houses the Detroit school — along with several other MSU offices and programs — as part of a larger push to showcase MSU in southeastern Michigan, Senior Associate Provost June Youatt said.

“This was more of a consolidation of activities already going on in Detroit,” Youatt said. “It gives us an opportunity to do more in southeastern Michigan, but it also gives others a chance to see how much we’re doing.”

Rodney Whitaker, the jazz studies director in the College of Music, was raised in Detroit. Whitaker said he spends a large portion of his time teaching outreach programs in Detroit and was excited to hear MSU would become a more permanent fixture in the downtrodden city.

Whitaker believes the Community Music School is a positive addition to his hometown, which he said often receives unwarranted negative news.

“I’m especially proud to see MSU really making a significant investment in southeastern Michigan,” Whitaker said. “I’m a product of Detroit. I grew up in programs where I learned music. I studied art and cultures growing up right here in Detroit, so I think this will highlight some good news (about Detroit).”

The almost 100 miles between the MSU Community Music School in East Lansing and its Detroit counterpart result in a different group of students with different reasons for enrolling, but the economic climates in the communities surrounding the two schools have narrowed their differences, Buckley said.

“In the greater Lansing area, so many people are experiencing unemployment, foreclosure and devastating financial crises that wasn’t the case a few years ago,” Buckley said. “We’ve seen quite a significant jump in the number of financial aid applications that we’ve received (in East Lansing), so one of our objectives in East Lansing is to raise the dollars to provide tuition assistance. In some ways, it’s not so dissimilar anymore.”

For the students enrolled in school courses, the classes become more than another responsibility — they become a can’t miss event.

On Wednesday, Erinn Whitsett wrapped a strip of gauze around her top teeth to numb a pain she experienced when playing her saxophone because she didn’t want to miss a class. Sixteen-year-old Nicholas Masters of Troy studied a set of history note cards — he had a test later that week.

“I really like it,” Masters said. “You get a lot more mentorship.”

Community Music School officials raised money for a tuition assistance fund to provide funding for participants at the Detroit location who struggle to pay for classes.

Buckley said the fund was a “significant number of dollars,” but didn’t give a specific amount.

“The bottom line is, we want every person who has the desire to learn music to be able to afford it,” Buckley said.

About 70 students are enrolled in the five classes offered at the Detroit location — far fewer than the almost 1,000 participants in the East Lansing school — but Buckley said she expects the number to double by the end of the semester.

“Here in our second week, it looks and feels different because everyone is still finding their way,” Buckley said. “Given a little bit of time, it will not look that different (from the school in East Lansing).”

For Whitsett, the Community Music School is a representation of the opportunities available to Detroit citizens.

“I think that it’s wonderful,” Whitsett said. “There’s no dead ends, just new doors of opportunity. When one door closes, there’s so many other doors that are opening and we just need to know that.”

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