Arts must grow along with jobs to attract residents

In my column two weeks ago we met Foxcroft Academy’s music director Joshua Guthrie, and highlighted the exceptional music classes available there to high school students. Mr. Guthrie spoke of how the internet is changing the music profession, and how FA music students, in Guthrie’s words, “are right at that perfect time to take advantage of that.”

How do Piscataquis County musicians — aspiring or professional — take advantage of this perfect time in the music industry? “Piscataquis certainly needs good, reliable internet access for music, for anything — [for] just staying in touch with the world and knowing what’s going on. There are places where you just can’t access the internet. The days of not having the internet have pretty much gone,” Guthrie said.

Guthrie brought up other 2017 opportunities for musicians. “It’s like the whole world is your recording studio. Say you’re recording as a single, and think, ‘what I really need is a steel guitar [part].’ There are [steel guitar players] in Nashville. Look up their website, send them an email saying, ‘I’m going to send you a track. Would you record a steel guitar part for me?’

No problem! They record the part, you pay them [online] through PayPal, and they send you your track back online with the steel guitar on it.”

Guthrie also tells of FA students “taking private lessons with vocal instructors out of New York City” online with Skype. And how musicians “can basically take free lessons online from any famous musician,” something unheard of 10 years ago. “You just have to have a quality [internet] connection,” Guthrie said.

Asked about any pros and cons of living in rural Maine compared with urban areas, Guthrie said, “Population would be great. Certainly, [area] jobs…would be great for all the surrounding schools.” Then, Guthrie echoed a belief shared earlier in this column by Piscataquis County Economic Development Council’s Chris Winstead, when he said, “But the future of employment goes hand-in-hand with the arts.”

Along with continuing FA’s music programs, Guthrie is pursuing other ways of boosting Piscataquis County music. A performing arts center at FA is in the works. Guthrie says the arts center, “could be used by our community and the surrounding area…to offer our own concerts and…host…mid-level artists Right now if you want to see them you’ve got to be willing to drive to Portland, or…Bangor.”

Guthrie also dreams of a local culture where, just as parents and teachers now donate their time to pass on to kids a love of sports, teachers and parents would do the same for kids and music.

“I’d love to see [community music] grow,” Guthrie said. “Giving kids an opportunity to do lessons or little ensembles, and exploratory music activities outside of school, just to learn and have fun. Because music’s supposed to be fun.”

Guthrie continued, “I take my children to Tee-ball and baseball. Everybody usually does. We all love to see our children…play Tee-ball or do soccer. We say, ‘Great job, buddy! You almost hit it that time.’ Or, ‘You almost caught it. Great job.’ And we all mean it.

“But nobody wants to hear a kid almost play [music] well. When you hear something that sounds bad — it doesn’t matter if it was almost good. So I think we really need more music for little kids to help them get better, to help them develop their skills, and to make it a bigger part of their lives,” he said.

Scott K. Fish has served as a communications staffer for Maine Senate and House Republican caucuses, and was communications director for Senate President Kevin Raye. He founded and edited AsMaineGoes.com and served as director of communications/public relations for Maine’s Department of Corrections until 2015. He is now using his communications skills to serve clients in the private sector.