Episode 9: Vel Lewis - Instruments of Hope: Empowering Every Child with Music

Meet Vel Lewis, an accomplished jazz artist, and learn about his mission to "put an instrument in the hands of every child who can't afford their own" through the F2F Music Foundation (https://f2fmusicfoundation.org).  In this video, in addition to sharing about his music foundation, Vel will also perform a few singles from his music collection, and discuss his musical upbringing, touring with artists like Dionne Warwick, and his faith in God.

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Transcript

[Music] [Applause]

welcome to hello world where we help you ReDiscover the good that's all around us today hello worlds on location we're at the lovely home of Val Lewis and Val is a accomplished uh jazz artist and his accomplishment is so long that I need a list to help me but uh Val is a accomplished singer he is a producer he's song arranger he's a organist as well as he composes music and you can hear some of his music in shows like mt about you The Sopranos and our favorite show Friends B has also performed with Legends like Dion Warick and Earth Wind and Fire and these are artists that I've heard of in my youth and some of them uh that I have not heard of but like the delics the Futures The Stylistics Val has also produced many singles and also an album called colors of soul in addition he is also the founder of the non-for-profit f2f a foundation that helps music students to thrive so welcome to hello world Val we're so glad that you're here to share your story with us thank you so much thank you for having me yes so Val tell us a little bit about yourself where where you from and how did your music Journey started originally from Philadelphia Pennsylvania and uh my music Journey started pretty much uh when I was 10 years old and it was very interesting the way it started I was at home and one day my mother asked me um well actually she told me you're going to learn how to play an instrument okay and I thought that was strange coming out of the clear blue all of a sudden I said so why is that she said because I said so you're going to learn how to play an instrument okay if you say so so she said you go to school see if they have any instruments and you pick out one that you want to learn how to play okay so I came back with a drum pad and Sticks no no no no not that one so you go find something else don't want all that noise in the house oh she didn't like the the that particular so I said okay fine so I came back with a flute said okay that's better well flute and I didn't get along too well I tried my best learned the keys and how to blow but blowing it was making me dizzy and I didn't like that sure feeling so uh one day I went back back to school with the flute and just so happens the music teacher asked me to come up to the front of the class and play something and I wasn't ready for that so she noticed and said okay give me the flute let's figure out something else and there was another classmate who played Oregon and he would play during the class occasionally and I thought it was the greatest thing that this classmate would sit down at the organ and he's just moving up and down and hands going feet are going all over and he's smiling and just having a great time said that looks like fun so I said I'll do that so I started taking lessons U private lessons with uh my first teacher her name was Mrs Virginia Goss and I studied under her on Saturdays uh would go down to school in downtown took lessons from her for about a year and a half actually more closer to two years and she said I needed to have organ to practice with at home so we decided to rent an organ it was the first organ was a warzer spin it organ which is a smaller one with uh I think it was 12 pedals 13 pedals on it and practiced with that but then I noticed that it would break down occasionally and have problems mom this organ is not working right she said okay well let's go down to the music store different store and see what we can find so we went to a store downtown Philadelphia it was called Jacob's Brothers music MH and we walked in met with a Salesman the salesman asked me to play something on one of the organs there in the store he seemed to like the way that I was playing and um he said uh I want you guys to come upstairs let's go upstairs to the second floor I there's some organs up there I want to show you and there was one in particular that was in the corner and he said if he likes this one I would encourage you to buy this one it's an antique uh very specially made because it was built in 1939 and it was exhibited in the New York World's Fair and oh sounds good okay and I sat down and played it I said yeah I like this one so we ended up bringing it home and um how special yeah so I kept that organ for probably by the time I was 17 m so about seven years but I was also singing at the same time with uh City choirs all Philadelphia Boys Choir during my rehearsals there with uh the choir under Dr Carlton J Lake I really started liking it and then ended up being one of these selected students to be in the small Ensemble of the choir which was about 60 of us and and we were uh asked to come perform at the Montreal expose 1967 wow so we went there and I turned out to be a soloist singing first soprano you didn't know that beforehand or it well yeah the Dr Lake told me well you going you're going to do a song and this is called kir Le and you'll sing the lead and then rest of the choir will join you I said okay okay I'm going to say lead I had to think about that for a minute but I practiced to a point where I could do it but getting up in front of an audience of about two 3,000 people I had never done before and you were how old at that time probably 11 that's that's a scary stage it was scary for sure um but I managed to stay on Pitch even though my voice was wavering a little bit from being nervous but I I got through it and uh everyone stood up for Round of Applause at the end I said okay I did it yay and it was a fun experience though to be in a different country first time and you know be with friends in the choir and you we spent a few days there so we had lunch and breakfast and dinner together and did that did that just kind of sealed in the the the love for music and and the performance exactly the perform live in front of people I enjoy that so much so you didn't say oh my gosh that I'm so glad it's over with move on but you're like give me more yeah yeah I want to do this again you want to do this again so you remember the names of the people that that kind of uh help you along the way or or show you the way in the very beginning so um are they your influencers if you will absolutely yeah that's neat yeah and I even say this now I I teach private piano lessons to students that um they will probably remember my name as they become adults just as I did