Music Through the Eyes of The Biggest Little City in the World
In a culture immersed in casinos and night life, a different type of buzz is growing in the biggest little city of Reno, Nevada. Art, music, theater, and creativity have blossomed to become one of Reno’s spotlights, adding depth to its growing culture. I grew up surrounding myself in music and eventually realized how involved this city has become in the expansion of my own passion: Art. Beginning at six years old, music became just as important for me as school, serving as an extracurricular activity and a growing enthusiasm for what is to come in my future. Starting with piano, I competed in the Northern Nevada Music Educator Association Festivals annually, striving for a superior score. Then, I picked up the clarinet in the sixth grade, entering a world of honor band and school competitions which opened my eyes to the vast world of other musicians. After my initial shock to the culture I never knew, high school only expanded my sight; I met incredible instructors that helped me realize my love for music, some of my closest friendships, and an even larger community of fellow music lovers, artists, and people passionate about this culture. From Artown to the Liberal Arts College in the University of Nevada, Reno, the history and influence of music and arts have made a presence in the lives of tourists and citizens alike.
Past
When the Gold Rush started in the late 1940s, travelers came from across the United States to get to California. The land that would soon become Reno, Nevada was just a passing town for the miners, and served as a crossing point following the Truckee River. People would settle in this location to support the Gold Rush, but by 1859, the discovery of the Comstock Lode increased trade and agriculture. Giving hundreds of people a reason to settle, Reno was established in 1868 (Kling). The increase in population created new attractions, such as hotels and casinos. Gaming and entertainment have grown to become the main form of economic growth in the city (Horváth). Extravagant shows quickly gained in popularity, providing dancers, musicians, and other performing artists with a stable job and a decent income. The MGM, now called the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino, brought “Hello Hollywood Hello”, dancers and musicians with a multitude of talent became important into the casino scene (“Hello”). The artists, however, expanded how and where they showcased their talent and hard work, adding new and growing performance platforms, such as the Reno Philharmonics, Artown, and the Reno Jazz Orchestra.
Artown
An organization called Artown came to be twenty three years ago from the small but existing arts and culture scene of Reno. With the onset of the recession in 2008, Reno’s tourist dependent economy was spiraling downwards. Thousands of lost jobs created an overwhelming fear in the citizens of Reno, causing a group of business leaders on the Reno City Council to want to expand Reno’s attractions to more than just gaming in casinos. Taking what had already existed in Reno, the idea of Artown was born in 1996. Choosing the quieter month of July, the addition of bringing arts into the community attracted 30,000 attendees to the initial month long event, significantly more than the expected 3,000 people. Starting as a small idea by the founding members, Artown quickly grew to become a center for showcasing the diversity of many art forms.
As Artown’s audience broadened, their goals to spread art into the community continued. Many events became larger and could appeal to diverse community interests, as well as smaller and more audience specific programs. This event has expanded from 30,000 attendees to over 300,000 visitors, regular attendees, and art enthusiasts (Reno). Artown features musical performances, theater, dance, and other genres like cultural, film, history, special event, and visual arts. There are over 500 events and this is usually condensed to about a month, so each day is filled with multiple events, plus workshops and ongoing exhibits (Reno). Artown has been a large contributor to the art movement of Reno. This is known for the annual month long summer arts and music festival, featuring over 500 different events from different organizations, businesses, and personal performers. Hundreds of locations host events varying from classical piano recitals to large theater performances or film productions (Chadwell). Local and international performers all come together to create this community experience through an artistic bond.
Present
Personally, I have performed with Artown in the past two years with two entirely different forms of entertainment. My first year was in my senior year of high school, when I was invited to have a classical piano recital held at the Steinway Piano Gallery. A whole seventy minutes featuring only myself was overwhelming, seeing that I have never performed for more than a few judges and the parents of other piano students and I would be performing in front of complete strangers. After many hours of practice, I stood backstage in my floor length gown and flats, my music already prepared on the seven foot grand piano that awaits. Piece after piece flew by and talking to the audience in between my playing became significantly more comfortable. I was greeted with smiles and genuinely interested faces constantly, and by the end of the performance, complete strangers handed me flowers and we chatted about my own performance along with the other performances happening throughout the week. This community welcomes new performers in open arms, continuously supporting the love of the arts throughout the years.
