On a balmy Monday night in mid-August, 60 musicians aged 11 to 70-something gathered in the performance pavilion of the Heart of Los Angeles’ Arts and Recreation Center in Lafayette Park in central L.A. Violin cases stood upright on the floor, along with burgundy cello cases and black music stands. The entire back wall of the room was open, accordion-style, to the night air.
Conductor Daniel Suk handed out sheet music for Maurice Ravel’s “Boléro,” then stepped onto the conductor’s block. The room fell silent. Suk raised his baton. The clear, silvery sound of a single flute, expertly played, rang out. A teenage boy on a snare drum brought in the beat. You could hear the mix of professionally trained performers and those with less experience. As other wind instruments joined, the rising swell of “Boléro” floated into the night, mingling with the thump of a basketball and the shouts of players in a nearby pickup game under court lights.
This was the first rehearsal of the second season of Heart of L.A.’s Eisner Intergenerational Orchestra. An initiative launched last year by the Eisner Foundation with initial support of $300,000, the orchestra is free for all musicians, open to all ages and requires no try-outs.
By the end of the orchestra’s first season, 120 musicians had joined, largely from the ethnically diverse immigrant neighborhood around Lafayette Park, but also from wealthier west L.A. The orchestra had played five free concerts around the city, including one at the Ace Hotel for Jane Eisner’s surprise birthday party. The Eisner Foundation had basically incubated the city’s first, serious intergenerational music program, bringing intergenerational programming — one of the hottest movements in aging philanthropy — to the city in a super-inclusive, creative way. “It was phenomenally successful, and we loved it,” said Trent Stamp, the Eisner Foundation’s CEO.
Now, it was time to grow.
From one orchestra to a full-fledged music program
The idea for an intergenerational orchestra in L.A. first came about in 2013, when Stamp, along with Michael and Jane Eisner, heard the New Jersey Intergenerational Orchestra, one of five finalists for the foundation’s Eisner Prize for Intergenerational Excellence. The experience raised some important questions for the Los Angeles-based foundation, like: Isn’t L.A. the center of entertainment? Why isn’t there an intergenerational orchestra in Southern California, where we work?
With those thoughts in mind, Stamp reached out to Tony Brown, the exuberant, energetic long-time CEO of Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA), and asked if he’d be interested in creating an intergenerational orchestra. The Eisner Foundation had long funded the youth-empowerment-based nonprofit, but when the foundation shifted to a focus on intergenerational funding, that support ended — for the time being. “We stayed in touch, but we weren’t funding it,” Stamp said. “We knew they were doing great work and we were looking for new ways to partner.”
Stamp took Brown to hear the New Jersey orchestra and meet the people there. Brown, a native of L.A. who had played clarinet from third through eighth grade, was excited and inspired. “In my 20 years doing this work here, I’ve worked with families who struggle through poverty, and I’ve noticed that they are living multigenerationally, all under one roof, but [they’re] not necessarily connected,” he said.
“We have seniors locked up in boxes — you go visit grandma or grandpa on the weekend. When I was in New Jersey, and I saw youth playing with elders, I could picture my families at Heart of L.A., and the L.A. community, being able to benefit in that way,” Brown said. “There have to be ways to connect people and create natural pathways for commonality. Music unites us.”
COVID delayed plans to get the orchestra going until 2021. But by August of that year, Brown had tapped Daniel Suk as conductor and recruited teaching artists and members. In the first season, the orchestra grew quickly — and quickly got good. Stamp reached back out to Brown to talk about the future of the program. Brown knew what he wanted to do: launch an intergenerational choir and an intergenerational big band in 2022/2023. The Eisner Foundation agreed to this vision, reupping its commitment this year to $1.8 million for all three intergenerational music groups.
While the orchestra is theoretically open to people of all skill levels, in reality, there are a lot of great, well-trained musicians in L.A. looking for a place to play. This is a plus for listeners, who can hear a free concert that transports them with the power and majesty of a pricey evening at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. But being in a room with clearly talented musicians may have made real novices “weed themselves out,” said Brown, who credits the skill level of some of these musicians to being in L.A. and to the strong music programming in L.A.’s public schools prior to the 1970s and 1980s. “There are families that never had a musical instrument or instruction at this level. It didn’t feel accessible to the many people across our city and county who need to be able to come together through the power of music,” he said.
