Four afternoons a week, cellist Michael Fecskes leads a room of young musicians through the fundamentals of classical music as the artistic director of Sonoma’s ViVO Youth Orchestras.
Modeled after El Sistema, the renowned Venezuelan training program that produced conducting phenom Gustavo Dudamel, the nonprofit based at El Verano Elementary brings music education and leadership training to K-12 students across Sonoma Valley.
Teaching is a calling for Fecskes, who moved to Sonoma as a high schooler, studied music at Sonoma State, and lived and performed in New York and Europe for over a decade before settling back in Wine Country eight years ago.
Fecskes performs locally as well, and will be playing with a chamber ensemble July 23 at Buena Vista Winery as part of the 10th anniversary Valley of the Moon Music Festival. valleyofthemoonmusicfestival.org, vivosonoma.org
Read below for Fecskes’s views on his music program and teaching process.
“I really wanted to design a program where the student could theoretically stay with us from kindergarten until they graduate from high school, always with something to do, always with an elevated purpose, with a new set of musical skills they can apply. And that’s working. It’s really beautiful to see.”
“I love to ask my intermediate classes, ‘When did you join?’ And they’ll tell me kindergarten or first grade, and I remember them when they were so little. Offering the program four days a week for years, you really know these children. You know about their days, their successes, which they always report back to us. You know their families, too. To be that kind of figure in their lives for multiple years, multiple seasons, multiple stages — I mean, there’s nothing better.”
“I’ve realized this type of work is not at all like a transaction. I don’t just come with a body of knowledge to instill and then just walk away. It feels very cyclical, very circular in the relationship with the children. Like, I give them everything I’ve gained in my life, and they give me back these amazing reminders of the human process.”
“The teaching helps me to recognize we all go through the same kinds of little struggles throughout our life, but with maybe a little less love and care as we get older. I run into my students all the time around town. I’ll hear my name from any direction from a child, and I’m just like, ‘Yes, what is it? What can I do?’ And I pull a Band-Aid out of my pocket.”