The Mind Over Finger Podcast - 117 Jesus Sáenz & Kelley McGarry: Musicians for the World

Starting point is 00:00:00 You're listening to the Mind Over Finger Podcast, episode number 117. Welcome to the Mind Over Finger Podcast, discussions on mindful music making, efficient practice, and building a purposeful career. And now, your host, violinist, teacher, and high performance coach for musicians, Dr. Renée Paul Gaultier. Hello, everyone. I hope you're having a great day as you're tuning into this episode. Today, I have a really inspiring conversation with the founding members of an incredible organization, Musicians for the World, Jesus Sainz and Kelly McGarry. Jesus and Kelly are both active performing musicians and teachers who, when the pandemic hit, noticed a great need in the musical community and decided to take action.

Starting point is 00:01:00 As Kelly puts it, quality music education is very difficult to come by in many areas of the world, resulting in a lack of opportunity for all individuals living within that area. The COVID-19 pandemic showed Kelly and Jesus that the internet can be a very powerful tool for connection and learning, and that it can make a serious difference in the world of music through virtual music education. So, led by their common vision, they founded Musicians for the World, an organization dedicated to create a world where opportunity is accessible to those who dream of it, no matter their geographic location or socioeconomic standing. They've created global partnerships with schools in several countries, collaborations with festivals, universities, and competitions, and they have masterclass series with world-class artists. Musicians for the World seeks to fill the gaps necessary to embrace all those who wish to learn. Their aim is to create an inclusive environment where they can present opportunities to individuals who are eager and deserving to learn, but may otherwise not get the chance. Kelly and Jesus have already had a powerful impact in the world. In this conversation, they share with us how it unfolded and they show us how we too can make a difference in our communities.

Starting point is 00:02:18 Let's go to the show. jesus signs and kelly mcgary it's so great to have you on the show today thank you thank you for having us i'm really excited to dive in your stories and hear more about musicians for the world but before can we please hear about those stories please tell us about you how you got started and how your musical journeys unfolded okay that's a long story but i will make it short i started violin in peru through a friend of the family he started giving me lessons i attended the national conservatory of music in peru and when i was about 17 I got the scholarship to go to Texas Christian University in Fort Worth Texas and then

Starting point is 00:03:20 I lived in Texas for a long time and then I moved to Boston to study at the Boston Conservatory of Music and that's where I met Kelly and yeah that's a very brief overview of my musical life and we'll have more chances to dive in deeper how about you kelly um so i grew up on long island in new york um and i began playing actually at my kindergarten uh when i was five um i was the worst in my class i wasn't allowed to play in the recital it was just any anything i was involved in with violin i ruined the whole thing so um after that though my parents decided to get me lessons. I started studying with a local teacher, Karen Dow, and I started getting more serious about it. And eventually I started studying with a new teacher. Her name's Ellie Kang. She was

Starting point is 00:04:19 the soloist with Tim Janis. She's actually in Chicago as well. And also Anton Polojev. And they kind of helped me prepare. And I wound up going to Manhattan School of Music pre-college. And then I did one year at Marat School of Music for college. And then I transferred to Boston Conservatory where I met Jesus. And I completed my undergraduate there as well as my graduate degree. I got a GPD. And yeah, that's that's my education. But what me and Jesus did after that was we actually went on to play with Lincoln Center Stage, which is we played on cruise ships as soon as we graduated our college and that was very exciting

Starting point is 00:05:07 we did that up until the pandemic. And what's interesting about you is you both maintain performing careers and teaching careers but you've also founded a really amazing organization I was so excited when I discovered Musicians for the World and I'd love to hear about this How did that come about? Well, at the beginning of the pandemic, we were not doing anything, like many musicians, no concerts, no few lessons. And we were asked to volunteer and to teach these music programs online. Of course, that's when Zoom was, you know, a new thing.