because music is very special in a way where it has power to enhance the mind and concentration Focus level yes so that things that happen to you you normally don't forget and especially with a music teacher you become very special to the student that you're teaching yes yes they they impact your life and teach you a skill that you can use for the rest of your life right right your mama is a force she she has really um she was a tap dancer and an acrobat when she was young really wow and she was very young because she had to stop I think she said when she was 13 yeah cuz her mother passed away and Dad contacted her and said you've got to come home and help take care of the family so no more performing but she always had that desire to perform yes and I think that was the reason why she just wanted you all to all of a sudden just told me one day you are going to learn an instrument but now that I think about it it could have been the way that she raised me being her first born at the age of three she started teaching me how to read the newspaper by the time I was five or six years old I could identify various makes and models of cars oh wow so I think she saw from an intelligence standpoint that I was bright and my aptitude was very high she enrolled me into a school called masterman laboratory and demonstration school downtown Philadelphia this school required an entrance exam and you had to have an IQ of a certain level or higher oh wow to get in so Val when you're developing your music or composing your music who is your inspiration or your Mo your influence musical influence I don't have a particular person that is a musical influence when I'm writing or composing it's usually from a mode of music or a mood for example I may listen to some music on a radio station for a few hours MH and I'll hear something that has a rhythm that is what I'd like to write from so I may take that particular Rhythm remember what it is and then sit down at the piano or the organ and then just start chord movements with that type of Rhythm I see and then build the song from there that that kind of uh was a question I had next was I've always wondered is it the lyrics that comes first is it the music that comes first how how does it like end up together so perfectly well and I think that depends on the writer or composer personally I hardly ever listen to lyrics it's all pretty much music for me and if I feel later that the song needs lyrics then I'll sit down and try to come up with some lyrics that would fit it but I I don't know if that's a problem that I have to deal with sometimes but occasionally when I'm listening to music I block out the lyrics so you you go from a music is that you go from the music and then you add the words as needed is that right yeah and that's something too that uh is a point that I learned growing up as I came through working with professional artists and singers particularly um that it's important to know diction and how to pronounce words when you're singing MH a lot of times even now I hear with the newer music in this generation that they just kind of fumble through words and it's supposed to be cool which is good but if you can't understand the lyrics then you lose the message within the lyrics and years ago back in the 70s message songs were very important so that people could understand what the message is and apply it to daily life so so when you're doing music for like the show Friends what did they provide you like a prompt or no no no so they make pick from your catalog how does it work well in these particular cases of friends mad about you I think Wife Swap uh Fresh Prince of Bel a those types of shows that music was composed prior to the particular episode I was a songwriter along with another quite a few other friends of mine to a company called called U La post music Los Angeles post music and it was a music production company so we maintained what we called a music library of various types of genres of music and we would just record segments it could be uh for urban soft contemporary jazz we may do 10 different types of variations of that same JRE on a CD then the next CD might be soft Urban and the next CD would be uh or what have you and then producers that had these shows would ask for a specific type of music there's a person that usually works for shows called the music supervisor and they Source out music based on what the producers is wanting to have on a particular scene in a show and they may go through five 10 different companies to find that one special piece of music that fits what they're looking for and because the company that uh my partner had his name was Tom Borton of La post music we were doing work with Showtime with HBO with NBC CBS all the major uh networks and cable stations so we had that notoriety of being the one that they wanted to go to was like First Choice so then they would go through some songs and say okay yeah this particular one we want to use for this episode interesting this is like behind the scenes so um you have they kind of like location Scouts they have music Scouts that goes and and discover the music that they want for the episode and it's almost like if you your songs get or your music gets picked it's like being picked out of ocean full of music and it's pretty special to be selected wow that's neat that's interesting now earlier in the introduction you have you wear so many different hats musically right as a composer songwriter performer um you know Oran in this and and all the other instruments you might do Which hat do you like the best and why I like performing the best uh secondly I prefer composing recording arranging um I haven't been doing too much live performances lately um primarily because the music Foundation is taking a lot of my time to um launch the different programs and make sure that it's operational and as well doing the um sourcing for funding because of us being a nonprofit organization but I am recording quite a bit so I prefer to be able to be at home do the work that I'm doing and then just keep putting records out because as a recording artist that's what it's all about right right interesting um I know you have collaborated with some famous um legendary artist and and famous artist is there a particular memorable um moments or memorable experience with when you collaborated well yes um within the friends and Associates of La post music at the time most of us that I worked with were part of the band that performed with Borton he was a saxophonist and there was Kevin shokan who's a guitarist and we've done a lot of recording together um also uh Jerome Lee a uh basist U we helped with arrangements for a lot of uh Tom's albums at the time and he did three different albums um since then I've been doing most of my own compositions for example the colors of soul EP you mentioned that was all pretty much my original compositions but lately

