AUSTIN — One couple is on a mission to show band students just how far music can take them.
T.L. Williams and his wife Dani Jo have been immersed in the artistic scene since they were children. He is a singer/songwriter/producer and she’s a dancer. Through a partnership with Infinite Scholars, an organization that gives high school students scholarships and college admission on the spot, the two just launched a new program called Symphony of Change.
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Symphony of Change will partner with local schools and bring experienced musicians and composers to play in a band with students. They will work with students for a few days and end with a concert.
This husband and wife duo loves music so much that they're showing young people their future options. [Provided by T.L. and Dani Jo Williams]
Dani Jo Williams, an Austin native, was a majorette at Michele Clark High School, and her husband, who grew up in suburban Bellwood, played the trumpet at Rich Central High School.
T.L. Williams said over time he noticed that a lot of music departments at elementary schools and high schools weren’t evolving with the times. Students were studying old music, which is fine, he said, but they should also learn about more modern music from different genres.
“Beethoven's 7th symphony is a beautiful piece of work that should be studied, analyzed and learned, but we also feel that Stevie Wonder’s 'Innervisions' is a beautiful work that should be analyzed, studied, too,” he said. “Since 7th symphony, a lot of people have wrote a lot of good music.”
His wife said that they want the students to expand their thinking and see how far they can go with music outside of the band room.
“We have to be able to connect those dots,” she said. “It’s important for the school because that’s the heart of the schools. Arts actually run the school.”
A school can’t fully thrive without a strong music and arts program, they said.
“Once that art program is cut, tampered with, chopped off, it’s like a cancer that spreads throughout the rest of the school, test scores and graduation rates decline,” she said.
Studies have found that schools with music programs have higher graduation rates, 90.2 percent compared to 72.9 percent to those without, according to the National Association for Music Education. The attendance rate is also higher, 93.3 percent to 84.9 percent.
Symphony of Change wants to offer programs at as many Chicago schools as possible, then go national. They wanted to start local first because they see a lot of art and music programs in danger. Dani Jo Williams said her high school band flourished during her time there and four years after she graduated, it disappeared.
She also said she believed that she and her husband will have a bigger impact on the students because many of them come from similar backgrounds.
“When a student sees that you look like them, and you’ve been through what they’ve been through, they’re able to say ‘I can do that,’ and it doesn’t feel like a far-fetched dream, but a reality,” T.L. Williams said.
Beginning next year, Symphony of Change will host an annual music festival called the Symphony Sound Festival, which will bring bands together to compete for a grand champion trophy. The participants will also join workshops to learn more skills from professionals and watch performances from artists of different genres.
They will range from jazz to hip hop, to classical and r&b, they said.
“One thing we want to show to a high school student in band is that there is so much more you can do with that instrument besides jazz and classical,” T.L Williams said.
Schools and organizations can request an informational session by visiting their website at www.Symphonyofchange.org.
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