Alpin Hong

Ever since I first experienced the piano program at the heart of Ramona High School in Riverside, I assumed that it would take an unapproachable amount of money, an unobtainable number of pianos and keyboards, and a small army of piano instructors to give the students a pathway to musicianship. It turns out that a single French horn player with a vision, along with the support of Ramona’s administration and the District, can gift hundreds of students with the skill and joy of playing the piano.

Thank you Ronda Barnes for your dedication that has allowed this piano program to endure and thrive through the pandemic and all the challenges facing the arts in public education. The proof of what a program like this can do for a young person crystallized yesterday when I ran into a young composer and Ramona student I met last year. Back then she showed me a piano piece she had written, so I had her perform it in the middle of my lecture as an example of creative vs. interpretive piano playing. After I hugged her this time she told me that she continued to work on her craft and had just been accepted to the composition program as well as a scholarship that would make it possible at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music!?!!! She is at the beginning of a dream she might not even realize she had. Look out SFCM, someone wicked this way comes from Riverside and nothing will stop her from making her mark on the world.

I met dozens more like her who had the skill and courage to perform for me and a panel of guiding lights like violinist and conductor Ruth Noemy Orellana-Wheeler. Some of them showed astounding proficiency after even one year of study. Thank you Ronda, Noemy, Norm, Stan, and everyone who showed that these kids have value and the future has hope. Music education is essential education.