I formed a record company with a good friend of mine now his name is Michael Garvin and Michael is a prolific songwriter he has U to his credit I believe 33 top 10 hits oh wow and 20 of those were number on mhm so um I think his biggest hit was a song called waiting for tonight which Jennifer Lopez recorded and uh he's also done a song called never give up on a good thing by George Benson Okay so we've been doing collaboration over the last couple years to produce music for our label and to get it out there in distribution so yeah I'm really excited about that that's been nice and I think later on we'll talk about the foundation but you you have I think you mentioned that earlier that um Deion Warwick is your the Ambassador for how did that happen well I toured with Deion War for about three years I see yeah thanks to my brother because he's been with her for 15 years maybe as a drummer and um it was at one point he asked me to come uh I think it was in New Jersey they were performing somewhere in New Jersey at a casino and we have family on the East Coast because we're originally from the East Coast so I said yeah well that'll be fine and I could come visit family and so forth and then hang out with you at the show so they were I was there during sound check at one time and uh Dion's son his name is David Elliot was at the piano and he was working out a song Just again it's all impromptu my brother's putting his drums together andun tuning him and David's on the piano so my brother noticed I was standing there just kind of watching him and he said hey uh David you know maybe my brother might be able to help you with that you know if you want you know he's right there he's oh he turned around oh yeah well you think you can do so I said well yeah I was kind of listening and watching what you're doing um what if you were to do this and I sat down and played the same chords he was playing and then they said if you were to take it to a change like this that's the change I was looking for that's it that's perfect hey mom come check this out it's it's Mom and I see her walking across the

stage were you Star Struck oh I like oh my God I love Deon Warick ever since I grew up yeah how long ago was this how old were you at that time see 13 maybe I started touring with her in 2002 so this would have been it's not that I mean it's not that yep yeah excuse me maybe late 2001 wow wow were you Star Struck you're like wow the Legends here yeah well I wasn't expecting her to be there because it was sound check but I should have thought that she's eventually going to come yes but for him to say Mom check this out and like okay so what's going to happen and she said well let me hear it so he got up and I oh I got to play oh you know what a cold sweat is just started getting nervous and he said well let me play it what I just did we'll see what happens and uh she I guess listened and but continued to do what she was coming there to do which was to check the microphones and so forth and she also checks Acoustics on places where we play she has a knack for doing that so uh I didn't know whether she really liked it or not she really didn't give any kind of indication one way or the other yes so um I said okay fine that was a moment and then a couple weeks later at the time I was working as director of credit for a computer company out in uh Fremont California in this Silicon Valley Silicon Valley Bay Area and I had a doctor's appointment that particular day so I had left work early I was coming home I heard the phone ringing as I was opening the door in the apartment went over to the phone said hello she said hi uh V yeah she said hi this is Deon