Even people without a lot of training can match pitch. An intergenerational choir seemed like a way to include more people. As of early September of this year, 50 people have officially joined the choir and a few dozen are in the big band.
The intergenerational music program in Lafayette Park not only brings generations together, but it also expands the vibrancy of the neighborhood and sense of possibility for local residents. “I used to see people being beaten up on the streets around here,” said Marielle Constantino, HOLA’s 21-year-old intergenerational program coordinator, who grew up near the park. “Having a safe space to practice music in this park is amazing. I am so passionate about this because I didn’t have access to any of this growing up in this neighborhood.”
Intergenerational philanthropy’s rising star in an age of division
For people and projects focused on aging, intergenerational programming is having its star turn. Motivating this movement are changing demographics, the COVID lockdown, increased longevity and ongoing research about the ill effects of loneliness. Some 27% of Americans live alone as of 2020, and loneliness has been linked to a slew of physical and psychological problems.
Philanthropic funders are certainly throwing their dollars behind the notion that connecting the generations will solve all sorts of societal ills. Retirement Research Foundation’s Foundation for Aging, for example, recently selected “social and intergenerational connectedness” as one of its six priority funding areas. Encore.org, which began two decades ago as a movement to help older adults retain meaning and purpose in the second half of their lives, has now pivoted to focus on intergenerational funding and is changing its name to reflect this shift in October.
In the Empire State, the New York Foundation for Senior Citizens launched a COVID-inspired program connecting teens to isolated older folks in a variety of ways. It also has a foster grandparents program and a collaboration with the Theater Development Fund to get teens and elders together on Zoom for movie nights.
While sharing screen time with a teenager may seem like an unconventional tool for promoting healthy aging, the intergenerational movement as a whole offers philanthropy some good options for effecting social change. Intergenerational funding can be both more efficient and more effective than age-segregated approaches, Stamp said. “It’s more efficient because, to quote the motto of Foster Grandparents, ‘It’s every dollar spent twice.’” The Eisner Foundation, like the best intergenerational funders and programs, sees both cohorts as giving and receiving. Rather than embodying a traditional, one-sided, volunteer-recipient relationship, intergenerational programs tap all participants to be contributors.
In the U.S., a high percentage of older folks live alone in part because of enduring cultural tropes like hyper-individualism, an excessive emphasis on independence and youth-worship — values that can highlight division between generations and generate friction. Intergenerational programming, however, can be more effective because of the positive differences between youth and old age.
We all know the advantages of being young and energetic, and our society certainly lauds these. But older people have other assets — like decades of experience, which translate into real skills and knowledge. Age brings cognitive changes, too, such as long-term thinking, patience, and as some research shows, a growing sense of gratification from serving others.
“For older folks, the younger folks push you a little bit. They have drive, energy, technique,” said Kevin Robb, music director at HOLA and the artistic director of the newly formed big band. “Older folks have wisdom and behaviors, like not talking when the director is talking. You’re going to get so much more music played and enjoy yourself more if you follow a certain discipline. Old people model these behaviors, which is the most effective kind of teaching.”
Funding intergenerational programming can also be a way to push back against a broader climate of division and suspicion. “I think people are frustrated and saddened by the problems in our society and the way this can make it difficult to get new programs going,” Stamp said. “We don’t seem to be able to find a common ground along so many lines. These intergenerational programs are a unique way to unite people and develop a shared vision. They let us sidestep some of the divisive issues. We can say, ‘We’re going to make a commitment to the young and the old,’ and then benefit our community as a whole.”
For Brown, intergenerational arts-focused philanthropy also sends an important message about the value of all communities, not just the wealthy. “All human beings, particularly youth, deserve access to high-quality programs. That’s the basis of public education. But without philanthropy, the rich neighborhoods drive further toward success while less wealthy neighborhoods fall behind,” he said. “The infusion of philanthropic support in neighborhoods like this signals that America still cares about all of its people.”