Arturo O'Farrill Brings Music to Schools

Brian Lehrer (0:10)

Brian Lehrer on WNYC.

Today is the first day of school for more than 900,000 New York City public school students, and for many of them, this school year will include something somewhat rare, a real music class taught by a real musician for free. That's the work of our guest Arturo O'Farrill, six-time Grammy winner, two-time Latin Grammy winner, and the leader of what the New York Times has called the first family of Afro Latin jazz. And besides being just a great pianist and band leader, I've had the delight of seeing him perform and can attest to that. 15 years ago, he founded the nonprofit Belongó, which now runs music programs in public schools, libraries, and community spaces in all five boroughs, including a pre-professional youth orchestra called the Fat Cats and a program that brings instruments and instruction to incarcerated teenagers on Rikers Island. Now this year, Belongó broke ground on Casa Belongó, a new education and cultural center going up on the ground floors of an affordable housing building in East Harlem. And Arturo himself keeps a foot on the bandstand. His 18-piece Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra just moved its 29-year weekly residency to a new home in Times Square, where this month they're marking Hispanic Heritage Month by devoting each night to the music of a different country. Arturo O'Farrill joins us now to talk about mostly the music education piece of that. Arturo, always great to hear your voice as well as your piano. Welcome back to WNYC.

Arturo O'Farrill (1:45)

I am thrilled to be on your show. As you know, Brian, it's an incredible privilege to be a part of the NYC community, having had a residency there, and having you guys on my car radio all the time.

Brian Lehrer (1:58)

Tell people what's new from you in the public schools this year.

Arturo O'Farrill (2:02)

It's incredible what's happening. Well, you mentioned one of the things which was the East River Academy and the Grio Program at high school on Rikers Island for youth in jail custody. But something truly wonderful is also happening in our housing for the homeless, HF8. We're providing percussion classes at summer camps for unhoused youth. And for me, the idea of providing free, no cost music education to people, children, adults, senior citizens is in keeping with my agenda as a human being, which is that elitism doesn't serve. The arts are supposed to serve people. And so Belongó and the entire history of our incredible organization has been built around the idea that music is a wonderful, wonderful tool, but it's just a tool. And it's a way to get people into the same room to build, to foster community and to build relationships. And the education program is the craziest thing that ever happened to me. I just wanted to teach. I just wanted to give back. And this has grown into a huge thing. We serve literally 2,500 plus students every year.

20 plus New York City public schools, 40 public schools since 2009, 50 teaching artists, many of whom are members of the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. And this is really the kicker.

Almost all of our teaching artists are fluent Spanish speakers. And so they speak in the native tongues of a lot of the people that we serve. I'm so proud of this thing.

Brian Lehrer (3:36)

You know, it reminds me of what we say in youth sports coaching.

Yeah, maybe we're teaching you to pitch, hit and run to take the baseball example, but we're kind of also really teaching you to build community. You're saying that can apply to music as well, not just teaching you to play and express yourself and appreciate music more by being somebody who can do it yourself, but also build community.

Arturo O'Farrill (4:03)

And to add to that, it doesn't deny or take away from what music is. Music is a gorgeous fabric, an ocean that I've been blessed to swim in for four plus decades. It's still the joy of my life every day to get up in the morning and practice my scales and pieces for two hours. But again, in all its glory, it's still just something that helps us become a family, a global family. And as you know, the AfroLab Jazz Orchestra, the ethos of the AfroLab Jazz Orchestra is the jazz Latin. It's a global inheritance, and there are many streams that flow through our music that come from all over the world, the Middle East, Latin America, South Asia.

And so when we look at the students at the New School for Leadership and Journalism or PS 26K Jesse Owens or PS 120K Carlos Tapia, or any of the places that we serve, we see faces that reflect the beauty and incredible genius diversity of the people of the city of New York.