Starting point is 00:05:51 Everyone was like, oh, let's do Zoom. I didn't know, what is Zoom? but and then i discovered zoom and we started giving lessons to students in haiti and peru and the connection with peru is is obvious you know i i grew up there i know a lot of music programs actually kelly came to peru and she was teaching with me uh in these students in peru and then i went to haiti a few years ago and i also made some connections there with the music program so we started to volunteer and teach online and then we discovered that we really liked it we really liked working with students abroad and we we decided to make this an official

Starting point is 00:06:39 organization where this is what we do we mentor students online from all over the world especially those who need the most you know and yeah that's how musicians for the world started you know i would invite all the listeners to check out your website which is musicians for the world.org it is so incredible this mission that you have and the impact that it seems to be having can you talk to us a little bit about that the the mission and also the impact that you see the organization having? Sure. So after we founded our organization, we decided to just keep it in areas that need it the most. So our mission wound up being to empower vulnerable communities worldwide through free virtual music education. So what we do is we offer

Starting point is 00:07:33 free music education to students from various different countries. Right now we're in 11 different countries and what we do is we offer group lessons weekly group lessons and then we also have a master class series which is bi-weekly and we welcome in some world-renowned artists to work with four of the students from four different countries and then the students that are involved in that they get to have private lessons with us leading up to that and then we also for some of our most promising students or even just the ones that ask for it we do offer a private lesson program where they can receive private lessons and we always keep open communication with our students we have like in a day i get like 100 messages on whatsapp um they're all messaging

Starting point is 00:08:25 us they're all asking questions asking for advice for music for recordings um so it's not just those three things it's actually it winds up being a lot more we just kind of provide for them whatever we can. We're helping a lot of them audition for festivals, audition for schools. A lot of them are actually auditioning for college. Some of them are actually wanting to come to the U.S., so we're helping them facilitate that. Basically, you know, we have our mission and then we have a million things outside of that. We're just giving as much help to all of our students as we can. I think it's also important to tell what countries we are in because, you know, when you hear 11 countries okay 11 countries but we're actually in countries where uh that are

Starting point is 00:09:12 kind of disconnected from the music scenery that we know we are in Suriname, Belize, Trinidad and Tobago, Peru, Mexico, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Kenya, Uganda, Mexico, yes Haiti and Haiti yes I hope I'm not forgetting one. This is truly incredible work. And I was so excited to talk with you because I feel that it's life-changing work. The impact that you're having on these students is something that will be with them for the rest of their lives. And that is opening their world to new horizons. It's really the power of music to bring people together.

Starting point is 00:10:00 And I also find that what an amazing thing to do with this situation that we all found ourselves in. You created something so incredible from a place of seeing a need of all of a sudden maybe having more time and getting involved and just deciding to make a difference. It's so incredible. thank you thank you yes do you have some fun stories from students that you can share with us I always love to hear those yeah I would say um I mean Adrian always makes me laugh Adrian is like this wildly talented and motivated student from Kenya and when the first time we heard him play we were like oh my gosh this is crazy he was playing uh vignoski caprice and we couldn't believe it we were both like pinching each other underneath the table while we were listening and um like he was just flying all around the fingerboard and we're like wow that that's i think the most crazy thing is like realizing like all these hidden gems all over the world

Starting point is 00:11:09 like musical hidden gems were like if they had the right training they could be like far more advanced than even like us who like grew up with all the training you know they're just they're so talented and um but he always makes me laugh because every time he logs into zoom so i actually found out later this like powerhouse violinist is like four foot eleven so he's like this really small guy and every time he logs onto zoom he has you have you ever seen like that famous meme of like the sassy patrick star with like the long acrylic nails and lip gloss every time he logs he has this um and he'll like log on to like some really professional situations with us and there's just like this like really sassy patrick star there um and he's just like he's

Starting point is 00:11:57 such a character and then he logs on and he plays violin it's like you would never know that he was so funny and yeah and he was uh he he's self-taught he's self-taught yeah so he's been playing for like four and a half years he said and like the level that he's at is just ridiculous so i would i would say my favorite situation is adrian he plays like a paganini caprices yeah and he's been invited through musicians for the world to apply to boston conservatory and we're hoping that he can come to the states uh yeah there is some stories like that there is Also, this kid, Valentin, he's 10 years old. He's a composer, violinist, and pianist.

Starting point is 00:12:42 He plays very well piano and violin. And he has composed a Christmas carol for a choir and a string orchestra that we recorded recently. You can find that on our Instagram and on our YouTube. It's very impressive what he did. That's amazing. And it's such a great message for all of the listeners to hear, to see how with a computer, you can truly impact someone's life across an ocean, across the world. This is crazy. I'm going to have to Google that meme, of course.

