By Grace Uriarte
Daily Bruin Contributor
They are immersed in music 24 hours a day for four weeks,
working to absorb everything.
Eighty accomplished musicians received a full fellowship from
the Henry Mancini Institute, allowing them to eat, drink, and
breathe music at UCLA alongside some of the world’s best jazz
musicians.
Created in 1996 by the music director of the American Jazz
Philharmonic, Jack Elliot, the summer institute is designed to
train musicians in all the music idioms.
The program follows the legacy left behind by the late Henry
Mancini, renowned composer and musician, and is designed to answer
the question: “How do you live a life in music?”
“To survive in music today, you need to be able to play
everything,” said Mitchell Glickman, executive director of
the Henry Mancini Institute.
“The more skills you have, the more employable you are. So
if someone calls you to do a gig, you can say “˜yes’ and
be comfortable, no matter what the challenges are.”
The kinds of students the Mancini Institute sought during its
auditions in early spring were ones looking to expand their musical
scope.
Those who were trained in the classical tradition in
conservatories wanted to learn more about jazz and other styles of
music not taught in most classical conservatories; those entrenched
in jazz desired to learn more about symphonic music.
In addition to studying various musical disciplines, the HMI
scholarship winners perform in a one month concert series featuring
jazz, orchestral, film and popular music.
“If you are called to perform in the Grammy award
orchestra, you’re going to be performing with Pavarotti,
Celine Dion, and maybe a rap artist who uses strings,”
Glickman said, emphasizing the importance of having a wide musical
scope.
Ken Fisher, who graduated with a degree in music from UCLA in
1995, is one of the scholarship winners who will perform in Royce
Hall in the free summer concert series which began July 29.
“Part of being a musician is being resourceful to make it
work,” Fisher said.
Fisher and the other scholarship winners can participate in
different ensembles ranging from big bands to symphonic
orchestras.
They also attend workshops with topics like “Creative
Career Survival” and “Playing Pain Free.”
In addition to daily private instrumental lessons with musicians
like David Sanchez and Terrance Blanchard, the participants eat
lunch with their world-renowned teachers.
The scholarship recipients immerse themselves in a unique
musical oasis that seeks to make up for what most conservatories
lack today.
They are given the opportunity to break out of a strictly
classical repertoire and enter into one in which they work with
everything from jazz to musicals to band music.
The Mancini Institute is fully supported privately by both
individuals and corporations, the Recording Industry’s Music
Performance Trust Funds being its largest supporter.
As a result, the 80 participants in the program all receive full
scholarships and are chosen entirely on talent and technique, not
financial viability.
The Mancini Institute has found that though free concerts may be
of superlative quality, people tend to think that free things have
lesser value than those that cost money.
“We have to create opportunities for ourselves, create
places where we can share music with other people,” Fisher
said.
Even though the Mancini Institute does not profit directly from
ticket sales, the musicians still profit from the support of a full
house.
“Music is a two-way street. The musicians feed off an
audience as much as the audience feeds off the music,”
Glickman said. “So if you’ve got a great audience
that’s really into it, that elevates the music.”
Glickman also said that when the Mancini Institute moved their
program to UCLA last year, their greatest challenge was rebuilding
their audience base. However, once the community found out about
the concert series, it became very popular.
“We want to share the musicians with as many people as we
can so the community knows about this wonderful group,”
Glickman said.
MUSIC: The Henry Mancini Institute summer series runs Fridays
and Saturdays through August 19. For tickets and information call
the Royce Hall Box Office at (310) 825-2101 or check out www.amjazzphil.org/hmi.html.