warart how did she he my number oh my God so I guess my brother gave her the number and she said uh yeah I really like what I heard uh the other day at the uh rehearsal and I was wondering if you'd like to go on a world tour with

me wow I paused just like I'm pausing now and had to think real fast okay I am in charge of 26 people nationwide at various branches of this company I report to the chairman and president how do I okay I'll do it yeah took two seconds right I'll worry about that later okay yes I'll do it chance of a lifetime exactly that's why I made that decision yeah yeah okay any any musician or people who don't really love accounting will be like that's a no-brainer but I understand you have responsibilities but exactly that's those are a lot harder to come by those opportunities right right wow which you know kind of um leads me back to the question yes we talked about all your accomplishments as a musician but that's not all you did oh no yeah you and we we before the show we kind of chat a little bit we had a little bit of a common um uh profession or you know area so what other jobs have you had besides being a musician oh my goodness uh after touring with the Del Phonics that was in early 70s I came home and my mother said well you can't sit around the house you're going to have to be doing something okay so yeah mother knows best right so she said I've already made some phone calls and I want you to go downtown and go visit uh Dr Watkins is his name he's at the school district of Philadelphia you catch the bus you know how to get downtown and go there and go talk to him and he's going to put you in a position said but Mom I don't I've never taught any kids before you can do this don't worry about that I said okay fine so I went downtown talked to him and I started in a title one reading aid position and ended up working for the school district for five years and different levels of work so uh teacher Aid reading aid non-teaching assistant um at various levels kindergarten up through 12th grade and uh after five years I said okay you know I need a break from students for a while and I'd ALS o started a non well I was a co-founder of a nonprofit organization in Philadelphia which had a Music Workshop as part of the Youth Organization and we worked with um people in the community who wanted to put a band together some were relatives cousins and so forth and uh helped them put their Rhythm Section together sure and we did some shows at the facilities that we had access to and and just brought the community in it was great for five years while I was working for the school district yeah and and you're also in finance and and accounting type so so many different uh additional hats that you wore you're right yes um Val we would love to hear some of your music would you play some for us absolutely let's go okay lead

away so Val I heard you describe your music as Groove Jazz yes can you show us Groove Jazz yeah this is one that started it all it's called Groove [Music]

grette

[Music]

there you go it's hard not to with it you know keeps a little bounce going for sure yeah what else you got oh let's see uh next album after that one uh was on colors of so Soul EP and it was the first single from that album called maybe so uh kind of goes a little bit like

this

so there you go one more okay uh I'm going to take it out of GrooVe Jazz now okay and do another form of Music which a lot of people like and it's called Blues okay so I decided one day to write my own blues song and it goes a little like this and it's called I want to be

cool

just the other day I met a pretty girl and said H she looked at me and said you better keep on walking by this happens every day I wonder what I'm doing wrong I need some loving and I just can't wait too long I don't know weekends just trying to find some part in life but the only thing is I'm staying up all through the night it shouldn't be this way I feel like I'm a loser now cuz all I need is someone just to show me how love and hug you to want to squeeze you do everything I can to try to please you I I just won't be no fool girl I want to be

cool you're cool yay thank you so much for sharing your music pleas that's wonderful thank you thank you that was wonderful thank you so much yes glad you enjoyed that so much more to ask so about music is played a big part of your life and you're you're clearly passionate about it how has music personally impacting

you physically emotionally spiritually mentally all the above um first of all I was I guess gifted with the ability of having what's called near to Perfect Pitch so I think one of the things we talked about earlier was which way do I usually go when I compose whether it be with lyrics or with music I've always kind of focused on music because when I listen to music as I mentioned I usually block out lyrics and I'm listening to the structure of music and I've always been that way primarily because I can tell when I first listen to a song what key it's in and as I listen more and from the key then I'm now I'm listening to the chord structure okay that's a major no that's a minor okay then it's going from there to uh D Minor then from there to F major 7 and then from there oh no it's a ninth okay F major 9 oh no it's 11 so my mind is constantly calculating what I'm hearing wow and it it it it became nerve-wrecking to some people especially when I'm on stage performing with a band I would look over sometimes and this has happened a few times over at the guitarist your g strings Out Of Tune and we're playing in Midstream in the song and he's like what it's g g g string yeah what you're you have a sharp sharp hearing for for sound yeah because within chords that a guitarist may be playing I can tell if it's flat or sharp it's just not yeah correct so aside from the the technical aspect of the music you mentioned that it it can impacts you emotionally spiritually how how so well for example when I go to