In an interview with Jennifer Mannix, the marketing director of Artown, she explains how Artown brings in a strong sense of community to the Reno area (Mannix). In the art-filled, welcoming Artown office near the UNR campus, Mannix conveys how this organization draws in tourists, musicians, and art enthusiasts from around the Reno area as both popular and new events get featured annually. Mannix is personally very involved in the education of the arts with Artown, especially for the youth of Reno. Discover the Arts is a free program held by Artown that allows children ages 6-12 to learn, explore, and experience creativity and expression through art. This enables children to express their creativity in a multitude of ways, such as through music, dance, cultural connections, family events, and movies in the park. Mannix believes in the importance of children in the arts community, growing up to spread more joy and education about music and arts in their lives. Music and arts are a vital part of a healthy mind; “Artown feeds souls” (Mannix).
With only four full time workers at the Artown office, they spend the year raising funds and putting together the vast program of the next July. Although the main event takes place in this summer month, other events that are a part of Artown appear throughout the year, including both ticketed and free events. Mannix started volunteering at Artown soon after she came to Reno in the 1980s and became a chair of the board. She now manages marketing, sponsorships, and assists in booking and planning events. Using colorful sticky notes to organize events on a large calendar, Mannix explains how Artown focuses on booking diverse talents of many different types of art. This diversity allows people to have understanding of differences through self expression and art, bringing the community closer as a whole. As Artown expands, it has also become involved with the largest liberal arts center of Reno: The University of Reno, Nevada.
The University of Nevada, Reno
The University of Nevada, Reno has held Artown art exhibits, musical, dance, and theatrical performances in the recent years, with more events to come. UNR has also been expanding their own liberal arts program through an increase of talented instructors and recruitment of young musicians across the country. They are also currently building a new music building behind the existing music and arts building. The music program has hundreds of students, including an abundance of students who are not music majors or minors. As a current member of the University of Nevada, Reno Howlers Marching Band, I was particularly intrigued by the 200 students willing to spend from eight to over twenty hours a week practicing outdoors, standing the entire length of a football game while wearing uncomfortable uniforms, and continue to sign up annually for years to come. After a few weeks, I began to understand what keeps students from leaving the difficult conditions and time commitment of the marching band; the sense of community. The students all work towards the same goal of blending into one homogenous group to achieve music and formations, giving up their own individuality to benefit this form of entertainment. This concept is true to a degree, but each picture created is done by about 200 individual musicians that memorized something entirely different from any other member. A group of lively and unique individuals create bonds, friendships, and relationships while feeling the exhilaration of performing their unique part to create a moving show for an audience. This sense of energy and community cannot be replaced. The liberal arts program of the University of Nevada, Reno is unlike many other universities where one must be a music major or minor to participate in music ensembles or have involvement in the arts program in general. Music and art is a joy unique to any other subjects for all individuals; UNR has created the opportunity for any major to have the ability to participate in the liberal arts program.
The University of Nevada, Reno has grown significantly, from having less than 5,000 students on campus to “over 3500 undergraduate majors, 500 graduate students, 200 faculty members, and 45 staff members” in the Liberal Arts College (“College”). During a clarinet lesson with the highly esteemed Dr. David Ehrke at the University of Nevada, Reno, he suggested that I interview a past student, colleague, and friend, Dr. Cathy J. Chapman Walters, or CJ Walters. He sent me her contact information and in a few days, we set up to talk about her experience as an involved musician in Reno. After Nevada Wind Ensemble and Marching Band practice, I conducted an over-the-phone interview with Dr. Walters, where she described her experience in music throughout Reno for the past 37 years at the University of Nevada, Reno. She began her studies at UNR for basketball in 1979, and has been heavily involved in the music and performing arts field until 2012, when she retired (Walters). Dr. Walters has played in the Reno Philharmonics as well, explaining to me how the music scene in Reno has blossomed, starting with the increase in casinos in the growing city.
