The Cornell Department of Music is very grateful to Ronni LaCroute, the Office of Ethics and Public Life, Vice-Provost for Undergraduate Education, and the Cornell University Council for the Arts for their early and generous support of the CU Winds Costa Rica Project.CU Winds
The Cornell University Wind Ensemble CU Winds, comprising up to 50 of Cornell’s best undergraduate wind and percussion players, returned to Costa Rica for a performing and outreach tour during Winter Break in January 2010. The CU Winds tour fulfills Cornell’s mission to unite education and service and deepen the educational lives of involved students.
Cornell’s Director of Wind Ensembles, Cynthia Johnston Turner, reached agreement with a number of key individuals in Costa Rica on the vision for this joint project. Costa Rican collaborators include North American Cultural Center executives Jerry Ledin and Manuel Arce; composer and performer Eddie Mora from the University of Costa Rica; Ricardo Vargas, National Director of Sistema Nacional Educacion Music (SiNEM), Miguel Pena, SiNEM director, Desamparados; Olman Chavez, Music Director, Liceo de Poas, Pablo Sunol, SiNEM director, Pavas; Willberth Vargas, Director of the San Isidro Conservatory; Rita Diaz, SiNEM director, Limon; and Lyn Statten, chair of the outreach committee of the Canadian Club of Costa Rica.
In January, 2010 CU Winds performed 11 concerts in 12 days, gave master classes and workshops at 5 schools and donated 95 instruments plus music books and accessories.
Matapalo Music School
Cultural and language exchanges are integral to the experience. CU WINDS students learn some Spanish in preparation for the Costa Rica tour. This deepens their experience and increases the opportunity to develop longer lasting friendships with the students they interact with in Costa Rica. CU Winds student leaders also aid in the planning and execution of travel and cultural exchange.
CU Winds offers undergraduate students an intense, transformative experience. Students are challenged to commit many months of work to the group’s goals of making music and performing service. They move from the known to the unknown and live in an environment in which they are expected to call upon and discover reserves which they were not aware were theirs to command. Professor Turner’s experience with similar groups shows that music is able to function as the critical tool to unify the group both internally and across cultures. In addition, students learn how, through their full commitment, that the group becomes larger than the sum of their individual identities, thus encouraging them to increase their own wills to achieve as well as their standards of performance and behavior.
Professor Turner has already initiated an active musical partnership in Costa Rica. CU Winds has commissioned Costa Rican composer, violinist, and University of Costa Rica faculty member, Eddie Mora, to compose 2 new pieces for Wind Ensemble that unites Costa Rica rhythms and other musical elements with modern Western Classical composing techniques.
CU Winds continues to accept donations of musical instruments in the United States that they then leave behind in Costa Rica. The Cornell students have several local (NY) partners to help with instrument reconditioning (if needed) and logistics. Plans for CU Winds/Costa Rica III in 2010 are already underway.
If you can contribute:
Please e-mail Cynthia Johnston Turner at cpj6 {at} cornell(.)edu with details and she will work with you on valuation, shipping, and gift receipt for tax purposes.
Your support will help enable Cornell students, both at the undergraduate and graduate level, to learn leadership, civic engagement, and the benefits of serving others through the CU Winds/Costa Rica project. If you would like to contribute financially, you can do so using the the secure online donation form with the designation “CU Winds/Service Learning”.