Noteworthy Philadelphia is a budding non-profit organization that aims to support music education and enrichment for young adults in the Greater Philadelphia Area. Along with helping members grow, develop, and hone both their individual and group vocal performance abilities, our main goal is to create opportunities for young adult musicians to improve their music theory, audiation, harmony, and music technology skills by facilitating learning through rehearsal, the creation of music video projects, and our ever-growing list of enrichment workshops. By focusing primarily on a cappella vocal performance, our model allows for access and equity with all members; however, we infuse instrument-accompanied performance numbers into our secondary set to supplement both members’ various skill enrichment and the variety of our performance offerings for potential gig bookings.
After college or leaving the military, many young adults start working full time and it can be challenging to continue one’s love for the arts and find community without the structured social environments and shared experiences their former institutions offer. Finding community or participating in the arts as a young adult takes time and requires effort and intentionality; however, music transcends language and culture, evokes emotional resonance, illuminates common interests, offers structure and collective participation, and helps establish identity so that young adults who participate in group music enrichment can both immerse themselves in art and find community.
Music education and enrichment can have a significant impact [9] on young adults’ cognitive [2] [3], emotional [4] [8], social [5] [6] [7], and cultural development, as well as providing opportunities for future advancement in either the semi-professional or even professional music industries.
Many of our music educator colleagues know the importance of music education [1] and arts enrichment in youth development and music therapy, but Noteworthy considers the social impact of access to music programs, music workshops, and creative expression for those who’ve aged out of formal K-16 music and arts education and school partnerships.
Also, for those who seek to be professional musicians, artists, or performers, the experiences learned with Noteworthy can make music careers in the either the performance or production areas of the music industry become more realistic as members continue to demonstrate growth in, professional commitment to, and passion for their craft.
- Mission
Have you heard of Make Music Day? It’s an international music festival held annually on the summer solstice, and Noteworthy facilitates one of our largest public workshops that day where we teach Philadelphians and their friends, children, and colleagues how to sing a cappella in a group setting- bring in harmonies, help them learn the basics of audiation, and show them a brief glimpse of music theory in explaining how what they see on the sheet music in front of them relates to the melodies they hear and make with us.
This is an example of a large external workshop, but Noteworthy hosts smaller internal workshops with a varied set of objectives. Our internal workshops focus on standardizing the base level of music theory knowledge held by members of the group. Since we’ve admitted members who have degrees in music education as well as members who can sing yet can’t read sheet music, we focus on not just getting members up to speed with our set list, but also bringing them to a higher level of music knowledge, recognition, and excellence.
Performances are our current highest form of community engagement, yet members come to us with different levels of experience on stage, so we immediately aim to combat the classic concerns for our members such as stage fright, solo singing woes, resting a cappella face, and a general fear of public speaking with our model. We not only consistently encourage solo auditions but sometimes make creative solo assignments to highlight the beautiful voices in our group that our fans don’t always hear.
We put our members out in front whenever possible. We have them interact with audience members, make announcements at performances, and we encourage them to express their creativity while singing and actively display their joy of performing. Our audiences love to see the smiles, the interactions between members, and the creative blocking and choreography that accompany our music.
By being part of Philadelphia’s music scene, we are requested for and book gigs that range from a small a cappella set for strangers off the street to full concerts for family, friends, and fans. Philadelphia is great to us, and we plan to continue to be great to Philadelphia.
When it comes to growth and development for members in Noteworthy, diversity in membership and song selection help broaden members’ horizons and better their sociocultural appreciation. We receive requests for arrangements and encourage our members to try their hand at arranging and composing with various lessening levels of supervision as members grow in this skill. We not only create covers of songs, but also produce remakes, mashups, medleys, and remix arrangements as we grow closer to creating original music.
While we will always have the hits and the classics, we also make sure to inject more complex choral or obscure pieces and arrangements into our set to challenge our members to do more with their instrument and focus on aspects of music performance and theory that aren’t frequently accessed with popular music such as part independence within counterpoint. And we demonstrate and can teach the use of various music technologies and production skills for members and partners who want to improve in these areas.
One of Noteworthy’s Executive Board’s main goals is helping our members, both Gen Z and Millennial refine their professionalism, communication, and leadership abilities through policies and practices that support the development of power skills and through the fostering of young leaders with the creation of roles that subsidize management areas of the group that could use additional support.
- Impact
Current and former Notables have testified to the impact this organization has on their life and music.