Starting point is 00:13:17 And then I'm going to go check your Instagram account to see if I can find some traces of Adrian on this. Oh, yeah, he's on there. This is really incredible. Also, you're talking about, you know, these world-class musicians that these students get access to, which they never would without you guys. It's truly incredible. Yeah, we actually had some, I can think of, Andrei Baranov visited us. Some students from Suriname performed for him from Mexico. we had alma dutcher recently visiting us and we had a whole session with her and it was just

Starting point is 00:14:04 amazing to have her and yeah we have had some interest from world-class musicians for musicians for the world and we're very grateful for that yeah and i say that's like one of my favorite parts because i mean i i actually didn't have access to that till i was in college and it really when I started going to master classes at Boston Conservatory we had something called string seminar and they would bring in all these different artists and I mean I didn't realize till later how much it really impacted my playing like even if I was listening to a cello master class or a bass master class just hearing about the musicianship of all these different artists really impacted the way I play the way just the way I view music even so it really makes

Starting point is 00:14:50 me excited to be able to provide that for these students. Um, even if they're not playing, I know that they're, they're learning from it. And I think that's probably one of my favorite parts and they get super excited. So it's always, it's always nice leading up to it. Kelly, you just mentioned how having access to these musicians impacted your playing. I always feel that when i teach i learn how is musicians for the world impacting and you as well jesus how is it impacting your playing or your teaching and you have a great roster of teachers also do you see this affecting their own playing and their own artistry definitely i mean when you teach it's like looking yourself at a mirror and you really start like discovering issues in

Starting point is 00:15:44 students playing that you may have and you solve them through someone else so i feel like my playing has improved a lot since i since we started teaching at musicians for the world um you know it's it's hard to say for the other teachers because i'm not constantly listening to them But I will say that they are really excited, really inspired, and they love, you know, having this window to meet the students who are very motivated. I would say that's the most amazing thing is that you communicate with these students who really, really want to learn and really are like hungry for learning, for getting better at the instrument. And I would also say in terms of our faculty that teaching students from different countries, it teaches you a lot about how to be a little bit more sensitive, especially I could say that for myself. when we first started this i was entering it thinking how i've taught my whole life i started teaching when i was like 13 or 14 and i was very used to teaching in a certain way and then i

Starting point is 00:17:01 started approaching these students in a similar way it wasn't working um and i started realizing that sometimes when they're not practicing it's not because they're off doing something else it's because you know sometimes they don't have internet and they're reading off a little phone or sometimes electricity sometimes no electricity a lot of the times in Haiti the power once the sun sets there's no no light for a lot of our students um and then I remember like the one time that changed my outlook on teaching uh was when a particular group of students wasn't like sending me anything and I was like what's going on you guys I don't understand blah blah and I got a video from a student and she was hooked up to an IV and she said Mrs. Kelly I'm so sorry I

Starting point is 00:17:56 am really sick I didn't have enough food this week and I was like oh my gosh and this changed like I became a much more sensitive and understanding teacher like in that moment I realized that you know there's much bigger things besides practicing where like my whole life I was taught practicing is it you know um and that definitely changed the way I teach um and I think I like to think all this experience has changed my playing because you know just getting more experience with the world it of course changes the way we play um and yeah I think overall it's made me more sensitive it's made me more understanding and I do think that that is reflecting in my playing as well that's so powerful i'm getting the chills as

Starting point is 00:18:44 you're talking and it's as you're expanding their horizons they're expanding yours as well oh yeah i feel like sometimes they expand ours even more than we expand theirs you know one other question i have is how can people learn from your experience the pandemic hit performances were canceled a lot of us found ourselves you know without the ability to teach in person with all of this time and you decided to go forward and create this amazing organizations how can someone today anyone listening who has maybe a vision of creating something similar or figuring out a way to have some sort of impact on their community, what do you recommend they do?