sleep music will continue to evolve in my brain so I could be sleeping and I'm decoding a song because it's something that I want to either learn or I'm going to use part of those types of cord structures in a song that I want to compose uh when I was younger sometimes I would get up at 6:00 in the morning 6:30 and go to the organ turn it on everybody else was sleep my mother would hear this the organ coming on she oh he's at it again and I would sit there and just start playing something that was just in my head because I it was going on all night long but from an emotional standpoint I think it also kept me very calm most of the time and you're in your elements yes and I noticed as I got older that I can use Music whenever there's an anxious moment that I'm feeling tense about uh or if I'm upset about something or someone's kind of ticked me off about whatever uh where's my you I just put some headphones on and just listen to music and I'm I'm fine understand so music is important to you but why do you think music is important to everyone well for the same reasons because uh you know in the world we live today there's so much going on all the time um from being in high-tech for years working in finance I noticed how things evolved in society that we at one point were very simple and the technology olog we had we had these huge phones that were Wireless for the longest time they became smaller more compact the um computer chips that were being used in computers now in phones and so forth became smaller but more powerful smart exactly so as things evolved I also noticed that technology can be a friend or an element of pain and disguise because we are getting too much information too fast and we're trying to absorb everything and that then causes us to be more anxious more nervous and it I think affects people in a bad way sometimes if you're not careful about how you utilize technology again music from my standpoint offsets that and I found with younger students that I either teach privately or work with through the music Foundation f2f that they may come either to our music camp or when I go to them for music lessons they don't seem like they're comfortable but by the time I'm done either with the music lesson or through a session at Camp Smiles are coming up and they're feeling more joyful they're more relaxed and I know the music is doing that yeah I also hear that like music is a universal language AB it transcends um culture and and and boundaries so yes and you you know sometimes music can make me just dance or just let me mellow so yeah it really can impact yeah and we see that in every culture um every every country that there is some form of Music Somewhere In A Country yes so Val it seems like you were able to receive training as you were um growing up and was the training you received common to to students at your time your age or did you were you able were you given special access either through your parents or your mother's uh investment um what what was your training like and is a common place yeah it was a little both because at the time the school district of Philadelphia was offering music lessons to any students that wanted to participate uh not everyone of course took advantage of that but um those that did were able to increase their skill MH through private lessons mhm or from just working hard during the course of the school year so okay so what do you see music education now um compared to the time because sometimes I I would see you know like the Grammys they they raise money for music education because that's often times where budget cuts happen um where do you see music education now in our school system um dependent upon the state it has dwindled quite a bit um I just had a conversation with a band director where he U mentioned to uh parents that there was a 50% cut wow that's significant on the budget so the students wouldn't be able to go to other uh marching band assignments for the school year or wouldn't be able to do different programs that they would be able to do prior and that disturbs me because it's so important I think for students who are moving forward in music and want to continue to not have the ability to perform more and to have an option to go further with their career and these are students usually at the Middle School level or high school and then they need something to do when they graduate from high school they'd have to go work for McDonald's or somewhere that it's it's not conducive to what they were doing yeah and it's very depressing I'm sure for a lot of young people who are facing this so so f2f is your um non for-profit foundation so tell us what f2f stands for okay first I'm going to give credit to God because he's the one that woke me up at 3 o'clock in the morning with this name um I had been working with a good friend of mine she's actually our what I consider our ameritus board member uh her name is Nelly Dodie and she's a retired Houston ISD music therapist I met her during a performance with a Mental Health Organization here in Houston and I was uh performing for their Gala and I heard her talking to people about U music education and that she was involved with an organization called the Texas black music educators Association which is uh a segment of the Texas music educators Association for the state and it interested me because of Education being important to me as well especially from a music standpoint and that she was involved so I said can I get your phone number so we can talk a little more about this and it turned out that she had wanted to do something similar to what f2f is doing now with other people but they didn't seem too interested in it and since she was retired she didn't really have the wherewithal to move forward with this on her own so the good thing is because she was also secretary for the Texas black music educators Association that she told me she said well I have some templates for structure of a nonprofit organization similar to what we have if you'd like to do this but she said you're going to have to make a decision either you're going to continue as a professional recording artist artist performing or spend time to