Christopher Stoudt's film tells the story of a conductor leading the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles and of the transformative power of music.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:30most youth orchestras do not live and breathe in the inner city most youth
00:46orchestras operate in communities that are all white and so if you look at
00:51those youth orchestras all the kids are all white we are the largest primarily
00:59african-american orchestra in the country so we really were able to fill a
01:05void that existed within our community
01:20okay thank you very much
01:29I see Ola is the inner city youth orchestra of Los Angeles it's an
01:44orchestra that is specifically designed and created to offer opportunities to
01:49african-american and Latino young people to be a part of a youth orchestra
01:54program. One, two, three. It's too long. I'm getting da da da da I'm asking this da da da da da da can you play it right
02:09there please Roy to pick up before that C yes G G G G flat F F sharp F sharp G F A flat E flat D yes you got it
02:25there's no audition process to become a member of our orchestra we don't
02:31require that they pay a tuition or a fee you walk in the door you're part of the
02:37family we present a season of eight to ten free concerts to our community every
02:44year and that season culminates with a season finale at the Walt Disney Concert
02:50Hall we play Disney Hall on July 10 so from this point forward we're really
02:59gonna be pushing hard to prepare for this concert thanks for your
03:02concentration thank you for your commitment to the rehearsal schedule and
03:06thanks for making this just be the greatest orchestra in the world I
03:13founded ICO at the urging of about nine young african-american instrumentalists
03:20and they approached me about helping them to just run through some repertoire
03:24that summer from that we have spawned the great big orchestra that we are
03:31today yeah yeah come on
03:49growing up there wasn't really any black cellist for me to look up to
04:20until I came to ICO it's very enriching to be surrounded by people that look
04:29like me and love music like I do
04:39American orchestras are not a very diverse place that's an historic problem
04:46African-Americans make up only approximately 2.3 percent of the
04:52American orchestra workforce
04:53stop somebody's playing a be natural concert be natural there should be no
05:11concert be natural there should be a concert see I think it's in the
05:15trombones we don't play abridgments we play the actual scores
05:34so our young people come to us frankly a little bit behind but we demand just as
05:40much of them that's a major challenge no no no come on play it by yourself
05:49yes thank you do it again my parts not easier no literally is it's harder
05:57because I plan a harder instrument and also because like how high I gotta go
06:01the main part the main theme of the Tchaikovsky our part is harder than your
06:06part it's no but no can we can we agree that the cello sounds better than the
06:12violin that's not that okay but then why does violin get all the main parts
06:16because the only instrument a lot of people know music has always been a form
06:30of expression in writing and playing that's what music is for a lot of people
06:34especially for us and mr. Dickerson gave us that opportunity when we started
06:44playing video games when we were younger and we played Super Mario Galaxy right
06:49it's hilarious but we just fell in love with the music for the game because the
06:54music is orchestrated music like it's not synthesized yeah like when we got
06:59our we got the we when we were like eight years old it came with the
07:03soundtrack for one of the games and it was like all orchestrated yeah so then
07:09we were like hey why don't we do this yeah it's cool so this is a song that my
07:14brother and I put together and we're gonna play it with I see Ola at Walt
07:18Disney Concert Hall it's called trial and triumph
07:33I'm not amateurs anymore
07:44my French horn is one of one the Alexander 103 it's the same French horn
08:10that they use in the Berlin Philharmonic the only difference between
08:14my French horn and theirs is that my French horn is 100 years old as you can
08:23imagine this priceless this vintage horn but I see Ola has helped fund that so I
08:32am just so grateful for that
08:35growing up in South Central LA you realize that there's not many people
09:04that's in the same field as you I've learned so much in my career just from
09:10being around Chuck just having a mentor you have that guidance
09:19so I'm teaching students myself
09:24that inspiration came from being around Chuck
09:30it's a huge influence in my life
09:35I joined I see Ola about three weeks ago
09:55but I would use my third finger
09:59see try it the music that we play is very hard and I consider myself a
10:14beginner
10:20but I think I'm doing pretty well
10:24music can change everything about your life it's the discipline of music it's
10:35the consistency of practice doing something over and over and over again
10:45it's the pursuit of perfection the pursuit of excellence it's the pursuit
10:51of the highest come on play louder E-flat E-flat
11:21I started playing double bass when I was 12 but I play a whole ton of
11:29instruments being an orchestra is probably one of my favorite things in
11:55the world you get to see yourself as a small part of something greater that you
12:05work towards with others
12:08I am so happy that I have people from so far back in my life that I can talk
12:27to I feel it really is a fantastic family
12:58I came from a very musical family my parents put me in piano lessons when I
13:08was three years old my father and mother both sang both my parents played the
13:17piano there was music just infused within me because it was in the home it
13:25was in the church where we went I really grew up in Compton we went to
13:34church at 109th and Compton Avenue which is the middle of the hood that was the
13:41first time that I really became aware of the difficulties that black people were
13:46having in this country now this was a transitional period for Compton from
13:53being primarily a white town to primarily an african-american community
14:00at the time there was KRLA and KGFJ in Los Angeles those were two major black
14:10stations and they would play all the black music we would listen to Smokey
14:15Robinson the miracles the temptations the four times Aretha Franklin so I knew
14:23the church music I knew the stuff that was being played on the radio I had been
14:29taking piano lessons and learning Chopin
14:34I practiced law in Los Angeles for about 30 years but music has always been in my
14:40life
14:53all orchestra members to the stage immediately please
15:13when we take the stage at Disney Hall
15:18the best analogy I can give to you is it's like being on a rocket and just
15:23taking off
15:48here we are now at the pinnacle of everything that we've done for the
15:53entire year and here's everybody from our community in front of us looking to
16:00see what are they going to do today
16:17now we're going to do something that we have never ever done before we're going
16:36to play an orchestral piece of music that was written by one of the young
16:40people in this orchestra so please hear trial and triumph please listen for the
16:54trials and listen for the triumphs
17:10I feel it has had a very profound impact on my life it's given me an outlet to
17:40express the love that I have for music and it's taken me to places that I
17:45couldn't have even dreamed of going otherwise
17:53I see Ola has had an incredible impact not just on the way I play but an impact
18:00on who I am as an individual and how I see my own culture and identity
18:12I love the relationships that I formed I've just been very lucky to have
18:20experienced so much at my young age of 18
18:27it feels great to know that my abilities can serve as a reflection of what our
18:38community can do
18:45it gives me great joy to see them succeed to see them accomplish a goal to
18:52see them take a difficult piece of music and play it with perfection
18:59if the inner city youth orchestra of Los Angeles can help the young people who
19:05are part of our orchestra believe in themselves to know that they are capable
19:11and can even exceed their own expectations then we shall have done our
19:18job
19:22yeah
19:35way to go you guys
19:52yeah
19:55yeah
20:19I sometimes joke around and call him grandpa Chuck
20:25Chuck or Charles, but that one's not that funny, but it's funny to me.
20:32Chuck is always there to push us, to help us, to make us improve.
20:40He does it out of the kindness and grace of his heart, and we love him for that.
20:49Yeah.
20:50I get to be the one who's with them.
20:54When they play the right notes, when they play the wrong notes, I feel a sense of responsibility
21:07to make this happen because so much has been given to me, and if I don't pass it on, I'm
21:17not paying my rent to walk the face of the earth.
21:47I love you, Chuck.
21:54I love you.
21:58I love you.
22:02I love you.
22:06I love you.
22:10I love you.
22:16I love you.
22:22I love you.
22:28I love you.
22:34I love you.