Starting point is 00:19:37 Where can they get started? Well, I think that if we waited until we knew how to make everything work to get started, we would never have started anything. Right. Sometimes you just have to throw yourself out there and figure things out in the way yeah that's how how it happened to us I mean we are we were I mean we are performers you need you know like any any student at the conservatory we didn't have training or non-profits and every in all the information that you need to know and we started

Starting point is 00:20:20 learning as as we went I also I guess I would say just as a piece of advice on that note when you are in college or in any sort of situation where you're surrounded by musicians be friendly and make connections because we have been relying on other people like they know what we don't know we know what they don't know and it's like it's just an exchange of ideas plus google but but getting information from everywhere is really important so you have to be super friendly as a musician so that you have those connections when you need them because really especially in a situation like this you just kind of have no choice but to dive in and not know things and it really requires a lot of getting information from places you never really

Starting point is 00:21:11 thought you would so keep all of your options open that's so important to hear and this applies to everything i think that's so often we hesitate to start or do something because we don't know how and my coach always says you'll only know how once you've done it so just open google and ask a question and yes ask your friends whichever endeavor you're going after it's so important to hear what you just shared with us thank you so much yeah how about a round of rapid fire question before i let you go sure sure what doubts or resistance have you had to face on this journey i would say doubts is just the heart the most difficult thing is when you are trying to do something and it seems like you're not getting response from the general community um so that's

Starting point is 00:22:05 been like my biggest struggle is like you when you're in a non-profit you always are messaging people it just it feels like you're like harassing people all day basically so i would say like that's been my biggest struggle in this whole process is like just continuing to reach out to people finding new people to reach out to um just kind of like keeping all my options open but also you know in that you're a human being and it kind of feels bad to get ignored sometimes so um just I would say that's like my biggest thing is finding frustration in some of that but you know with the mission we have we just keep pushing forward and um yeah i would say that's my biggest struggle it's like it's like any other uh it's like taking auditions there is going to be more

Starting point is 00:22:51 lots of denial doors closing to you than opening and that could be surprising but not really right and we feel like if there's doubt or if there are obstacles we're doing it wrong when actually if those things are present it's usually because you're doing it right you're moving forward yeah and you just gotta keep doing it love that what skills do you think young musicians studying today should acquire in addition to learning to play their instruments i think young musicians we have to have a more grounded education where we learn how to do other things other than becoming a soloist well-rounded yeah exactly like personal relations how to a little bit of technology you know organization and anything like that yeah

Starting point is 00:23:47 yeah we should all know a little bit of that yeah do you want to chip in kelly sure i would say um something that I was lucky enough to learn when I was young because my mentor he I actually I studied ballet when I was younger and my mentor was a like very famous ballerina with New York City Ballet and he always taught me not just to study music or just to study ballet but to be a well-rounded artist where you're looking into all the different arts like going to the opera you know orchestras ballet um even you know painting sculptures all of that just to really be a well-rounded artist not just you know a violinist like not to just call yourself a violinist but an artist i love that you've already shared some but do you have some anecdotes

Starting point is 00:24:38 with your participants at musicians for the world that are particularly you know sweet or some memories that you'll cherish forever yes my last birthday a year ago Kelly produced a video for me where I had students from all over the world like sending messages and that was one of the most touching moments for me and Angelo called from Haiti and then I got a call from students in Haiti and all of them were together singing happy birthday to me and that was just like something very special I would say for me um we sent a bass to Kenya um I had a young girl contact me saying her dream is to play the bass and um it turned out that we were the last people she was messaging and after that she decided this is my last shot I'm gonna

Starting point is 00:25:34 give up after this and um I was really touched by what she said to me and I wound up talking to Jesus and then we talked to everyone in the non-profit and we wound up actually getting a to her and um she told us that we've changed her life um and she was having just so many life issues she opened up to me about and I was just really happy that we were able to you know add some light to all of that um and we have a video of that on youtube too if anyone wants to see of her speaking her receiving the bass and you'll see when she gets the bass it's just like she looks so happy it's it's really i'd say that was the most impactful moment for me amazing i know that's gonna make me cry

Starting point is 00:26:20 this really shows the power of music as um is unifier a word in english i don't even know yes unifier yeah of course you talked about empowerment earlier but you are really bringing

Starting point is 00:26:38 people from all over all over the world together in such a powerful way yeah thank you that's the goal that's the goal

Starting point is 00:26:45 I mean I think it's nice because we have like all these classes where every time we have

