A Story of Music, Relationships, and Opportunity

By Craig Klonowski

My story of music, relationships, and opportunity began in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. Music was

always a crucial part of our household- from Tchaikovsky and Beethoven to Tom Waits and Captain

Beefheart. Thanks to my dad, most of my childhood memories are linked to this diverse soundtrack. I

believe that being exposed to a variety of music from classic rock to Broadway as a child helped me not

just appreciate music, but also helped me to create relationships and opportunities throughout my

whole life. At age 5, my mom started taking me to piano lessons, something she had enjoyed as a child.

At age 12, I joined my school orchestra with my twin sister, who was a violinist, and after my older sister

who played flute and trombone. Through high school, I had the privilege of studying at the Cleveland

Institute of Music and the Cleveland Music School Settlement. These orchestras gave me opportunities

to perform across the city and state, and even to travel Europe for performing as a freshman in high

school.

After graduating from The Ohio State University in music education, and obtaining my teaching

license, I was struggling to find a job. Struggling to find work as a public school teacher, I expanded my

private teaching studio. Building on the incredible experience I had in the pit orchestra of The College

Light Opera Company, I sought out new performing opportunities. I played with Ohio orchestras like

the Central Ohio, Springfield, Ashland and Lima Symphony Orchestras. During this time, my dad sent

me an old fashioned newspaper classified add clipping stating that a community theater production of

one of our favorite musicals, Cabaret, was looking for musicians. Cabaret was not just significant

because it created relationships that led to my Masters degree at Cleveland State, a job as assistant

director of education at the Cleveland playhouse, the opportunity to study with Charles Carleton of the
Cleveland Orchestra, and experiences as a graduate assistant, but it would ultimately connect me to

opportunity in New York City.

During my time at Cleveland State, I was approached by an old friend from high school, and through

that relationship had the opportunity to write an original score for his senior animation project, which

went on to win 2 college Emmys. Another CSU relationship, a trumpet player who also happened to be

a pilot for a small regional airline, led me to a job as a flight attendant. This new occupation gave me

the freedom and opportunity to respond to a musician friend from Ohio State, now teaching in New

York, who let me know that a school in Spanish Harlem was looking for a music teacher. As a flight

attendant, I had the opportunity and ability to fly out the next morning and take the interview and

finally pursue my teaching career.

A month later, I found myself driving with my bass, keyboard, and whatever fit in my car to start my

new chapter as a teacher at Esperanza Preparatory Academy. My story of music, relationships and

opportunity now continued in New York City as a teacher and a member of the greatest music

community in the world.

There are no words to describe the first year of teaching and there was nothing in my college

curriculum that prepared me for the reality of teaching in a New York City public school. If I had to use

an entertainment metaphor, it was a combination of The Real World, Survivor, and Game of Thrones.

Every day was a challenge to keep my head above water and keep up with insurmountable struggles

that came my way.

Being the first arts teacher at this very new school, I was faced with the advantages, flexibility and

challenges of creating a brand new music program. The challenges of teaching in a small new school

included things one would likely suspect: getting enough instruments, getting parents involved, and

even just creating lessons for hundreds of students on different academic and cognitive levels. Because

the school was so small, the administration filled my schedule by having me cooperatively teach English

and History, and even one semester of Science.

I found nearly 40 violins, violas, cellos and basses in a closet, and quickly became an amateur luthier. I

soon learned that in a new school like this I was up against great odds. 40 instruments was a great start,

but when teaching over 200 students without the means to rent or purchase their own instrument, this

was a great challenge. I created a system for sharing the instruments and loaning them so students

could practice. This established to me that I would not be able to do this on my own.

I started to work on building partnerships with as many community organizations as I could, like the

WQXR Instrument Drive (who donated instruments to our school), The Roundabout Theatre Company

and The Theater Development Fund (who provided theater classes, and access to Broadway shows),

The Martina Arroyo Foundation (who exposed our students to Opera), and The Park Avenue Armory

(who opened our students eyes to contemporary art and music). Through music, theater, art, and by

working with these partners and other teachers, I watched the walls drop away from my classroom and

from my students. By the end of the first year, our students performed at El Museo Del Barrio and at

the American Airlines Theater, and were able to showcase their newfound musicianship and passion for

the arts.
This was a proud moment for me, because as a kid I was lucky enough to be exposed to so many

different genres of art and music thanks to my parents. Through music, relationships and fostering the

opportunities of these partnerships, I was able to bring similar experiences to students in a community

that would otherwise not likely have access.

