Podcast Host (2:56)

Josh, thank you.

Josh Groban (2:57)

Thank you so much, Bobby and iheart, and best wishes on your future endeavors and all the brilliant work you do. Mariela, we're so proud to be alongside you at Find, you'd Light and Hyundai. Thank you so much for the donation. Every little bit counts, and we're so proud to be alongside you on this fight. So thank you all so very much.

Podcast Host (3:13)

Mariela, really great to spend some time with you.

Mariela (3:15)

Nice to be here. Thank you so much for welcoming us.

Podcast Host (3:18)

So, like, what is. Yeah.

Mariela (3:19)

Yeah. Is an incredible, transformative program for youth ages 6 through 17. And we go beyond just teaching an instrument. We go into teaching about collaboration over competition by teaching different aspects of the music industry by forming a band, by creating your own lyrics, and helping kids discover and explore who they are and what their community has for them with each other.

Bobby Bones (3:48)

You know, we're reading about. Yeah. A little bit, and you had some really interesting rules there that I thought were pretty funny. There was one. It was, don't be a donut, be a croissant. What does that mean exactly?

Mariela (3:58)

Well, what shape is a donut?

Bobby Bones (4:01)

Circular.

Mariela (4:01)

Okay. And what shape is a croissant?

Bobby Bones (4:03)

Like a half moon.

Mariela (4:04)

And which one's open?

Bobby Bones (4:05)

The croissant.

Mariela (4:06)

And we want kids to be open. We want them to be flexible. We want them to be welcoming instead of closed and avoiding others to come into their lives.

Podcast Host (4:15)

When you say we remove barriers, what are you talking about?

Mariela (4:20)

There are barriers to access music education. And one of the things we do is we have a scholarship program where every single applicant, regardless of capacity, we offer them a scholarship. We try to provide programs in different locations, not just by having a permanent location, but by having 10 different locations throughout metro Nashville. We don't have barriers to the kind of person or music skill that they can have. So from beginner to advanced, from female to trans, from poor to rich, from brown to black to to white, every single person is allowed and welcomed and championed at ya.

Bobby Bones (5:03)

When you see the kids gravitate to instruments, what are like, they mostly into? I have four boys, and I know some of them are just like, I like the drums and other ones are like, oh, and I like the guitar. That sounds cool. What do you see in these kids?

Mariela (5:17)

I think people gravitate to what they have access to. And someone might be interested in beats if they had access to a beat making machine, which we do, but mostly guitars, because it's what is seen. I think marketing does a very good job at making it more enthusiastic. A couple of years ago, no one was interested in keyboards, and last year our class was at capacity. A lot of vocalists and more and more some songwriters.

Podcast Host (5:47)

How do you think learning an instrument helps kids with confidence?

Mariela (5:51)

That is a very long answer. And I'm trying to think of the best way to say that learning an instrument allows them to discover a little bit further of who they are and be comfortable with it and then share a little bit about that with others. And if it's done in an environment that is celebrating and championing them, then that confidence can only go up.

Bobby Bones (6:18)

You think kids are listening to all kinds of music. Do you think the classical music is still an interest in some of these kids?

Mariela (6:27)

I think it depends on who they have in their life to expose them to that. Some people may have a phone and some people may not. Therefore, they may have a streaming service like Spotify or Amazon Music, and some may have the radio. Some may come from different cultural backgrounds and be exposed to Hispanic music, blues. Some may not. I think that social media, a good thing has been to expose them to a broad amount of music. But as kids, they're also confined to what is popular. In addition to trying to find who they are by defying, you know, the current trend is do you ever see

Podcast Host (7:12)

really shy kids come in and take to it so well, and they end

Mariela (7:15)

up on stage all the time. And one of the things that the program does is because of the experience they have at the program, they do believe in themselves further and see it as something that they can do and want to do. We had a child that 30 minutes before our camp showcase a couple of years ago said, I'm going to do this. And it was because of everything they experienced leading up to it. And again, the showcase is a wonderful opportunity to end something, but it's also an opportunity for them to see that they can accomplish something and take it to anything else in their life.

Bobby Bones (7:55)

What have you seen, like, firsthand, where you've seen a child pick up an instrument and go from like, what is this foreign object? To just being like, oh, I love this. I love how it makes me feel. I love the sound that it makes

Mariela (8:07)

just last year we had someone from out of state who was transitioning into becoming a male and wanted to do drums, but our class had enough, did not have enough capacity and we kindly asked if we could move them to the bass class and they took to it and in two days of camp absolutely fell in love with the instrument. And again we welcomed them to be open to that so that our preconceived notions of an instrument are not impeding them from exploring or experimenting. This is not for a grade, this is not for a Grammy. This is for you. And giving them those parameters kind of gives them the confidence again that word comes up, but giving them the comfort also and that they trust that they're in an environment that is not going to judge them to do that.