Starting point is 00:26:53 a master class series and guest artist is ending the class we have everyone turn on their videos and and you know show themselves and we have students from all over the world and i think that's very touching for the the guest that we have and and yeah music

Starting point is 00:27:11 is something that and unlike like politics philosophy or anything else that goes on in daily life music is something that unites us yeah very grateful for that yeah the next question i'm curious do you personally have a favorite tool in the practice room but i'm also curious to know if there are some tools that you see particularly effective with your students as you shared with us some of them are facing some challenges and obstacles so let me know please a tool that is your own favorite in the practice room but also tools that you see particularly efficient with your students i'd say my favorite tool in the practice room are drone tones um i know they're boring and annoying if you're not the one listening but

Starting point is 00:28:04 they just work so well for me when i'm playing my scales or you know anything with intonation um and then teaching with the students a lot of them they don't have access to like the the Korg metronome or anything like that so um we always have to find ways to improvise so we make sure they tune their violins really well and then I have them play with an open string you know tuning to themselves versus you know having that drone tone um yeah what about you um the wall I like putting my violin on the wall and the scroll of my violin and rebalance my playing And that's something that, you know, everyone has a wall. It's more accessible, yeah.

Starting point is 00:28:53 Yeah. Across the board. Across the board. How about a favorite book that you would recommend to the listeners? I really love The Inner Game of Music. That's what I was going to say. I don't know if you're familiar with it, But it's about finding that part of yourself

Starting point is 00:29:16 that is away from anything to do with being a square. Yeah. It was inspired on a book for tennis by Barry Green. He's a bass professor, I believe, at maybe Cincinnati. He's a bass player, and it's an amazing book, yes. I would recommend it to anyone. If you haven't yet, you could listen to his conversation with me here on the podcast. It's episode 50.

Starting point is 00:29:47 Wow. Wow, really? And you know, I can squeeze in here that the inner game of tennis is really great, but I also highly recommend the inner game of golf, which I find even more accessible. And probably because the author, Tim Galloway, is a golf amateur as opposed to being a tennis expert. so his way of approaching the inner game of golf is i find really great some awesome insight in there thanks so much for sharing and giving me the opportunity to mention barry's conversation

Starting point is 00:30:22 how about you kelly i was going to say the same thing um i mean in general i just i always like reading not not books that particularly you know pertain to music but just like any sort of book that helps you be a better you um there are a couple that have curses in the titles um you know like how to like on f yourself like those kind of books um those actually helped me with music reading those because um with music we're taught to you know be like super super perfect perfectionist um everything has to be a certain way and anytime I read like any of those self-help books it's always telling you like let go a little bit relax breathe um so those books actually wound up helping me uh more as a musician than um you know music books

Starting point is 00:31:22 I found that those were more helpful it's such a great reminder thanks for this is there a piece of advice that you'd like to pass on to the listeners yes um i think that many times we start music because for a reason you know everyone has a different reason or a different story and then along the way we forget about it yes and i think that we should constantly be reminding ourselves why we are doing what we are doing and even in the hardest moments like never forget of why we are doing this amazing thanks for this jesus um i would say um for me the best piece of advice is remember to look up and look around you um a lot of the times when we're working towards something we kind of

Starting point is 00:32:23 get tunnel vision and um we forget about not just like our immediate surroundings but like the whole world around us and um you know there's a whole lot going on outside of ourselves and um when we look up and we look around and we realize everything going on it can be difficult but um it also gives us the opportunity to expand ourselves as people as artists and it also gives us the opportunity to see what's going on and somehow use our artistry to help. Because I will say, doing all of this, you've been so busy, I've practiced less, but I've somehow become a better artist. So sometimes it's really helpful just to expand yourself and really welcome the rest of the world in instead of just being in a practice room. Those are so great. And I love how

Starting point is 00:33:18 they kind of work together yin and yang how jesus yours encourages us to look inward and going back to the source and yours kelly encourages us to you know open our eyes and look around and be influenced by the outside world without feeling limited or oppressed by what we're seeing this is great finally how about a quick actionable tip that the listeners could implement today in their musical lives I would say kind of I mean I guess kind of what we've been saying all along is to remember why we do what we do it's really easy to you know kind of like I said get tunnel vision and get sucked into all of it but just remembering you know we do this because we love it and find things that remind us of that because it's not always easy to just remind ourselves like okay