Over 7 years at EPA, I saw 6 principals, 3 of them in one year alone. There were literally hundreds of

teachers who came and went. This taught me patience, communication and how to build consistency

and relationships in my classroom independent of the school. Most importantly, I got to teach

thousands of students. As the school expanded to include grades 6-12, I watched them grow, both

literally and figuratively to become young adults. I was able to expose the students, many of which had

never held an instrument before, to classical music and technique, and we even expanded into Latin

and pop music. I introduced classes on song-writing, music theory (through the AP level), group piano,

and of course string orchestra.

Watching students overcome the many hurdles in their lives has been the most rewarding aspect of my

teaching. I have learned patience, compassion, communication and creativity that cannot be taught in

a college course. Listening to my students and how to shape my teaching to meet their needs is the

most creative art Ive learned. I have learned that every student is able to connect to music, and it is up

to me to help him or her find that connection.

Like being a part of any great ensemble, teaching is a process of listening, accommodating, leading,

following, adjusting, and finding a way to connect to the group while maintaining your essential part.

There are many challenges to teaching and many gaps in access to arts education in the city. As a result

in 2015, my husband Lukas Prokes, a clinical psychologist, and I started a non-profit organization, The
Half Full Institute, in order to do our part in filling some of these needs. Our mission is to help those

who help others. Through therapy and accessibility to the arts for all audiences, we strengthen,

recharge and revitalize individuals, families, schools and communities. We work with new teachers to

build and sustain their relationships with the students and ensure their mental health as educators

struggling in their first year of teaching. We are also forming a youth orchestra in order to give the

many disadvantaged students of this city the opportunities I was fortunate enough to have, including

access to instruments, private lessons, and ensemble rehearsals and performances.

During my time in New York, I have not lost my passion for performance. In fact, through playing,

seeing so many kinds of art, and sharing them with my students, Im continually inspired. I joined Local

802 in my second year here, and have been pursuing performance ever since. Through the partnership

with Roundabout Theatre Company, my students and I had the chance to see some members of Local

802 perform on many occasions. Returning to one of my great opportunities, I was able to see the

revival of Cabaret at Studio 54. It was such an incredible experience that took me back to the classified

add clipping my dad sent me and the way music, relationships and opportunity had led me to New

York. I looked up the music director, Patrick Vaccariello, in the Local 802 directory contacted him to

express my amazement at the performance. To my surprise, he replied and invited me to sit with the

orchestra on stage, and gave me the opportunity to play for a staged reading of a different new

musical, Was.

The greatest part of working as a musician in NYC has been sharing my experiences with my students. I

talk to them often about the enjoyment and challenges of being a professional musician.
I have had the pleasure of teaching thousands of incredible students, each with their own tangled,

amazing story. I have found that through music, we create a non-verbal language that not only helps us

to communicate, but also to express our feelings and emotions, and to work together building

community. My students havent just learned how to read and write music, but they have learned social

skills, discipline, dedication, and perseverance. They have learned how to practice, how to build on

failures and mistakes, and how to help each other. They have experienced the joys and challenges of

performing live, alone and with their peers. They are becoming our young musicians of tomorrow.

Like my journey to teaching and performing here in New York, teaching is a wonderful, colorful,

unpredictable, and unexpected path. I have learned that our kids are starving for the arts, and when

given access, flourish in all aspects of learning. Whether teaching private lessons, an after-school

program through a community organization, or in the classroom, say yes. Keep at it. Teach, but look

for what you can also learn as a teacher and musician each day. Connect performance skills to teaching

and learning. Most importantly, dont forget that what we do every days as musicians is play. It is

meant to be fun, and you can find that joy and grow in each of your students every day you teach.