When a flugelhorn player and a trombonist cross paths, wondrous things sometimes happen. When the Salvation Army is thrown in the mix, something akin to a miracle may unfold.
Garry Lawerence and Kevin Larrson are two Englishmen horn players abroad. A few years ago, Larrson, the Southern California division music director for the Salvation Army, became aware the organization’s Torrance preschool had ceased operations and thus a 3,000 sq. ft. facility next to its chapel sat unused. As a musician and a man deeply enmeshed in faith as action, he was already acutely aware of another problem: music education for children had virtually ceased to exist in public schools, and so kids whose families could not afford private lessons were being denied any opportunity to pursue their musical inclinations.
And so Larrson, a trombonist, put the two problems together and came up with a solution: to rebuild the vacant preschool as a music center that would give kids affordable access to instruction.
“I saw the empty space and the idea of converting that space and helping the community by having music lessons available there occurred to me,” Larrson said. “So that is how that part of it came about.”
He also helped recruit Lawerence, an esteemed musician and third generation member of the Salvation Army, to come to the United States and run the music center.
“We had the space and we sort of possessed the knowlege,” Lawerence said. “The object of the exercise was to make sure nobody can’t get a music education because they can’t afford it. So that was the plan.”
Funding was procured in a large part from a donation from the Donald and Pricilla Hunt family, but then another unusual notion blossomed. The center, which was slated to be 3,500 sq. ft. with practice booths, dance studios, a percussion suite, and even a coffee shop, sat next to an empty lot. All that was there was a dirt hill.
“So then everyone’s imagination started to run riot,” Lawerence said. “What are we going to do with that space? How about a recording facility?”
Dan Blessinger, a Grammy-winning audio engineer and producer who is a supporter of the Salvation Army, helped them assess the need — not just for a facility to educate kids in the recording arts, but for a state-of-the-art commercial grade recording studio that could generate revenue that would help provide even more low-cost music education at the music center. It turned out that Torrance was a perfect location; there is a dearth of high quality recording facilities locally, and no shortage of musicians who’d prefer not to tackle the freeways to Hollywood to record their projects.
“He assured us there is nothing out this way and a lot of people wanted to record out here and not go downtown or to Hollywood,” said Major Brian Bearchell, the local Salvation Army commander. “And there were a lot of positives being out this way — our facility will be 3,000 sq. ft., and the revenue generated will go to the music academy, particularly for scholarships for kids.”
“People pay top dollar to record in Hollywood, so it would have been a useful thing to have anyway,” Lawerence said. “But it’s the 21st Century, so we’ll be teaching music technology, as well.”
The Donald and Priscilla Hunt Music Academy, also known as Crescendo Music and Dance, opened last year as phase one of the project. More than 100 kids already use the facility, but the center has not been aggressively marketed, as Salvation Army leaders wait for the completion of the recording studio (and the cessation of construction) to fully launch all its programs.
“We are finally getting there,” Lawerence said. “The school is open, but it’s very difficult to promote a very beautiful, state-of-the art school, with all this [construction] going on. So people who dont’ know we are here don’t know we are here. People who find out we are here, please, come and have a look.”
“There is a lot of prayer and hope in this project,” he added. “We want to grow our church through the music school.”
Major Bearchell noted that the facility will be unlike anything else the Salvation Army does and will serve as a pilot project for operations worldwide. But music itself is at the very core of the Salvation Army’s identity.
“Why we have bands goes back to our very origins,” Lawerence said. “They were originally set up to draw people’s attention, and crowds. It happened in Salisbury, the very first musical group the Salvation Army set up, a small group to just go out to the market square and make noise with instruments….It still happens to this day.”
Jodianne Lutcher, the business administrator for the local Salvation Army, said the facility also coheres with the organization’s mission to meet the needs of all individuals in the communities its serves.
“Here, in Torrance, one of the ways that we are doing that is by providing music lessons,” she said. “While it may seem quite basic to provide a music lesson for a child once a week, we’ve heard time and time again from community members that music is the reason that they stayed off the streets, that they gained new skills, that they made friends, and that they were successful in their career. Music has brought so many people to where there are as a successful adult, and we want to be a part of helping kids grow into the best adults they can be.”
To celebrate the grand opening of its $6 million Donald and Priscilla Hunt Music Academy, the Salvation Army is hosting a fundraiser at the Torrance Art Museum on Saturday evening, July 30, from 7 p.m. until 10 p.m. The event will benefit the music programs at the new music center. Five artists with original works of art for sale, of which 40 percent of the proceeds will be donated. Some of these artists are from the Portuguese Bend Art Colony, others are local artists, including Stephen Mirich, Margaret Missman, Rodolfo Rivademar and Chris Centofante. There are also live auction items including a dinner for 10 prepared by Chef Robert Bell of Chez Melange and Mama Terano’s restaurants. As a special engagement, a local musical icon, Moi with Tomorrows Bad Seeds, will be playing music all night on the patio for a festive evening of dancing. For local beer buffs and wine aficionados, Wine Warehouse and Strand Brewing will be providing the libations for the evening and the crowd historically is a blend of live music lovers, business owners, government officials, foodies and art collectors. See information and buy tickets at www.torrancecorps/artsplendor.