devote to this organization it's going to take a lot of time from you that's a big fork in the road yeah so it took a few months for me to just weigh this both ways and I came out to where I am now that I can always do recording that's easy to do and there was actually an artist years ago that did somewhat similar his name was Marvin Gay Marvin Gay did not do a lot of live performances until later on in his career prior to that he was doing a lot of Records a lot of very famous records with various artists U from mtown and I think at some point someone asked well how come you're not doing live performances you should be out performing well I'm really not interested in that but then changed his mind later and said okay yeah I'll go out and do something so again from a performance standpoint that is something that I really love and I may do that at some point and just say okay I'm going to do a tour and I've just talked about this last week I'm thinking about it but I want to make sure that f2f music Foundation is formed structured operational and able to continue without me being there dayto day so form f2f Faith to form right that name came again at three o'clock in the morning when I needed a name for this new nonprofit and the name Faith to form came in my mind and just stuck there just kept going over over faith to form faith and I sat up on the side of the bed I okay uh Lord what are you telling me what does this mean first one was Faith to form young Leaders of Tomorrow Faith to form confidence in younger people who want to have a music career because I've always wanted to give back so it tied into what I wanted to do um Faith to form um academic structure for students to build their academic um abilities Faith to form uh confidence in students and I just had answer after answer after answer just continued I okay I guess that's what it's going to be interesting it's not only your faith to help form the students but it's also for the students maybe to build their own faith to form themselves exactly wow what that's NE that's it's always so neat to hear about how the names names me so much what's in the name right that's that is so interesting right yeah so tell us how does uh who exactly does faith to form um who are we forming well we've been focused on younger generation of Music students okay um I have worked with some Elementary School students but I do that from a private lesson standpoint right now Middle School is where we are targeting as well as high school yeah but there's an interesting gap between the two levels of students generally middle school students are enthused about instruments and learning how to play because they their minds are still open to exploration of a musical instrument and the sounds and how it feels and learning how to play where when they get into high school now there's a different level of distraction that comes into play and I found that most high school students are now planning for their career outside of school and they're confused not knowing what they want to do and they really don't want to spend time with music because they're not sure if that's going to give them a lucrative career when they leave school yes so I'd like to be able to work with both students both levels to be able to help those that are in high school find their ways so that they know that once they come through uh freshman into Junior and senior level that there is a career path that they can take in music so it doesn't necessarily have to be as a performer a lot of people think that if you're going to be in music well you're trying to be a a superstar or whatever and not necessarily because not everybody can be a performer it's the same thing with sports as well um I've had this discussion with u many sports um athletes and so forth that have foundations as well and they've said that not every student is going to be an NBA player or NFL player granted we understand that but the selection of people to be professional is so small that a lot of times students will get disenchanted about it because they know that it's probably not going to be them so then they give up and that's I think really sad because it could be different they could have more potential that they realize exactly so what type of programs does f2f offer to um you know Rising music Musical music students sure well what I call our Flagship program is called the instrument fund program so our goal is to raise money and we would prefer to approach corporations uh businesses philanthropic organizations to donate to our 501c3 nonprofit and we call ourselves an a public charitable nonprofit educational and Performing Arts organization so that we cover the gamut of Performing as well as education and by building this fund of money that we're then able to buy at a discounted rate a brand new instrument for a student that is deserving of it uh underserved disadvantaged students that their families just cannot afford the investment of an instrument that we'll provide that instrument for them and then also Mentor them through their continuing education with school it's hard to start something when you don't have the tools and the instrument to to actually practice on yeah and there's a gap that we see too in schools where students who do not have their own instrument and can't afford to get it they may borrow an instrument from someone and it's usually uh used not in the best condition and they struggle with it or they're renting an instrument and it's a struggle for the family to pay this rental fee all the time yes I've even had one parent uh mention to me that they she wasn't aware that there was going to be a credit check involved to rent oh wow well I guess there were small Investments yeah and that was disturbing for his parent so that's one area that prevents a student from being as good as their Peer who may have their own instrument the other point of this is if they're either borrowing or renting an instrument during the summer months after summer break they have to return the instruments back to school inventory usually so during those months of Summer they go dayto day with no practice at all they have nothing to work with then when