Today, we’re speaking to Christopher Maloney of Practice Warriors. Christopher is a multi-instrumentalist who has…
Be Intentional & Keep Going: An Interview with Dr. Quinton Morris
On this week’s episode of the Time to Practice podcast, we have the pleasure of speaking with violinist, educator, entrepreneur, radio host, and filmmaker Dr. Quinton Morris.
Dr. Morris has performed solo concertos, recitals and presented masterclasses and lectures at some of the world’s most respected venues, including the Seattle Symphony, Carnegie Hall (New York), TEDxSeattle, Seattle Art Museum, Roberts Project (Los Angeles), the Sydney Opera House (Australia), the Louvre Museum (Paris), National Normal Taiwan University (Taiwan), Dong-eui University (Korea), the American String Teachers Association National Conference, the University of Paris – Dauphine School of Business and Tumaini University (Tanzania), among many others.
He has received numerous awards for his artistic and community service including the Distinguished Alumni and Hall of Fame Award from Renton High School, the Governor’s Arts Award, the Seattle Mayor’s Arts Award and Puget Sound Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 Award.
Dr. Morris founded Key to Change in 2017 with the goal of providing underserved youth and students of color living in South King County with opportunities to take violin and viola lessons. Since the inception of Key to Change, hundreds of students have had an opportunity to take music lessons, participate in numerous musical outreach activities and learn in a diverse and inclusive environment.
Dr. Morris is an Associate Professor of Violin at Seattle University, where he is the first tenured music professor in 40 years. He is the second living Black violinist in United States history to receive such a distinction. Additionally, he is also the Artist-Scholar in Residence at Classical King FM 98.1, where he hosts the radio and video show Unmute The Voices.
You can find the latest episode of the Time to Practice Podcast on your favorite podcast platform or listen through the link below:
Be Intentional & Keep Going with Dr. Quinton Morris – Time To Practice
Highlights Include:
On Practice:
“Be patient and keep going. Progress is like a valley. You have your good days and you have your bad days, but you gotta keep going and you can’t give up. You just gotta power through. Also be patient with yourself. Some days you might be in a cranky mood, but that doesn’t mean you should quit. You should just be cranky for that moment, and then keep going. Some days you’ll feel like you’re on the moon and just so happy and excited. Keep going; understand that success is a process. You gotta go with the flow of life and you’ve got to go with the flow of what is best for you.”
On his radio & video show Unmute the Voices:
“Unmute the Voices is a program that spotlights and highlights the music of people of color, who are both composers as well as performers. It’s a program that’s sponsored by Classical KING FM 98.1, and it’s two parts.
There’s a radio show that I host every third Saturday of the month at three o’clock Pacific, and we have a beautiful video series where we interview different performers and composers on our show that talk about a number of different issues, from their careers to different social issues within the classical music area or community, or just kind of anything that is percolating within their own minds.
That (the video series) is released every first Friday of the month on YouTube. So we just launched this project this past Juneteenth, and it’s been really fantastic and allowed me the opportunity to spotlight performers and composers who have written really fantastic music and work.
A lot of people still don’t know that there are other composers of color who have written such great works, so this is a way to also educate even the classical music audience on all of these great composers and performers who have all this great music.”
On Taking Action As Musicians and Music Teachers:
“So there’s lots of conversations that are happening, but while all those conversations are happening, there’s also time that’s being wasted on actually doing something about it. I don’t want to sound cynical when I say this, but at some point we got to stop just talking and get to work. I feel like there’s a lot of talk and not a lot of action. I think it’s good for us to talk. I think it’s good for us to talk through the issues and that sort of thing, but at some point we’ve just got to execute our words into action and make it happen.”
On diversifying your studio and the music you play:
” So, I think just understanding why you want to do this and why it’s important is the way to go. So bringing in people who can talk to the class about anti-racist practices or can talk to you individually about abandoning your own unconscious bias, I think those things are really important. They’re scary, obviously, and uncomfortable, but I think it’s also a beautiful opportunity for people to really invest in deepening the level of understanding experience as well as education. Key to Change…all last year we did anti-racist work within our studio. We did it for middle school students. We did it for high school students. We didn’t just do one session, because you can’t undo anything in just one session. We’re a program that’s incredibly diverse, and we’ve talked about that. We established policies and practices on how students are supposed to talk about social issues, and we involved parents, and then we had our staff and our board also engaged in this. Within our program we made sure that at every level we were engaged in this work; that’s what it takes.”
Links from Today’s Episode:
Dr. Morris’ Radio Show Unmute the Voices: https://www.king.org/unmute-the-voices/
Key to Change Studio: https://www.keytochangestudio.org/