THE IOHIO MUSIC EDUCATION CENTER

Background

When the IOHIO was founded in the year 2000, our motivating purpose was to play the restored organs and encourage their use, whether in concerts, to accompany the Mass, or in local celebrations. They had been restored at great cost and simply weren´t being heard enough after their inaugural concerts. Organs are, after all, musical instruments which need to be played in order to prevent deterioration from lack of use, and they need to be heard in order to inspire people to learn to play them and thus keep the organ tradition alive. Oaxaca possesses some of Mexico's most splendid baroque churches, a legacy of the time when it was one of the three main music centers in New Spain, after Mexico City and Puebla. These magnificent spaces were once filled with the sound of organ music, yet now they are usually silent or only occasionally interrupted by the sound of the electronic organ or folk music ensembles which nowadays accompany the Mass. Although the IOHIO and other initiatives have made considerable progress over the years in getting more organ music into the churches, this was only a beginning.

The organs were ready to be played, people were anxious to hear them, and the church spaces were waiting to be filled with music. All that was missing were local, resident organists who could play them on a regular basis. But where were they and how could we train them? The easiest, most logical solution would have been to join forces with existing institutions with acceptable keyboard training programs or with organists interested in the historic instruments. But in their absence, it became clear that we needed to build our own keyboard education project from the ground up.

Launching the IOHIO Music Education Project

Just at the time when we had accepted the necessity of starting a new music project, a four-bedroom house ideal for our needs became available for rent in the residential area of Xochimilco, close to the historic center of the city of Oaxaca (Santo Tomás 209, Barrio de Xochimilco, 68040 Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Tel: (951) 132-7198). Then soon afterward, three pianists appeared looking for work! With this team, we were able to open the IOHIO Music Education Center in October, 2004. We started with thirteen students and two pianos, and within a year had grown to include thirty-five students, five more pianos and a spinet (small harpsichord), used by organ students as a practice instrument.

After a year and a half, the IOHIO Center is solidly established and constantly growing. Our focus is on the piano, the instrument of choice to develop keyboard technique and in fact, an institutional prerequisite for organ study in Mexico and abroad. Even though many students attend just to take piano lessons, we make sure that they become aware of the organs as well. Organ lessons are available to all interested students with intermediate level piano skills, and one of our students already performs with us in organ concerts. Thanks to the generous donations of many friends, the Music Education Center has a substantial collection of books, recordings, and scores, and a small listening library.

Our students range in age from seven to over fifty years old and in proficiency level from beginner to high intermediate. They have a weekly individual piano lesson between one-half and one hour in length, depending on their age, and an hour-long group class in reading music (solfege) and music appreciation. Piano students with special needs may receive partial scholarships, while all organ students receive full scholarships. Beginning in 2006, we have focused on attracting more students from the communities with historic organs and offer them keyboard instruction both in the IOHIO Center and on-site at their organs.

We also provide enrichment activities apart from the weekly classes, biannual student recitals, and field trips to the historic organs (see below). We invite our more advanced students to participate in our monthly faculty recitals, we offer classes in sight-reading at no extra charge, and we organize monthly gatherings so that interested students may play their pieces for each other, receive feedback from other teachers, and gain performance experience. Our students and their families are strongly encouraged to attend organ, early music and piano concerts, and our students receive free admission to all to the IOHIO Festival concerts.

Ultimately, our teachers strive to provide our students with solid keyboard skills and a versatile repertoire and to instill in them the confidence and curiosity necessary to meet all possible keyboard challenges. Besides classical music on the piano or historic organ, they should have the basic tools to be able to learn to play popular music, rock, jazz, chamber music, or as accompanyists should the need arise, and thus earn their living as musicians in Oaxaca or elsewhere. Looking toward the future, we wish to provide our students with the same musical opportunities which we, the foreign members of the staff, were fortunate enough to receive as children. In this way, we hope that some of them may be able to carry on the work of the Music Education Center and the IOHIO in Oaxaca and elsewhere in Mexico.

Field trips to the historic organs

It is important to keep piano study connected to the theme of historic organs, and by far the best way to do this is to have the students see and play the organs themselves. In July 2005, we organized a field trip to the Tlacochahuaya organ, and the students, whether they had expressed interest in studying organ or not, had a chance to play some of their pieces on an instrument with meantone tuning and a keyboard half the length of a modern piano keyboard with a short octave. They also got a taste of the teamwork involved in playing an organ when they pulled the stops for their friends and pumped the bellows after we disconnected the electric motor (blower). By chance Susan Tattershall, the restorer of the Tlacochahuaya organ, happened to be in Oaxaca at the time, and she gave a talk about the restoration process and the mechanics of a pipe organ.

In March 2006 we visited the organ in the Oaxaca Cathedral, and our students got to hear how their piano pieces sounded on this particular organ. Some of the younger ones were a little shy at first about playing such a huge, strange instrument, but once they got used to the idea, they could hardly be pulled off the bench! We appreciate this unique opportunity for our students: not only are they exposed to the mechanics of playing a historic organ, but their piano study is enriched and enhanced in a way that few students ever have the fortune to experience. Eventually we hope to visit all the restored organs in the state.