Kidznotes helps students find talent, passion for music

There's a moment of tuning the instrument, then a deep breath, the bow moves across the strings and music fills the space.

Nick Malinowski is the director of the program. “We are specifically targeting a student population who, just by virtue of where they've been born and the circumstances of where they grew up, are often denied access to the highest level of music instruction,” he explains.

It's that highest level of instruction, along with his hard work and talent, that is taking Marcus a long way in his musical career.

“I performed at the Hollywood Bowl with the LA Philharmonic,” he says and turning phone around, “One of my friends in the audience was recording it.” Marcus played a solo in the performance, and proudly points it out in the the video on his phone: “There's me!”

And it's not just the Hollywood Bowl. Marcus just got back from six days in Scotland playing the Edinburgh International Festival.

“Kids my age are playing baseball, football or whatever,” Marcus says of his musical passion, “I wanted to try something different, because the way you make new things is by trying something different.”

Malinowski is not only the director of the program, but he's also a trained opera singer, and knows first hand the difference good teaching can make. “The greatest gift anyone has ever given me is the music teacher who really unlocked the true ability of my voice, in a way I didn't know I had,” he said.

The program seeks to make social change through music training, and provides free training and musical instruments to 600 area students.

“Music is a universal language,” Malinowski says, “People from all walks of life from all backgrounds understand its value and can pursue it both as a potential career and as a passion, something that fills you with joy, then it's a life-long gift.”

Marcus started his musical journey in second grade.

“We rarely see young African-American people pursuing, how do I say, music," he said.

"Like when I tell kids at school, they're like, 'What type of music?' and I say, 'classical music,' and they ask, 'Like that old white crap that you hear?' and I'm like, 'Oh yeah, but I'm trying something different.'”

Ramell Gee is Marcus' father. He admits to nudging his son toward music, but, “I found that if you find their passion, then you don't have to tell them to do it, they'll want to do it.”

The elder Gee says Kidznotes connected his son's passion to opportunity. “It filled the void. It filled the gap. When we put Marcus into the program, he felt at home.”

Marcus is learning more than just how to play music, he's learning to understand it, and that is where he hopes the program will take him.

“I want to incorporate my ideas and play the music how I want to play it," he said. "I don't want somebody else to tell me how to do this. I want to break free of that, and incorporate my ideas.”