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‘I want music to be for everyone’H ASTINGS C OLLEGE
PROFESSOR HEADED
TO B OLIVIA , P ERU AS
MEMBER OF GLOBAL
L EADERS P ROGRAMJOHN HUTHMACHER
As Nathan Mertenssees it, symphony musicshould be both main-stream and univer-sally accessible to themasses.
“The big thing is thatmusic needs to be in thecommunity far more,”said Mertens, 32, assis-tant professor of musicand theater at HastingsCollege. “Music pro-grams in secondary andcollegiate educationspend a lot of time inour own little bubble,and I want music to befor everyone.”
Mertens, a Waverly na-tive and Hastings Col-lege alumnus, holds adoctorate of music artsin saxophone perfor-
mance and is a D’Add-ario Woodwind artist.He is one of 60 mem-bers recently acceptedinto the exclusive 2022Cohort of the GlobalLeaders Program, a co-
hort for accomplishedmusical professionalsrepresenting 28 nationsand six continents. Itsnetwork of institutionalfieldwork hosts spansmore than 40 nations.
Operating in part-nership with nine topuniversities and thinktanks, the yearlong pro-gram is directed by a
world-class faculty thatincludes Nobel laure-ates, Grammy winners,Polar Prize awardees
and TED presenters. Itsaim is to empower cul-tural change makers togrow organizations thatimpact communities.
“I’m pretty excitedabout being part of thecohort,” Mertens said.“It’s something I was
looking at doing for
about two years whenthe pandemic hit, so Ipaused to do it.
“A huge component ofthis is fieldwork, whereyou actually go out anddo work with human be-ings. Much of what we
do in music is gettingout into the community,so as soon as the pan-demic started to wane, Idecided to apply.”
Founded by CEO Cris-tina Vollmer de Burelli,V5Initiative Venezu-ela, the Global Leadersprogram is an execu-
tive graduate certificateprogram that includes12 academic modules,an international field-work experience andcohort residency. Ac-ademic modules con-ducted online at 4 p.m.Central Mondays andWednesdays consist ofreadings, online discus-sions and homework.For some global partici-pants, the arrangementrequires keeping un-
usual hours to fulfill.“When we meet, it’s
good morning, good af-ternoon, and good eve-ning,” Mertens said.“There are a bunch of
time zones to navigate.”Mertens learned this
week that his field-work component willbe spending a week atPlurinational Conserva-tory of Music in Bolivia,where he will play sax-
ophone and work withwoodwind players. Ten-tative plans include anadditional week spentin Peru, where he wouldperform solo withOrquesta Sinfonica deArequipain.“Everyone I’ve met so
far, their resumés arerather impressive,” hesaid. “Just in my cohortgroup of five, we havea violinist who runs an
all-female orchestra inBrazil, an arts admin-istrator who worked atthe Lincoln Center and
SEE MUSIC /page A3
Courtesy
Nathan Mertens, assistant professor of musicand theater at Hastings College, recently was ac-
cepted into the 2022 Cohort of the Global Lead-ers Program for accomplished musical profes-sionals from around the world.
Music: HC professor headed to Bolivia, PeruContinued from page A1
now works in Colombia,and a CEO of a strings
program for at-risk andunderserved students inIndianapolis. Everyonehas pretty illustriouscareers.”
Topics featured inthree of the 12 modulesto date include the psy-chology of music, aes-
thetics of music, andmusic as a vehicle forsocial change.
“We’re really excitedabout Nathan’s partici-pation in this programand what he will bringback that will benefitthe current and futureHC students and the
Hastings communityas a whole,” said LouieEckhardt, chair of HC’s
Department of Musicand Theatre.
Having traveled to To-kyo as a recipient of theMonbukagakusho schol-arship prior to his ap-pointment at HastingsCollege, Mertens seesthe Global Leaders Pro-gram as yet another op-portunity to expand hisworld views. Workingalongside project found-ers, social entrepre-neurs, teaching artists,concert presenters, pro-fessional orchestra mu-
sicians, university andconservatory professorsand doctoral research-
ers, his studies focus on
social entrepreneurship,cultural agency commu-
nity development, orga-nization management,design thinking and ed-
ucation leadership.“Understanding differ-
ent ways of life makesyou a global citizen,”Mertens said. “My pur-suit has been to con-
tinue to expand my be-ing a global citizen, tomake the world a moreinclusive global place.”
He hopes his appliedexperiences will serve
to bolster the efforts ofthe music department,Hastings College travelcourses and service
learning.“I hope to help diver-
sify music and who is
able to do music andlisten to music,” hesaid. “Connecting mu-sic more and more withpeople is what I hope toget out of this program.
“Classical or what wewould consider formalmusic used to be some-thing everyone wouldlisten to. As a society,I think we have movedinto this idea of highart versus music. I ammuch more of the ideathat we can have mu-sic for everyone and wedon’t need to make thisan elitist sort of thing.”
