Bassoonist Without Borders
Donation protected
Hello! For those who do not know me, my name is Tylor Thomas; I am a bassoonist living in NYC. I recently was selected to become a member of the Global Leaders Program! Participants are taught to act simultaneously as entrepreneurs, mentors, teaching artists, advocates, civic leaders, dynamic performers, cultural agents, and social value creators. I am reaching out to the community for some support. I have already paid about 1/3 of the tuition cost and am applying for grants/other means of financial assistance.
About the Program:
The Global Leaders Program is a nine-month Executive Graduate Certificate program in civic leadership, teaching artistry, cultural agency, social entrepreneurship, and organizational management offered annually to a select Cohort of 35 rising musical change-makers. The Global Leaders Program gives participants the opportunity to grow through immersive service fieldwork to the world’s most dynamic communities, while receiving hands-on guidance from a faculty of industry leaders and pursuing a curriculum of 12 tailored academic modules overseen by a range of top universities and think tanks. The result is a real-world, cutting-edge experience that empowers rising change-makers in music to become multi-dimensional social entrepreneurs, teaching artists, and cultural leaders.
Why?
Over the past two years, I feel as though my views on my life and music have changed drastically. I did my undergrad in Boston, where I was not exposed to much outside of my own views and comfort zone. I was a workaholic (in the restaurant industry) and did most of my bassoon playing in school or small gigs like retirement homes or with other universities. Moving to NYC has completely changed my purpose for music making. While getting my master's at Mannes, I have done a lot of community outreach concerts. At first, it was about the gig money, but I remember the first outreach I did was at a public school in Harlem, where the kids came from troubled homes and abusive families. It was a hard concert to start but by the end, the kids were infatuated with the bassoon. They wanted to hear it play high, low, fast, and anything else I could do to make weird sounds. Afterwards, my colleagues and I talked about how we would not be where/who we were today if we did not have music....these kids in Harlem had their music department cut the year before!
Fast forward to a month ago, I was playing for and interacting with about 15,000 kids from NYC Public Schools in Carnegie's LinkUp program with the Orchestra of St Luke's...It was such an amazing experience talking with the kiddos and, again, showing what the bassoon is. Unfortunately, these programs are not available if the school does not have money to participate. That's where this GLP comes in. There is only so much I can do as a musician. I can do more, I can change more, if I had more skills in administration and business. Conservatories, don't teach us much about grant writing, non-profits, and other business-like skills. I am hoping to learn tons from this program to bring back to NYC, to help fix the diminishing accessibility of music in one of the world's greatest cities.
Everyone should be able to have music in their life, regardless of race or socioeconomic status.
Expenses:
$1,200 tuition deposit due July 1st ✅ (my July rent ha)
$500 fieldwork deposit due September 30th
$1,800 tuition balance due October 31st
(2) International plane tickets
I know it is going to be worth every penny (the faculty from the program this year come from Harvard, Curtis, McGill, Julliard, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, and Duke), and I’ll be helping kids who may never even have heard of a bassoon, learning their culture and stories, and teaching them an art that has transformed my life completely.
Which brings me to the financial assistance I could use. Any little contribution that helps me get to the goal is appreciated! To make this a little more fun for everyone, I want to offer this for donations:
$5-14: A postcard with a personal message from all places I go
$15-24: Postcards plus cute locally made souvenirs
$25-39: Postcards plus more significant souvenirs
$40 or more: Postcards, souvenirs, plus a video clip showing what your donation went to.
Thank you for reading this far! Again, thank you so much and if you have any questions about anything, feel free to ask me!!
About the Program:
The Global Leaders Program is a nine-month Executive Graduate Certificate program in civic leadership, teaching artistry, cultural agency, social entrepreneurship, and organizational management offered annually to a select Cohort of 35 rising musical change-makers. The Global Leaders Program gives participants the opportunity to grow through immersive service fieldwork to the world’s most dynamic communities, while receiving hands-on guidance from a faculty of industry leaders and pursuing a curriculum of 12 tailored academic modules overseen by a range of top universities and think tanks. The result is a real-world, cutting-edge experience that empowers rising change-makers in music to become multi-dimensional social entrepreneurs, teaching artists, and cultural leaders.
Why?
Over the past two years, I feel as though my views on my life and music have changed drastically. I did my undergrad in Boston, where I was not exposed to much outside of my own views and comfort zone. I was a workaholic (in the restaurant industry) and did most of my bassoon playing in school or small gigs like retirement homes or with other universities. Moving to NYC has completely changed my purpose for music making. While getting my master's at Mannes, I have done a lot of community outreach concerts. At first, it was about the gig money, but I remember the first outreach I did was at a public school in Harlem, where the kids came from troubled homes and abusive families. It was a hard concert to start but by the end, the kids were infatuated with the bassoon. They wanted to hear it play high, low, fast, and anything else I could do to make weird sounds. Afterwards, my colleagues and I talked about how we would not be where/who we were today if we did not have music....these kids in Harlem had their music department cut the year before!
Fast forward to a month ago, I was playing for and interacting with about 15,000 kids from NYC Public Schools in Carnegie's LinkUp program with the Orchestra of St Luke's...It was such an amazing experience talking with the kiddos and, again, showing what the bassoon is. Unfortunately, these programs are not available if the school does not have money to participate. That's where this GLP comes in. There is only so much I can do as a musician. I can do more, I can change more, if I had more skills in administration and business. Conservatories, don't teach us much about grant writing, non-profits, and other business-like skills. I am hoping to learn tons from this program to bring back to NYC, to help fix the diminishing accessibility of music in one of the world's greatest cities.
Everyone should be able to have music in their life, regardless of race or socioeconomic status.
Expenses:
$1,200 tuition deposit due July 1st ✅ (my July rent ha)
$500 fieldwork deposit due September 30th
$1,800 tuition balance due October 31st
(2) International plane tickets
I know it is going to be worth every penny (the faculty from the program this year come from Harvard, Curtis, McGill, Julliard, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, and Duke), and I’ll be helping kids who may never even have heard of a bassoon, learning their culture and stories, and teaching them an art that has transformed my life completely.
Which brings me to the financial assistance I could use. Any little contribution that helps me get to the goal is appreciated! To make this a little more fun for everyone, I want to offer this for donations:
$5-14: A postcard with a personal message from all places I go
$15-24: Postcards plus cute locally made souvenirs
$25-39: Postcards plus more significant souvenirs
$40 or more: Postcards, souvenirs, plus a video clip showing what your donation went to.
Thank you for reading this far! Again, thank you so much and if you have any questions about anything, feel free to ask me!!
Organizer
Tylor Thomas
Organizer
New York, NY