Ravinia Em-brass-es Expanded School Partnerships with Reach Teach Play

BY Kyle MacMillan

All 600 students turned out December 9 for a presentation by the Rodney Marsalis Philadelphia Big Brass during just the second all-school assembly in the Neal Math and Science Academy’s still-new building in North Chicago. Band Director Nathan Massa couldn’t have been happier at every step.

Students at North Chicago Community High School applaud the visiting quintet from the Rodney Marsalis Philadelphia Big Brass. (Photo: Kyle Dunleavy/Ravinia)

“That was amazing,” Massa said. “I loved it. The school loved it. The kids loved it. It was truly one of the best experiences that we could have had.”

That appearance, and another for the band and choir students at the nearby North Chicago Community High School, came a day after Marsalis’s group performed as part of the Ravinia’s Winter Weekend and took place under the auspices of the Highland Park organization’s Reach Teach Play. Ravinia’s multifaceted education and community engagement program involves 20,000 public-school students annually and touches 30,000 more people through such initiatives as free festival passes for children and families in under-resourced communities.

Trumpeter Rodney Marsalis and hornist Blair Hamrick meet with students and sign mementos after their Reach Teach Play Guest Artists in the Classroom performance at North Chicago Community High School. (Photo: Kyle Dunleavy/Ravinia)

The brass ensemble came to the attention of Reach Teach Play leaders through an instructor in another of its initiatives, Sistema Ravinia, who had toured with the group. They thought its intergenerational, cross-genre approach would be ideal for their Guest Artists in the Classroom program, which presents 40–60 performances each school year.

All those appearances had previously taken place in the Chicago Public Schools. Madelyn Tan-Cohen, director of Reach Teach Play’s education programs, was eager to expand their reach, and the previously untapped proximity of North Chicago seemed like an ideal step up.

She and other leaders met in early 2024 with John Price, superintendent of North Chicago School District 187, who embraced the idea, and the brass ensemble’s visit to Ravinia provided an opportunity to begin the partnership. “This, honestly, just lined up really well,” Tan-Cohen said.

Rodney Marsalis was born in New Orleans and is a cousin of famed trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, who gave him childhood lessons, and saxophonist Branford Marsalis. He came to Philadelphia to study at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music and ultimately settled in the city.

Almost every touring date of the Philadelphia Big Brass is accompanied by at least one educational concert of some kind. The goal is simple, Marsalis said, connect with students, especially those in neighborhoods that have little contact with the performing arts world.

For the trumpeter, doing school concerts is not a chore but something he and his group really relish. “I don’t understand how someone could not want to help,” he said. “I remember very clearly all the help and inspiration I received as a student, and I feel almost obligated to give back because you never know what you are going to spark.”

Along with performing, the quintet from the Marsalis’s Philadelphia Big Brass shared stories about their career journeys and what it takes to succeed not just in music but any pursuit. “Their message was [reinforcing] the same things we preach to the kids here: talking about grit, following your dreams, all of that,” Massa said. “It was good to have that without even prompting it.”

Because of their experience in such settings, Marsalis and his colleagues were not intimidated by a gymnasium full of middle-schoolers. “They were rowdy at first,” he said, “but by the end, they were asking us a lot of really great questions; they were really paying attention, and I felt like we really connected with them.”