2018-19 Guide To Yellow Springs

25 Y e l l ow S p r i n g s N ews the Guide to YelLow Springs y 2018 - 1 9 y  youth orchestra ' s 50 years of music y Shirley Mullins, at left, participates in a recital with the Summer Strings program she began over 50 years ago. Her musical minions are young musicians, some of whom are likely children of children she taught in her long career as a music educator. • submitted photo By Lauren Heaton The big story about the Yellow Springs youth orchestra program isn’t that it’s more than 50 years old. It isn’t that the summer strings and youth orchestra program has provided music lessons, instruments and performance opportunities for anyone who was interested and that it continues to expose a new generation of youth to the richness of music. The big news is that the Shirley Strohm Mullins who started the string program five decades ago is the same Shirley Mullins who organizes, raises funds, teaches, conducts, administers and runs the program today. Mullins’ love of music was infectious, according to early Youth Orchestra Asso- ciation members Henning and Hanlo Von Gierke. When in 1963 she came to a village that offered no opportunities for youth to play stringed instruments, she had no other thought than starting a program herself. As an educator, her goal was to get into the schools, where children, like sponges, would soak up fresh ideas and spread them to each other and to the community. Knowing a good teaching partner when she saw one, Mullins, principally a cellist, picked Mary Schumacher out of the violin section in the Antioch College orchestra Continued on page 26 % % % and proposed that they start offering string lessons for village youth. With an ad in the Yellow Springs News, they announced that “any child can learn to play a musical instrument” and that their “long-range plans include a full youth orchestra.” There was no foundation, no sup - port system in place to encourage their endeavor. Very few students had instru- ments and bows, there was no music library to draw from and there wasn’t even a fixed location to teach the lessons, Mullins recalled. But 25 children responded to the call expecting to learn to love music, so the women solicited donated instruments from people’s basements and attics, and taught the revolutionary Suzuki method in groups and by ear. They taught lessons all over town, from the building behind Antioch’s music hall, to the Children’s Community Center and into people’s homes. “We were music carpetbaggers. We didn’t have a home,” Mullins said. Their dedication was recognized by a group of parents who organized the first meetings of the Youth Orchestra Associa - tion in 1965. The association was incorpo - rated and received grant money from the Ohio Arts Council and the Yellow Springs Community Foundation to purchase equip - ment and organize concerts for the small but growing orchestra. “These people had the vision that this thing was not going to be a flash in the pan,” Mullins said. “We knew it, but to have these people believe in us gave us energy to keep going.” Mullins connected with the high school band director, Claire Miller, to combine Full Service Florist • Teleflora Daily Specials • Children’s Books Personalized Service • Unique Gifts Your Downtown Florist & Gift Shop www.glengardengifts.com OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK M.–Th. 10 – 6; Fri. 10 – 7; Sa. 10 –6; Su. 12–5 239 Xenia Ave. 767-1658 or 1-800-248-1658 A unique shop that uses existing resources to offer vintage and quality clothing, décor and gifts. Kings Yard, 224 Xenia Ave. 937-307-8297 • FB BackToNowStore vintage • unique • recycled