We’re doing all we can to establish a sense of empowerment for our members (aka Notables) so they feel rewarded by their musical enrichment with us. Regardless of how many years a Notable stays with us, we view success by asking this question, “Are they a better musician now when they leave than when they joined and started?” Sometimes adult life gets in the way and Notables have to part ways with the group shortly after joining or unsuspectedly due to personal or professional circumstances; however, for those who have had intentional, active, dedicated tenures with us, short or long, when they leave, the answer is always yes.
In the external community, we’ve had great success partnering with other music groups and non-profits such as the Deaf Bunnys Band, West Chester University’s Under A Rest, and Keep Music Alive to name a few. We have a series of annual performances where loyal supporters regularly request us and we have a set of biennial concerts we rotate through where we invite our admirers and followers both virtually and in person throughout the Greater Philadelphia Area. We’ve performed from Haddonfield to Harrisburg, Passyunk to Perkiomen, and continue to book performances for festivals, fairs, charities, universities, weddings, and more. We look forward to remaining to be a well-connected, talented, diverse semi-professional organization and group that fills the community with the sound and colour of Philadelphia.
- Involvement
There are many ways to get involved with Noteworthy from membership to volunteer opportunities. Auditioning to join us as a prospective member is the most evident. Membership is a significant commitment, but definitely guarantees the biggest return on the investment of your time for practice not only at rehearsal but also on your own. You can check out our Auditions page to see which voice parts we’re currently looking for. Historically, we’ve definitely noted a deficit in traditionally male voice auditions from time to time, so we make rounds throughout the city for karaoke nights. You never know; Noteworthy might be at your local bar scouting for talent.
For those who aren’t able to make the time week to week, but still yearn to stretch their musical muscles every so often, we also look for volunteers to join us for one-off small group music video projects that we call “One Notable Minute” videos.
We also invite new partner organizations, musicians, and music groups with whom we can collaborate on music videos, workshops, projects, and performances in the future. We love working with our high school and collegiate a cappella counterparts and have a wealth of existing resources we’ve created as well as a combined 25 years of music and performing arts leadership experience within the Executive Board of Noteworthy alone that we hope to soon share based on their unique circumstances since we know not all organizations, schools, and groups have the same resources.
As Noteworthy continues to develop, one day though philanthropy, fundraising events, and donor support we hope to be able to augment our purview, brand, and reach to expand and not only give more young adults a sense of community, cultural enrichment, and the ability to hone their musical arts, but also expand to other audiences that focus on adults, parents, elder, and youth mentorship and advocacy with new workshops and outreach programs, performance types, and maybe even varied membership types and tiers.
- Wrap Up
Noteworthy wants to function as one of Philadelphia’s go-to organizations for young adult vocal music engagement and enrichment. As we continue to expand, we look forward to the support we’ll receive that will allow us to broaden our workshop scope, audiences, and offerings to engage with more of the community. Stick with us as we cultivate innovative strategy and partnerships, recruit new diverse and capable vocalists, and perform all over as a talented semi-professional organization and group that authentically represents the sound and colour of Philadelphia.
References:
National Association for Music Education - Benefits of Music Education: https://nafme.org/20-important-benefits-of-music-in-our-schools/
Harvard Health Blog - Music and Health: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/music-and-health
American Psychological Association - The Emotional Benefits of Music: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/11/music
Wang F, Huang X, Zeb S, Liu D, Wang Y. Impact of Music Education on Mental Health of Higher Education Students: Moderating Role of Emotional Intelligence. Front Psychol. 2022 Jun 14;13:938090. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.938090. PMID: 35783702; PMCID: PMC9240095.
Lundqvist-Persson C and Holmqvist G (2022) Music education contributes to development and personal change in young adults with disabilities. Front. Rehabilit. Sci. 3:1046480. doi: 10.3389/fresc.2022.1046480
Váradi, J. (2022). A Review of the Literature on the Relationship of Music Education to the Development of Socio-Emotional Learning. SAGE Open, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440211068501
Welch GF, Himonides E, Saunders J, Papageorgi I and Sarazin M (2014) Singing and social inclusion. Front. Psychol. 5:803. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00803
Saarikallio, S. (2011). Music as emotional self-regulation throughout adulthood. Psychology of Music, 39(3), 307–327. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735610374894
Benefits Of Learning and Playing Music For Adults – National Association of Music Merchants: https://www.nammfoundation.org/articles/2014-06-01/Benefits-learning-and-playing-music-adults