Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s, Gene Pokorny, pays tribute to music educators

One of the many benefits of attending the Midwest Conference in Chicago each December is the chance to hear the world renowned Chicago Symphony Orchestra. To open the concert CSO tuba player, Gene Pokorny, gave a wonderful welcome to the music educators in the audience. It was a heart warming reminder of the impact of music educators on students on our ties to the magnificent professional musicians of all genres.

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen, my name is Gene. I am the tuba player in the orchestra. I want to extend a very cordial and warm welcome to all of you this evening, not only to our loyal and faithful subscribers but to those who may be here for the first time.

I would also like to welcome those here who are attending the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic. Annually, this convention brings together everyone connected with music education as well as various musical organizations from junior high orchestras to community bands, from high school level organizations to the super-powered service bands of Washington, DC.

The vast majority of those in attendance at this convention are music educators. It is that band director who is sitting with you up in the gallery tonight who is taking your kids and grandkids away from a computer terminal for one hour a day so they can learn the art of teamwork without having to type that word into Google. This band director doesn’t do it with a mere 8 or 11 people on a team like the P.E. coaches do; he teaches teamwork with 50 or 60 or 100-plus players.

There is also the school orchestra conductor who is now sitting with you in the terrace who goes well beyond the mandate by the board of education for reading and writing. She is teaching listening (a class that is never offered in school) but that is what this orchestra conductor teaches to her students from the first day of class in September.

While professional orchestras attempt to figure out how to fill the seats in their concert halls, it’s that director of the marching band at the back of the main floor here tonight who programs great music like the finale to the “Firebird Suite” or “Pictures at an Exhibition” for his school’s Friday night football games. His band members will get to know that music and they will remember it. It might just be enough for them to seek it out later in life in a concert at Orchestra Hall. And they might eventually pass that good experience down to their kids as well. Nothing can transport you to a place or a memory as fast as a piece of music.

When the rubber meets the pavement, it is the music educators in our world who day-in, day-out, make a big difference with relatively little recognition. Somebody once described that being a band director is the same as being someone who runs a cemetery. There are a lot of people underneath you, but no one is listening.

I disagree with that statement because a lot of people eventually do listen. For example, the people on this stage behind me, I guarantee you, eventually listened to their music teachers.

The music educators who are present here tonight are teaching their students probably the most valuable lesson of all; that it is good to have an enthusiasm and love for music so great that one will make an extraordinary effort in one of the busiest weeks of the year to hear a live performance by one of the world’s great orchestras. Teaching by example is the most convincing lesson of all.

For the music educators in the hall tonight, thank you for coming. You are among the greatest friends this orchestra can have.

And, thank all of you, ladies and gentlemen, for bringing yourselves, your kids, and your friends to this very special place, exactly two days older than 100 years old now. Feel welcome here because you most certainly are. Enjoy the evening.”

Printed with the permission of Gene Pokorny and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.