Starting point is 00:34:14 remember you love this right things and you know actively participate in things that keep us in love with what we do because otherwise it does i mean music can get kind of discouraging or you know you get where it's like we're looking at ourselves constantly and that's not easy to do so just finding ways to remind yourself like activities that you could do to remind yourself but you're doing what you love and we can always find evidence of what we're looking for so if we look for this we will find it yeah and making a point of doing it yeah this is great i think if you are having a hard time getting to serve yourself to practice just open your instrument and put it somewhere but open there is a big difference between making yourself practice

Starting point is 00:35:05 when your instrument is close than when your instrument is out there. Love that. Yeah, absolutely. Gretchen Rubin says, make it easy to do right and hard to go wrong. So if the case is open, then it's one fewer obstacle.

Starting point is 00:35:22 Exactly. We are not practicing yet. It's there. But once it's there, it's easier to grab it. Jesus and Kelly, where can people find you? how can we contribute or help and follow you where's all this information where can we find you

Starting point is 00:35:41 um so we are we have our website like you mentioned earlier musiciansfortheworld.org we also are on instagram facebook youtube i think you started at tiktok yes but that's not working really well we're on most social media platforms uh without except for twitter um and through our website we have a contact button um and it will actually lead you directly to my email so if you want to reach out you can find us through the website the contact button um and then as well on every page of our website at the very bottom we always have a donation button if um if you're feeling like you would like to donate to our cause um and there is so many ways to get involved of course you know we're always uh donations are great it helps us keep our program running but

Starting point is 00:36:36 if you are out there and you're a worldwide artist you know someone from new york berlin philharmonic chicago symphony you want to do a master class uh you know we're we'll be very happy to organize that for you. And anyone, anyone who wants to inspire other students, we have different ways of making that happen. Or if anyone who is not a musician, but have other skills that can help us, any projects, any advice,

Starting point is 00:37:12 we are, any way you can, you want to be involved, we'll be happy to. yeah we're constantly expanding our advisory board there's no like limit to how many people we have right now so anyone who wants to just get involved even if you're like a lawyer or something like that it's always helpful just anyone who could help with this we're very open to that and again the contact button is on our website so you can reach out at any time musicians for the world is online are there any opportunities coming up for you guys to get together in person with some of the participants yes of course i can't imagine and never seen

Starting point is 00:37:54 these students uh life you know and we are planning an international festival in peru in august 2022 where a lot of uh the teachers that have been working with us they actually go to peru and work with the different programs and not only that but also besides working with the programs perform in their community we're talking about vulnerable communities usually when musicians from you know the u.s from giro go to peru they play in like the fancy places and but this time is different and of course all this if covid allows and if this ends up working out we want to try to visit every country that we have a presence in in the future fantastic i'm going to have all of these links in the show notes jesus and kelly your work is incredible thank you so much for

Starting point is 00:38:55 sitting with me today what you do is so inspiring and your vision and your mission are so important and the impact that you're having throughout the world is just fantastic so I'm so happy to have discovered you and your work and your organization I wish you all the best luck and just so much growth I hope that it continues to expand and reach more and more young musicians throughout the world thank you so much for being here yeah thank you so much Renee this is really great we're so glad thank you for coming us and for your interest on us and musicians for the world thank you so much thank you guys so much for listening i hope you enjoyed this conversation with jesus signs and

Starting point is 00:39:52 kelly mcgary from musicians for the world they're a great example of the kind of impact you can have by taking action, by following your vision and your inspiration, doing research, reaching out and going forward one small step at a time. They also show that you don't have to wait. You can get started today with something small, where you are and with what you have and see where that takes you. If this episode resonated with you, share with everyone you think might benefit from Jesus and Kelly's insight and knowledge and catch the next episode for a deep dive in their actionable tip.

Starting point is 00:40:30 You can find all the information related to this episode in the show notes by visiting mindoverfinger.com. And while there, explore all the resources I share with you about efficient practice, performance preparation, and mindful music making,

Starting point is 00:40:44 and find information on how you can work with me. That's it for today. Again, thank you and à bientôt. © transcript Emily Beynon

The Mind Over Finger Podcast - 117 Jesus Sáenz & Kelley McGarry: Musicians for the World

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