After the pandemic, Kuipers noticed that laziness had turned into apathy. He struggled to find a solution to this issue for a decent amount of time and realized that for so many of his students, telling them they matter has been the cure.
“If I had to throw a dart hoping for an answer, I think it’s meaning,” Kuipers says. “I think for many of us, a lot of meaning was lost.”
That’s one of the many reasons that he started a cello choir.
Moving to Texas
Kuipers started playing the cello at 6 years old in Minnesota and played in festivals and attended conservatories throughout his youth.After studying cello and composition in Boston, Basel, Switzerland, and Mannheim, Germany, Kuipers began teaching at Washington and Lee University and Eastern University, while struggling to keep a living wage on the East Coast. He moved to North Texas in 2012 to continue his career as a musician and start a marketing business.
He quickly found differences between the “concrete jungle” and his previous homes, not just in the cities, but in the music cultures.
“The big legacy cities tend to have a more focused access to culture — you go to New York and you hear the best of the best play there,” Kuipers says. “When I first came to Texas, in comparison, there was a lot of open spaces.”
After nearly deciding to leave music altogether, Kuipers went into cello instruction. He found that in North Texas public schools, students are required to take up an instrument or choir at the start of sixth grade.
In his first year of teaching, Kuipers taught 94 students a week, most of them beginners who had never touched the instrument, all while saying “yes” to every concert.
“I was saying recently that I worked seven days a week up until last September,” Kuipers says. “I taught students privately here [at home] while teaching in the schools, got a little more known, built more relationships with the students.”
Over time, with his rough estimate of the 500 students that he’s taught over the last decade, Kuipers found that one of the core tenets of instruction was less about the instrument and more about “motivational speaking.” Every day the education of intonation and tone came alongside inspiring his students to push themselves past the adolescent laziness — to find meaning.
Having reduced his weekly teaching quota to 30 hours a week, Kuipers still makes the effort and places massive value in his moments of teaching.
“This person right here is still the most valuable thing in my life at this moment,” Kuipers says in reference to each lesson.
The Birth of the Texas Cellos
Like the vast majority of people in 2020, Kuipers was bored. He began to feel the same apathy his students were expressing in their private lessons via Zoom. In July of that year, Kuipers found himself wondering “what is the highest good” he could do for his students. Despite the restrictions the pandemic created, Kuipers spotted a chance to bring his students together and create a new opportunity.When the idea of a cello choir — an ensemble of cellos playing together — came to mind, Kuipers built the bare bones and started the program of 33 people in August 2020.
“That was a very special year for that program because it felt like we were in a very exclusive club of people doing something when very few people were doing anything,” Kuipers says.
The first year for Texas Cellos was extremely community-oriented, as students would set up chairs and bring snacks all while keeping social distance. “It felt very down to earth” from Kuipers’ perspective.
“It was very human, and I want it to stay that way,” the 39-year-old adds.
Since that first year, the nonprofit program has grown exponentially. Alongside the cello choir is the Texas Cello School, “a self-sufficient school welcoming musicians to come and focus, create and grow,” according to the Texas Cellos website. There are also cello choirs in several high schools in the student-run Texas Cellos Ambassadors program.
Independent of the Texas Cellos is the Metamorphosis Dallas Chamber Orchestra, which is playing at the Winspear Opera House on April 10 at 7:30 pm. This group is unique in that it is led by musicians without a conductor. The organization has presented 28 concerts in four years.
Kuipers is ecstatic about the growth, but the goal of bringing opportunities to young musicians while simultaneously bringing joy to the community and the audience is still the primary goal and what gives him the most pride.
“I would love to say music is great just on its own, and it is, but the side effect of all of that makes it so wonderful,” Kuipers says.
The Future of Music in Texas
Alongside the growth of the program has been the population boom in Texas and the marked improvement of music culture and opportunities in North Texas.Kuipers says the plan for Texas Cellos is to expand and offer more opportunities in the state. The Texas Cello School is expanding to Houston this year and likely Austin and San Antonio next year. A long-term goal is to own a central campus in Fredericksburg, which is a regular concert location for the Texas Cellos.
As his pandemic creation grows and touches more corners of the state, Kuipers notes success comes from the project's uniqueness.
“When there’s a spot left open and you could fill it with something that people would like and you can do it just by being different, you give people something they didn’t even realize they wanted, that creates a lot of opportunity,” Kuipers says.
The Texas Cellos’ Metamorphosis Dallas Chamber Orchestra hosts its GALA 2024 Concert at the Winspear Opera House on April 10 at 7:30 pm.