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Podcast Host (10:05)

Have you seen any of these kids play in a pretty cool venue?

Mariela (10:10)

Well, one of the great things about Yarok's Camp is that at the end of the week we select a historic national venue for them to perform at. So from the Basement east to the East Room to upcoming now in June, the East side bowl. They do perform on those stages that help them understand the power of performance and share that historic stage with so many people who are creating positive social change.

Bobby Bones (10:41)

What is your favorite venue?

Mariela (10:42)

My Living Room. I really do like the First Bank Amphitheater because it's outdoors.

Podcast Host (10:50)

Can kids walk into this program without any experience at all?

Mariela (10:54)

0 experience at all? We have teachers that give their heart and soul to trying to meet the kid where they are and ensure that the class sets them up to Succeed. We don't just also include the instruments, but we also include beat making workshops, songwriting stage, present gear so that there are other hooks and other opportunities for kids to see that they can connect with music and inspire them to keep going to the next level.

Bobby Bones (11:26)

Obviously it's for all ages, right? But do you ever see like the small, little, little, little ones get excited over music and wanting to just learn because it seems so cool.

Mariela (11:35)

We have one teacher whose highlight every year is returning to be the counselor for the younger group because of the power of their energy that she feels. We have siblings who come and watch their older siblings at showcase and parents tell us we can't wait for them to be six to come to camp. They are open, they are excited, they are free without any worries of making it sound right or look right. And so that I think is very refreshing for the rest of the group.

Podcast Host (12:12)

What's the dream for? Yeah, in the next few years, we

Mariela (12:15)

would love to have more consistent programming during the weekend. Our Rock Block program is dependent on funding and venues that are available to host band based programming. We would love to extend the camp to a second consecutive week so that kids can go a little bit deeper into what they've created during the first week camp. And we'd love to expand our programming to offer more industry related skills like audio, lighting, production, recording, so that kids can be on a track to see where what they may create with an instrument can lead, but also to welcome those that may not want to be on stage, but lack the opportunity at school to have an entry point into music.

Bobby Bones (13:08)

Yeah, talk a little bit about that because we were talking earlier about learning an instrument, but not everyone's into learning instruments, but they do love sound. Whether it's in movies or film or video production or anything like that. There's way more to music than just learning an instrument, right?

Mariela (13:25)

Absolutely, absolutely. Again, we do want people to learn how to express themselves with the power of music. But there's other ways to connect, to make that come alive and to be part of that community that is not just about the person that you see on camera, on stage, but to be able to have that felt by hundreds, thousands, millions in ways that will also help them understand that everything's like that. There's always someone behind everything we do. And if that mentality of collaboration and of being a soldier amongst soldiers can further inspire kids to take risks and to worry less about perfection, but about progress and about community and about using music as a filter through which they can see the rest of the world and themselves, then those opportunities are, you know, limitless.

Podcast Host (14:28)

What is Hyundai's involvement allowed you guys to day to day?

Mariela (14:32)

Without support from Hyundai, we would not be able to sustain our operating expenses. And it is increasingly becoming limited given that people's giving capacity has decreased. Foundations have cut their funding to many nonprofits, not only because they, they lack the money, but there's so many more nonprofits applying for the same dollar. And it allows us to, you know, sustain the people that work with us so that they can continue providing the programs that we have.

Bobby Bones (15:06)

How difficult is it for you guys to get specialized instruments like accordions or steel drums, things like that that are such like, so important to different kinds of music for different cultures?

Mariela (15:19)

We are. One of the things. And going back to the original question about what we would like to have for YAI is to increase our world music offerings and be able to bring those instruments. At the moment, we continue providing rock band based instruments. So guitar, acoustic and electric bass, drums, vocals and keyboard because that is the equipment we've had for the past 20 years. But for example, if a youth from their, if they have a band instrument and they want to incorporate it into our program, we will find a way to. We will find a way to incorporate into the program, but we don't necessarily have a team member to instruct them in it. Specialized instruments are not really where we're at just yet. We are always in need of better equipment. And when we reach that point, I will figure out what to do next about that.

Podcast Host (16:21)

You know, Hyundai makes it a priority to be impactful in the community. And so Hyundai's had a long standing partnership with YA and you know, they continue that commitment to education, innovation and community empowerment. And if you're listening to this right now and you want to support collaborative youth centered music and education in Nashville, you can go to yarocks.org donate so yarocks.org donate or you can go to yeah.kindful.com and if you're listening right now, you can be a one time donor, you can be a monthly donor, you can sponsor a program, you can provide a scholarship to camp, or you can use employer corporate match. So a lot of ways that you can help out if you're listening and you want to be involved in kids and they're growing as people and they're growing in education. So we really appreciate the time you spent with us, hope the program continues to flourish and thank you for all that you do.

Mariela (17:12)

Well, thank you so much and I thank all your listeners for believing in youth and what they have to say. We have a lot to learn from them.

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Mariela (18:10)

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.