The Unstoppable Chuck Dickerson By Author and Contributor Kari Sayers
The last time we met with Music Director Chuck Dickerson, he was taking questions after the screening of Maryann Garger’s 2023 short film The Orchestra That Chuck Built, a loving tribute to Mr. Dickerson, the talented creator of the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (ICYOLA). “ICYOLA provided orchestral music for one of Garger’s earlier films, an animated short that won an Oscar,” Dickerson explained in a recent interview. In gratitude, Garger produced the 22-minute documentary about both Dickerson and his young, mostly African-American players. The film has since been picked up by the New Yorker magazine. “They own it and are circulating it worldwide,” Dickerson said.
Garger’s documentary could have been the crowning jewel at the end of this septuagenarian’s career, but Dickerson is not done yet. His latest creation is a drum corps, a drum line of inner-city youths. “We started at the Salvation Army Siemon Center in downtown Los Angeles and offered the program there,” Dickerson said. However, the drummers have since moved to other places.
Since ICYOLA is now the designated orchestra for California State University, Dominguez Hills, where Dickerson is a professor, the next step was to teach the drum corps program there. Then, one day, Dickerson received a call from County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, who said they didn’t have enough programming at Juvenile Hall, and could he help out. He was immediately onboard. “And, we started a drum corps program there in March last year,” Dickerson said. “On November 16, we had our first concert/recital at Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar.”
As an additional bonus, they decided to dress the young men in tuxedos. At that time, only six were prepared to play, and five of them had never even worn a suit before. When the others saw how good their friends looked, they wanted to join. Today. twenty young men in juvenile hall play in Dickerson’s drum corps. “I’m very proud of that program,” Dickerson said.
Several things have happened with the big orchestra since we last met as well, Dickerson continued: “On February 2, we presented a fundraising concert for the fire victims at the First United Methodist Church of Pasadena. The concert was free, but we asked the people to come prepared to write a check to the California Community Fund,” Dickerson said.
On March 2, ICYOLA, which has now grown to 140 members, has been invited by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra to join them in the LA Phil’s upcoming Mahlerthon, a cycle of music by Gustav Mahler. "We’re going to play the first and sixth movements of Mahler’s 3rd Symphony,” Dickerson said.
The Chicago program, which Dickerson started before COVID, is unfortunately on hold. “We have not been able to resource that program after the pandemic,” Dickerson said. However, other new programs will be announced this spring.
Recently, Dickerson and his youth orchestra were featured on the evening national news with Nora O’Donnell. Channel 2 reached out to Dickerson, and the segment was filmed at Rolling Hills Methodist Church, where Dickerson has been the director of music for the past 20 years.
Two years ago, the indefatigable Dickerson made a request to the state of California for a grant. “I told the state that we needed a grant for four specific purposes: We needed a place of our own because we had just been renting the fellowship hall in a church. We also needed to increase our staff, and we needed to buy more music and more instruments.”
Long story short, the 2022-23 state budget included a grant from the state of California for 7 million dollars. “With that money, we purchased a building and raised more money to renovate it. We have also bought a lot of instruments and have created an instrument library,” Dickerson said.
Anyone can join the orchestra. It’s free, and if students want to join but don’t have an instrument, they’ll get one –free, of course.
There’s no shortage of opportunities to perform. Recently, the leader of the pop group Imagine Dragons called and invited the orchestra to do a studio recording with them, “We’ve listened to various orchestras and we like you,” the group’s leader told Dickerson. The name of the recorded song is “Symphony,” and it’s available on YouTube.
At age 72, Dickerson has no plans to retire. He enjoys working with young people -- the next oldest person in the organization is 38. His goal is to instill a sense of excellence in his students, not only in music but in life. He also feels a sense of obligation. “A lot was given to me,” he said. “And I if I don’t pass it on, I have not paid my rent for walking on this earth.”
Kari H. Sayers BIO
With a BA in English and an MA in linguistics from California State University, Long Beach, Kari Sayers went with her husband to Saudi Arabia, where she first worked as a music teacher at Riyadh International Community School and then as a journalist for the English newspapers the Saudi Gazette and the Arab News as well as in-flight magazines. When she returned to Southern California, she taught literature, college composition, and English as a Second Language at Marymount California University in Rancho Palos Verdes, while freelancing as a theater, classical concert, and opera reviewer for local newspapers and magazines in the Los Angeles area.. In addition to authoring the novels Roses Where Thorns Grow, Under the Linden Tree, and the soon-to-be-released Justice for Lizzie, all published by Melange Books in Minnesota, she is the developer and editor of the anthology Views and Values, published by Cengage. Now widowed,. Kari lives in the Los Angeles area.