Organizations
Casinos in the 1960s to 1980s increasingly had full orchestras and bands for entertainment. Talented musicians from around the area came together to perform in these groups in big showrooms as the popularity of casinos rose. Ballroom events such as the “elaborate cabaret production by Donn Arden debuted in 1978 at what was then the MGM Grand Hotel (now the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino) and continued for 11 years. It had a cast of more than 100 who came from all over the world, a set that included an airplane that could accommodate six showgirls on each wing, a full band, classically trained singers and accomplished dancers.” (RGJ) This is evidence of the overwhelming excitement of the performances, but eventually, musicians who usually stay to their own six casino venues wanted to come together to express themselves outside of the showrooms. The passion for more music led to the creation of the Reno Philharmonics, and Reno Chamber Orchestra, and the Reno Jazz Orchestra, which are still in full swing today; the Reno Philharmonics will be celebrating their 50th birthday this year.
Dr. Walters has been personally involved in organizations that led to the growth of the music and arts community of Reno. The City Arts and Culture Commission, which was previously called C.I.T.Y. 2000 provided the first funding to what we now know as Artown (Walters). Dr. Walters was a part of the City Arts and Culture Commission when Artown became its own organization, as well as served on the first board of directors, and eventually as the President of the board. Dr. Walters also worked as the personal manager for the Reno Philharmonics, Reno Chamber Orchestra, the Nevada Opera, and Nevada Festival Ballet, and as the Assistant Manager of the Reno Chamber Orchestra. Continuing her extensive involvement in this field, she was also a “board member and president of the board for the For the Love of Jazz Society” and the Chair of the City’s Arts and Culture Commission for two terms (Walters). Along with working with the organization, Dr. Walters is a clarinet and bass clarinet player. Throughout the years, she has played for the Reno Philharmonics, Reno Chamber Orchestra, the Nevada Opera, and Nevada Festival Ballet, and the Reno Chamber Orchestra as well as work closely in these groups.
When asked about the continuing expansion of the Liberal Arts program at UNR for the future, Dr. Walters explained that there should be a higher accessibility to world acclaimed artists in performance, as well as in educational opportunities. These opportunities include an increase in workshops, masterclasses, coaching, and much more to further the depth of the Liberal Arts program as a whole. An increase in the involvement of music with a higher prestige also ties in to the overall goal to increase opportunities for artists in Reno, as well as acceptance of the arts as a vital part of any community. Dr. Walters vocalized that she “would like to see artists being able to make a living making and performing art without have to work jobs to pay the rent.” This tied into the term “starving artist”, referring to a person living on minimal expenses to pursue their passion in their art form. My classmates and thousands of other students following their dream of becoming musicians and music educators must accept their fate of society labeling them as a profession with too much effort for such a little outcome, especially monetarily. Their goal of spreading what they love to the community has overpowered the safe path to an average lifestyle, working tirelessly for what they believe in. This drive makes one think why so many people value this passion over the opportunity for a stable, well paying job, especially in a world heavily immersed in capitalism. What society currently does not realize is the universal importance of creativity and self expression: the creation of art.
Mannix and Dr. Walters have different forms of impact to the music community, but they share the goal in which they wish to see the expansion and education of music in our community blossom infinitely. Mannix exclaims that “it is frustrating to know that many people do not believe that there are flourishing arts and culture in Reno without stepping out to experience it,” and understandably so. “There is no excuse for missing the brilliance,” so we must educate the community on the beauty that awaits, and spread the excitement of art (Mannix). Dr. Walters wishes for Reno as a city to assist in the growth of music in the city, as well as public and private fundings to support a larger audience and growing opportunities. Groups such as the Reno Philharmonics can have more performances annually, while galleries share and sell more pieces. In regards to the true integration of music and arts into our lives, Walters believes that there should be an increase with acceptance and appreciation in education involving the arts and music. She claims that “there are programs, but they are lacking in support and are not always given the same weight as other subjects. A more educated populace equals more people support the arts as they grow older”(Walter).