they come back to school they have to prepare for competitions that's coming up and now they get the instrument back but they're behind in being able to play as well as a student that has had an instrument to play during the summer when they don't have school don't have any you know uh level of homework and so forth that interrupts the time that they would have to be able to practice so of course they struggle through the year and then most of the time they don't make competition because they just haven't had the skill level that they needed it's more of an environmental reasons as opposed to their own personal skills if they were given Equitable access to to instruments as some of their peers they could be as good if not better right so you're you're leveling the playing field a little bit for for those those students yeah from a musical standpoint and also academically because then music encourages a higher level of concentration and focus so usually students who are playing an instrument constantly do better in math they do better in history and science and all their curriculum in school because again the concentration level is stronger M but if they have these gaps of time when they're not using it instrument MH they're on video games or they're outplaying You activities and so forth and that doesn't help when it comes from academic standpoint so so I see you also offer um music festivals and concerts yes and is that for give them a a chance to be on the stage and perform more of a real life uh what could be yeah and it's interesting that you mention that because that is now one of the programs that we're about to launch we've been wanting to do this for the last three years planning to launch this program but because of coid we had to pull back knowing that students are not going to be able to be all together to perform so what we've done in the meantime is kept the instrument fund program as again our Flagship program where we do this 247 year round but then we also offer clinics and workshops so that we can work within to schools to help band directors in cases where they may need some professional help to help the students in their confidence and ability to play also the music summer camp which is a two-week camp that we've been doing for the last couple years in partnership with Houston Community College and that also helps the students to have that summertime yes like a infusion of of skills training exactly and confidence level and we also incorporate stem into that program program and then now with the music festivals and concerts those students who have been awarded instruments who have participated in the workshops and Clinics or the music summer camp now have the ability to perform on stage with recording artists professional musicians and artists that come from all over the world around the country to support our organization and what we're doing to raise funds that's essentially what this program will do it'll be a fundraiser for f2f to continue our mission of helping students through our programs but then also giving these students the confidence level to play before an audience their families their friends strangers that they've never known who can then appreciate their skill and give them that confidence they need to say yes I want to continue doing that which is the same thing that I got just like when you when you performed when you were in front of a crowd you're like I like this right and you if you didn't have that opportunity you may not have known that's right that was something that really you were passionate about right what a what a full circle you start with the instrument the tools that they can use and then you train them on how to use it and be good at it and then it can perform right and with professionals alongside of professionals that's such a that that is a full circle yes wow that's interesting that's a lot of programming with f and you certainly can't do this alone who are who helps you well we have a board and excuse me most of the uh board members are actually everyone that works with me are volunteers uh we have no employees but the board members consist of a professional recording artist as myself her name is Paula Aon and she's very well known throughout the world basically traveling uh constantly perform performing and recording um Nelly Dodie I mentioned earlier she's retired but she assists with advice pretty much she's not really too active with h what we do but she does participate with our summer camp she loves that and then we have our vice president Mr Ray shillin and uh he assists uh with connections pretty much to help and especially even now with the music festivals and concerts program to help us get this off the ground and move forward um then we have uh M Lewis my wife who is our treasur and secretary ah very important job yeah yeah and since she's here with me most of the time we do a lot of the planning and organizing and contacting emails and uh she's also great with Graphics design so when we have to do flyers and things like that she loves doing that so it's been very helpful do you have a particular memorable um student that have thrived under the program and that you like would like to share with us there's a few actually um and some of this information is on our website okay uh there's one student that I teach privately I think he's 11 or 12 years old and he said he wanted to do a podcast so his parents bought him a set of headphones and he's got his camera on his computer and his microphone and and uh we did it um I think on Skype yes one day where he recorded from his bedroom and I was here in the U in the house and recorded a podcast so his yes audio podcast is on our website and then the other student is inan Canon and I've been working with him since he was a junior at Dallas High School uh not too regularly but enough where I could support him as he needed U some advice or uh Direction on what to do as he graduated he graduated this year uh from Dallas U has been in competition uh with UIL program wow uh he's a percussionist but a very awesome pianist just very Polished in terms of classical music I mentioned to him at one point um what