Linda Ronstadt On The Promise of Music

If you were interviewing Linda Ronstadt, would you be tempted to ask her to sing a few lines from your favourite song? Oh, I don't know, maybe "Silver Threads and Golden Needles"? Or "Heat Wave"? As soon as our conversation was set up, I started playing her music. A lot. So, the thought crossed my mind.

Did you know that Linda has become a powerful advocate for music education around the world? (And a New Radical, that is, someone who's putting skills acquired in her career to work on the world's greatest challenges). Did you catch her testimony on Capitol Hill? "In the United States, we spend millions of dollars on sports because it promotes teamwork, discipline, and the experience of learning to make great progress in small increments. Learning to play music together does all this and more." She says music can help us learn other subjects, too (think math). And that it should be available to everyone.

Linda is going to be in Toronto on October 28th for an event called The Promise of Music. For one day, an eclectic mix of high-profile musicians and educators are gathering to bang the drum for music education.

And what a day! Linda is introducing Dr. José Antonio Abreu, this year's recipient of the Glenn Gould Prize. Are you familiar with Dr. Abreu and El Sistema? El Sistema (Spanish for "system") is a music program for children as young as two. It was started in Venezuela and is being hailed as the future of classical music.

El Sistema was founded on the idea that poor kids in Venezuela needed music - that it would help them replace the poverty and violence of their lives with all that music offers. As Abreu says, "Music has to be recognized as an agent of social development in the highest sense because it transmits the highest values - solidarity, harmony, mutual compassion... it has the ability to unite an entire community."

Children from El Sistema make up the players in the Simon Bolivar National Youth Orchestra. The orchestra travels the world, playing to packed houses. Here they are performing for the TED audience and their founder. Dr. Abreu is a New Radical, too. He was an economist who got the idea for this system, in 1975. Here he is at TED. Thirty-five years later, millions of kids around the world are benefiting from El Sistema.

I love TED. But unlike that fabled conference, The Promise of Music is open to everyone. Check out the site for a detailed program. But here's a quick take. The day is divided in two. Choose the morning only, and you'll hear from Ronstadt, Abreu, and the Simon Bolivar Orchestra. You'll also hear about what neuroscience has to tell us about the power of music from Daniel J Levitin, author of "This is Your Brain on Music".

Choose the full-day program, and you'll also take part in interactive sessions that unlock the secrets of El Sistema's success, enjoy presentations by music educators and researchers from around the world, and hear inspiring first-person accounts of the power of music education to change lives. Best of all, you get to network with people who are doing this work now - including well-known musicians. Like Murray McLauchlan, who's MC.

So, did I ask Linda to sing? I did not. But when we meet at The Promise of Music, I just might. And if I can screw up my courage (which is the point, after all), I'll sing along.

Now it's your turn. Do you play an instrument? Sing, even if only in the car or the shower? Are your children studying music? Are you a music teacher? Or are you using music to help teach other subjects? And, just between us, what's your favourite Linda Ronstadt song?

One more New Radical note. Yesterday (September 25) was Earth Overshoot Day. That is, the day when human beings will have demanded all of the ecological "services" that our planet can produce in one year. We're talking about things like growing food and filtering CO2 emissions. From now until December 31st, we'll be depleting resources. It's an interesting new way of thinking about what we're doing to Mother Earth... and ourselves. Check out Global Footprint Network's site for details.

Julia Moulden is on tour, talking about the New Radicals.

 

 

Comments

[DorianBrandon]

Linda is simply a class act.

[sparky09]

Linda Ronstadt & Ann Wilson=2 of music's most incredible voices...

[JScott]

El Sistema has a famous grad---Gustavo Dudamel who is now the conductor of the LA Philharmonic.

[tabatha]

Kids who learn to play a musical instrument, such as piano, in early childhood, do better in math, studies show!

[LMPE]

Linda Ronstadt is one of the best!

[suntzu]

This article reminds me of a family anecdote. Recently there has been a lot of oohs and ahhs in our family about one of my grandnephews who is a football star and was in the news in the school's hometown newspaper. But my son who is not an athlete (though he played varsity soccer badly) is also a scholarship musician, first chair in the university orchestra, plays in quartets, acts in university theater is virtually invisible to our family as far as oohs and ahhs. They all love him as a person, but he is not an athlete, so his artistic accomplishments are not held in that high a regard.

[Julia Moulden - Huffpost Blogger]

yes, we need to keep getting these ideas out there so that all of our contributions are recognized. thanks for sharing this story. (you might consider sharing this post with your son...)

[The Meek]

Sports divide, music unites.

[ncdeb6]

Linda has such emotion in her singing - hard to find anyone today who can perform a song like that. Loved all of her music, but my favorite - Desperado.

[Julia Moulden - Huffpost Blogger]

so true, she's a real storyteller -- we really feel and understand what she's singing about (and can relate it to our own experience!)

[Roseberry]

"Heart like a Wheel" was such a breath of real, fresh air when it came out. I was in high school and sick and tired of all the lackluster pop at the time ("Having my Baby" and "Only Women Bleed" should be permanently stopped from airplay, and "Muskrat Love" could get to the end of one's patience very quickly.) Along came Linda with such a load of pure emotion. What she did with the tunes on that album was a revelation.
I'm so glad she's promoting music now. We need it so much in this age of schools cutting back on funding. Seems like they'll do anything to save basketball, but they'll cut music and art first, as if they were unnecessary.

[Julia Moulden - Huffpost Blogger]

yes, yes, pure emotion -- just replied to a comment and said that Linda's an exceptional storyteller... we really know what she's singing about, feel it in our bones!

[chroma601]

I wonder what Karla Bonoff is up to these days? She wrote some of Linda's tunes...

[plzchuteme]

Though I am not a Linda Ronstadt fan, I heartily applaud her efforts to increase awareness in the benefits of making music. Making music has assisted me in getting through some tough times in my life as well as celebrating the best times of my life. Whenever I meet someone who I expect to have contact with on a regular basis, the first thing I try and find out is if they make music; play an instrument primarily, or sing. It establishes a level of intimacy and understanding unmatched by other commonalities such as religion, politics, athletics, or even literature.

[Julia Moulden - Huffpost Blogger]

Wow, what a great way to connect. As a writer, I love words, but I also recognize that they can get in the way of communication. Music cuts through all of that. Thanks for this!

[Ventoi]

Oh that boy of mine...by my side...

(we should not wear our men)

[Ventoi]

This comment?

The most powerful words in the world must be...

Blue and Bayou.

[Julia Moulden - Huffpost Blogger]

Yep, that's pretty much what happened to me. Oh, I like this one. Oh, but what about that one? What a fantastic legacy. I'm itching to ask her to start recording again, what do you say?

[Ventoi]

Blue Bayou

[BlackYowe]

I love reading this stuff. This really is what we need more of in the news it will inspire more good works.

[Julia Moulden - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks -- and back at ewe!

[singermuse]

Bless Linda Ronstadt for her tireless work in raising awareness on the benefits of music education for young folks.
I was for many years a musician by trade, and remember covering not a few of her songs at various venues. She was awesome in her prime and she's awesome NOW. I don't know what my life would have been without the joy of playing musical instruments; I would think it might have been a sadder, less uplifted life.

[Julia Moulden - Huffpost Blogger]

I whooped when I read this 'she's awesome NOW'. hear, hear! just because she's not in front of the paparazzi doesn't mean she's not still out there doing her thing...

glad to know music's important to you, too. now if only we could get everyone singing that tune!

[mcmutter]

I'll always remember Linda on the cover of Rolling Stone ...

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/rolling-stone/276-1.jpg