When I was in elementary school, our class took a field trip to what looked like a giant Ferroro Rocher, which I have now learned is the Pioneer Center for Performing Arts. This golden dome was originally known as the Pioneer Theater Auditorium and “was designed by the Oklahoma City architectural firm of Bozalis, Dickinson and Roloff as a concrete structure with a distinctive gold geodesic dome roof. The facility was completed in 1967 with 987 seats on the main level and 513 seats in a balcony. The co-founder of Temcor, the project's contractor, was Don Richter, a student of Buckminster Fuller, developer of the geodesic dome concept” (Pioneer). I, and others who live in Reno, am most familiar with the Pioneer Center for Performing Arts as the home to the best performing arts groups such as the Reno Philharmonics. They are a full orchestra of the best musicians in Northern Nevada, including a large amount of professors, teachers, and other music professionals. The Reno Philharmonics as a program to inspire and educate the young musicians of Reno with the Reno Youth Philharmonic Symphonic Orchestra, Concert Orchestra, and Youth String Symphony. My senior year of high school, I decided that I would give trying out for this talented group a shot. To my surprise, I became the Second Chair Clarinetist, jumping from no orchestra experience to highest level orchestra that is part of the Reno Youth Philharmonics. Taking this new role with pride and slight apprehension, I quickly learned that the community of musicians and students is like no other. Every student had a similar passion and understanding of the music, all striving to create a moving piece for an audience of mostly parents. The students are guided by the conductor, Dr. Jason Altieri.
Youth Programs
Dr. Altieri’s intensity for music can be mistaken as hostility to an unexperienced ear, when in reality he is a man with a sense of humor and love for creating music. Dr. Altieri conducts both the Youth Symphonic Orchestra and the Youth Concert Orchestra with the Reno Youth Philharmonic Orchestra. Although he conducts students from their early teenage years through graduate school in college, he treats the group of young musicians with professionalism. He has high expectations of every individual, knowing that each student had a full potential to become someone passionate and invested in music. Dr. Altieri is also the conductor for the University of Nevada, Reno Orchestra at the UNR and “is the current Music Director of the Atlanta Pops Orchestra and Associate Conductor for the Reno Philharmonic” (“Jason”). When he conducts the Youth Symphonic or Concert Orchestras, his work directly parallels the work of the Nevada University Orchestra. This direct integration between the ages of talented musicians work well for the community to understand the flow and growth of young musicians, as well as to expand the University Orchestra. The skills and abilities of the hard working youth feeds into the college program, allowing for a constant cycle of beautiful music production.
Throughout my life, I have been told that music and the arts are important, but I have found that more people than not also agree that people do not put their actions where their words are. The emotions that you feel when you are listening to your favorite song, the energy of watching live performers sharing their passion to their audience, the awe of admiring an art piece, and the exhilaration of creating your own part to the best of your abilities: those indescribable emotions connected to music and art are irreplaceable. As we, people living together in this world, start to realize the importance of spreading joy to world, we have the choice of how we choose to use our voice to create an impact, no matter how large or small. The small city of Reno, Nevada has taught me through arts, music, history, and culture that artists can have the loudest voice, and will never stop spreading the passion that brings us together.
Works Cited
Chadwell, Jeri. “Reno Artown Festival 2014.” NEVADA Magazine, 2014, nevadamagazine.com/ home/2014/07/07/reno-artown-festival-2014/. Accessed 20 Nov. 2016.
“College of Liberal Arts.” University of Nevada, Reno, 18 Nov. 2016, http://www.unr.edu/liberalarts.
“‘Hello Hollywood, Hello:’ Iconic Stage Show Still Resonates in Reno Arts Community.” Reno Gazette-Journal, 25 Nov. 2016, http://www.rgj.com/story/life/2014/02/02/hello-hollywood-hello-iconic-stage-show-still-resonates-in-reno-arts community/5090905/. Accessed 19 Nov. 2016.
Horváth, Csilla, and Richard Paap. “The Effect of Recessions on Gambling Expenditures.” Journal of Gambling Studies 28.4 (2012): 703–717. PMC. Web. 13 Dec. 2016.
“Jason Altieri, D.M.A..” University of Nevada, Reno, 28 Nov. 2016, http://www.unr.edu/cla/music/pages/bios/altieri.htm. Accessed Nov. 21 2016.
Kling, Dwayne. The Rise of the Biggest Little City: an Encyclopedic History of Reno Gaming,1931-1981. Reno, NV, University of Nevada Press, 2000.
Mannix, Jennifer. Personal Interview. 22 Nov 2016.
Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts. Pioneer Center for Performing Arts, n.d., http://pioneercenter.com/. Accessed 25 Nov. 2016.
Reno is Artown. Artown, 2016, renoisartown.com/. Accessed 2 Nov. 2016.
Walters, Cathy J. Chapman. Personal Interview. 21 Nov 2016.