his desire was after he graduated high school and he said he wanted to go to a Music Conservatory so I made some connections with friends of mine who are Italian concert pianists one in particular was Francesco at testy and Francesco has uh enabled him to come visit Italy with his parents and visit with four different professors who are considered maestros mhm and audition with them at their homes wow he did that uh right after Thanksgiving and he is now about to start at the Conservatory of Music in perusia Italy I think he goes actually back into uh to start school next week wow yeah but U wow he's very accomplished pianist what what an opportunity and what a connection wow that's that's got to feel really good it has I've come to tears at times just thinking about how I've been able to assist a young student to further his career yes hers as well because I have a couple students that I teach privately that are girls and they are learning so well that I can see that they're going to do well and I give them opportunities as well when people may contact me contact me for um performance uh I think it was a couple years ago the um Harvard Business Club of Houston contacted me about doing their Galla and along with my band performing they asked if I had any students that I work with that could play for the cocktail hour prior to the Galla and I said just so happens I do so I selected a few students to come to the hotel give them opportunity right and we uh had a grand piano there set up for them and parents came with them of course and they had their suits and their fancy dresses on they I told them bring the music book so you can you know play a few songs for the people and everyone loved it they wow these students who are whose students are these oh they're Bel lewiss and that made me feel really good that's awesome so our viewers or our listening audience how can they help how they how can they help say f2f or organizations like f2f because our listeners can come from any part of the country well by being a uh 501c3 nonprofit organization we have to operate based on donations at times I will donate of course back to my own organization but I reach out to people to let them know that we need donations to operate this is one of the reasons why we don't have employees so what I've really been wanting to do is more fundraising activities uh with our uh music festival that we're planning we've been doing this for as I mentioned you know for the last three years yes um but could not because of coid but now that we're moving forward we have it scheduled for February 21st 24th I'm sorry February 24th at Smart Financial Center oh okay and uh so far we have the Saria Middle School honors Orchestra who has agreed to perform they will open the festival uh Deon Warick has committed to coming in town to perform with her Trio and I have uh various smooth artists smooth jazz artists that are coming in from California and that's Michael Paulo um uh Greg kukas and Paul Brown they're coming in from California Paul a is coming in from New York to perform and we have a zido musician his name is Ruben Moreno he's also going to perform on the show and uh neat yeah so we're looking forward to having and your students can perform right exactly well the orchestra will perform Orchestra oh yes the start so so so we can help by either donating directly to the organization or um buy the tickets to to see the Festival um so we can support through the ticket sales yes and if there is any businesses corporations that are interested in participating in the form of sponsors that will help too that's an immediate need because of there's so much expense involved with being able to do a concert like this it would be advantageous to businesses to be able to advertise their brand and support at a festival like this where it's a five hour uh uh Festival it's going to run from 400 p.m. until 900 p.m. and they'll have their banners there we'll have opportunities for booths to be set up in the lobby and um again it's just I think a very lucrative opportunity for a business to be able to uh launch or advertise their brand name there so we're reaching out to local businesses as well as nationally based businesses to U participate as sponsors and they can do either or they can either um pay according to the sponsorship levels that we have or just make a donation to f2f to support the program sure so Val we're coming to an end of our our conversation and I always like to give you an opportunity to share with the audience if they didn't hear anything else was that one thing you really want them to to have grab of this during this podcast well first of all to look us up we have a website and it is www. f2f Music foundation.org and on our website we have a lot of the stories that we covered during the podcast there's pictures there's videos uh there's a meet the team tab so they can learn more about me and all of the board members and what our backgrounds are and what our mission is what our mission statement is all that's on the website and we also have a merchandise tab so people who may be interested in buying coffee cups there's some mug uh we have T-shirts we have pillows we have coasters all types of things and a portion of those proceeds that are used to buy this merchandise comes back to f2f to help us with our programs and our mission he you definitely could use their support well Val we thank you so much for spending so much time and allowing us to be your beautiful home thank you and and we just hope that the festival goes really well and more and more students get connected to to not only training it may be opportunity of a lifetime yeah keep in mind also this Festival is a program so it's going to be annual every year okay so something to look forward to for our calendar for repeats right exactly okay thank you so much thank you I hope you like this episode I don't know if you realize behind each episode there's a lot of things happening the pre-production planning the post production editing and the interview itself it will really encourage us if you like it video and hit the Subscribe thank

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