Odds & Ends: Polyrhythms in Motion
What does your VMA Club need from its student leaders?
One of the coolest private masterclasses I had with my chamber trio in high school was performing for Gunther Schuller, the American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, educator, publisher, president of the New England Conservatory, and jazz musician, among many other accolades and distinctions. How does that relate to this post? When playing one of his compositions he told me:
“I heard Duke Ellington perform and he could play a chord like this…”. And he demonstrated on the piano. Each voice / finger was voiced on the same plane … I don’t know how to describe it to this day. It was magical.
So I take that experience to everything I do — all because a luminary took the time to help a high school trio sound better, which then translated to that high schooler applying his principle of voicing to classical music youth outreach. Wild, right?
Every voice in our organization matters. And connecting us all is what will propel us forward.
What does your VMA Club need from its national leaders?
What do you need from your club, state, and national leaders?
What do you want your club to accomplish this year?
Think of a VMA Club like a polyrhythm: different people are doing different things at the same time, but all of those efforts should contribute to something meaningful.
For us, that begins with service.
Service Is the #1 Objective
The most important thing for every VMA member to remember is:
Service comes first.
This academic year, we want to see students working toward meaningful outreach performances, bringing music into their communities and creating opportunities for others to experience live music.
Our student government is also encouraging clubs to participate in fundraising for Street Symphony and VMA through our Sweet Sounds of Service campaign.
And we've designed the campaign so that students can take ownership of it.
Build Your Team. Build Your Impact.
VMA Clubs should begin by creating a fundraising team with a student Team Leader.
Then, each team member creates their own individual peer-to-peer fundraising page.
That means your club isn't relying on one person to do all the fundraising. Each student can reach out to their own family, friends, teachers, neighbors, and community connections.
Together, those individual efforts become a collective club effort.
Start a Sweet Sounds of Service fundraiser
What About Parents?
Parents are absolutely welcome to support their child's fundraising efforts.
They can share their student's page, introduce the campaign to friends and family, and encourage others to participate.
But there's another option for parents who simply want to support VMA directly.
Parents can become members of the VMA Annual Giving Society independently of the Sweet Sounds of Service campaign.
A parent doesn't have to make a donation through their child's peer-to-peer campaign. They can choose to support VMA directly and become part of the broader community investing in our mission.
Learn about the VMA Annual Giving Society
That's an important distinction:
Students lead the fundraising campaign; families and community members can support in whatever way is meaningful to them.
A New Chapter in Stewardship
If you are pursuing a VMA National Service Award, we encourage you to think intentionally about where your support comes from.
Students should strive to raise funds from diverse sources and relationships.
That doesn't mean your family can't support you. Of course they can. Families have been an important part of VMA's story from the very beginning.
In fact, the VMA Foundation recognizes that the Junior Program would not be where it is today without a few families who believed in our mission early on—and whose children helped bring the program to life.
Their support, encouragement, and willingness to say yes helped build the foundation for the national community we have today.
But the Junior Program is maturing.
And so are our students.
Today, our young musicians are more than capable of taking greater ownership of the stewardship goals that come with leadership. They can build a fundraising team, create a peer-to-peer campaign, reach beyond their immediate family, communicate a purpose, and invite their broader community to participate.
That's an important part of growing from a participant into a leader.
And no, you don't necessarily need to sell those famous Thin Mints to do it. 😉
The point isn't to see how much money you can collect.
The point is to learn how to engage a community in something you believe matters.
That's stewardship.
And that's leadership.
It's Not About How Much You Give
For high school students especially, fundraising can become an opportunity to demonstrate stewardship.
Our third-party fundraising platform, Give Lively, allows fundraising activity to be tracked transparently. When students engage multiple sources and relationships in support of a meaningful purpose, they begin to build a documented record of community engagement.
And if you're thinking about college applications, remember:
An award is only as meaningful as the impact behind it.
It's not necessarily how much you raise.
It's how you give.
Who did you engage?
Why did you choose the cause?
How did you communicate your purpose?
What did you learn?
What difference did your efforts make?
Those are the experiences that can ultimately give substance to a leadership story.
Be a Compassionate Leader
Of course, fundraising is only one piece of leadership.
Our student government gives you opportunities to learn how to organize, communicate, collaborate, serve, and lead with compassion.
We want to give you the tools you need—from learning the ABCs of leadership to eventually figuring out how to tell your story in a college essay for your dream school.
But there is one thing we can't teach you.
Be a good person. Be an authentic person.
Serve because you care.
Lead because you want to help.
Give because your community matters.
The rest will follow.
This Is Your Year
Your club doesn't have to do everything.
It just needs to start.
One outreach performance.
One fundraising team.
One student willing to lead.
One person willing to serve.
Different students. Different talents. Different contributions.
That's the polyrhythm in motion.
Serve. Steward. Lead.
Because everyone deserves orchestra seats.
