Education Week: Ballam spreads music with 'Opera By Children'

1. PROVO, Utah — Giving more children the opportunity to explore music and the arts — including writing and composing their own operas — is the goal noted Mormon singer Michael Ballam shared during the final session of his "Music and the Mind" class during BYU Education Week.Ballam — known to many Latter-day Saints as the LDS Church's "musical missionary"— and his tenor voice have become a staple at Education Week. Last year he was notably missing from the roster as he attended the Puccini Opera Festival in Italy. He spent time there with local Saints who assisted him in making a call to President Thomas S. Monson to sing him "Happy Birthday" in Italian.This year the audience joined in singing Ballam — and, at Ballam's behest, President Monson — a medley of "Happy Birthday/I Am a Child of God." In return, Ballam sang the entirety of the haunting, beautiful English folk song "Babes in the Woods."The song relates the story of the two young princes murdered in the Tower of London by King Richard III. "The people couldn't talk about the murders for fear of King Richard, so the song was how they expressed their pain," Ballam said. "Music is a powerful means by which messages (can be relayed)."Music also has a powerful effect on memory. Ballam pointed out that the song has been passed down from "grandmother to grandson" for 600 years.Ballam related a story of Ester Ferguson, a woman who housed him and his family while he was singing in the San Francisco Opera. Years after the Ballam family had moved away, Ester fell victim to Alzheimer's disease.Ballam went to visit her and was warned by attendants that she might not recognize let alone respond to him. Ester was quiet, but Ballam was certain she knew it was him."I said 'I want to sing something for you — a song I know your husband used to sing to you,'" Ballam recalled. He began to sing the first line of "Some Enchanted Evening" from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "South Pacific."Ballam would pause at the end of each phrase in the song and ask Ester which way he needed to go when singing the next note — was it up or down in pitch? Ester started to point up or down with one finger and he would follow her lead. At the end of the song, Ester spoke, telling him he had sung beautifully. The attendants and her children were shocked.Tender musical experiences, like the one with Ester, prompted Ballam to take a long look at public education in Utah and the decline of music and art programs. "They are always the first to get cut," Ballam said.Despite the decline, he helped develop a program called Opera By Children through the Utah Opera Festival Company.The program allows for children to write and compose their own operas. They create the story, the characters, the costumes — everything. It was denied funding upon conception because authorities felt they money should be used to acquire professional musical acts to perform for the children.Ballam disagreed. "If you listen to a piece of music, that's nice. If you take a piano lesson, that's active," he said. "But if you compose a piece of music yourself, you're creating."He polled the audience on how many had been told as children that they "couldn't sing." Most of those in attendance raised their hands. "That's so sad," Ballam said. "Because everyone can sing. We can all do it. Even when President Spencer W. Kimball had his larynx removed, he stood up at his last conference and sang."He outlined the only three rules that Opera By Children has:Nobody gets hurt
2. Everybody participates
3. The children do the work — not the teachers

Ballam shared another story, this one about a boy named Johnny who was branded by his schoolteacher a "troublemaker." When Opera By Children came to work with the students, the teacher tried to warn Ballam about Johnny. "But I told her not to tell me anything," Ballam said. "I didn't want any biases going in."When the children were creating the parts, one character was set aside as the villain. Ballam asked the children what sort of things the villain would say to show the audience he was not a nice person. Johnny volunteered a selection of words that would "make a sailor blush." The class gasped; the teacher buried her head in her hands.Ballam kept his head, however, and reminded Johnny of the first rule: Nobody gets hurt. "I asked him 'Is it possible that these words might hurt somebody?'" Ballam said. Then he asked Johnny who he knew that was going to come watch their opera after it was finished."My grandma," Johnny replied. Ballam asked him if his grandmother used that kind of language; Johnny shook his head. When Ballam asked him what his grandmother would do if they used those words, Johnny said that she would walk out of the room.Ballam then suggested that Johnny choose different words for the villain that wouldn't hurt someone. As Johnny came up with alternate words, the class applauded him. Johnny beamed. After that, he was no longer the class troublemaker."He was within the safety of art," Ballam said. Opera By Children has an acronym, TRAG, they follow: Trust, Risk, Affirm, and Growth. "Johnny received affirmation from his classmates and his teachers for the first time — not just attention. He was then able to grow."Nurturing creativity in children is critical, especially at a young age, to not only cultivate the imagination, but to foster their sense of community. "Band, orchestra, choir, plays ... these contribute to a creative community," Ballam said. "We need to remember that the arts are were a gift to us from God."Those interested in learning more about Opera By Children or supporting the program can visit www.operabychildren.org.

E-mail: eschmuhl@desnews.com