Center for American Progress

Two Rivers Run Through Him

For years, Kiff Gallagher’s two great passions—public service and music—flowed through his life like parallel rivers. Then it dawned on him that music itself was a form of service—and the Music National Service Initiative was born.

Kiff Gallagher grew up cocooned in musicmaking. No family gathering was complete without Mom, Dad, his two sisters, and Kiff (short for Christopher) harmonizing in the kitchen or around the piano.

As a child Kiff picked out chord progressions on the piano that pleased his ear and played them in succession, sometimes for hours, singing various melodies over the top. Occasionally, one of his two sisters sat down and added another chord, or sang with him.

"It was all by ear and by heart," Kiff recalled. "The piano, singing and music in general, is where I went to process my emotions." Piano lessons didn't last, and Kiff might have missed out on formal music training altogether if it had not been for Bill Fletcher, who directed the choir at St. Paul's, the New Hampshire prep school he attended.

Fletcher was "a teaching artist," who composed music as well as taught, which made all the difference to Kiff. Working one-on-one, Fletcher fed Kiff enough "theory" to make some sense of what came naturally.

"He encouraged me to follow my own ears," Kiff said. The result was compositions rich in harmonic chord structures—"I loved sevenths and ninths"—that Fletcher later helped Kiff record and market. One of his first compositions, a six-part motet for the school's madrigal group, won him an award.

Separate worlds

Kiff might have pursued the life of a working musician, but the possibility never entered his consciousness. He attended Wesleyan University in Connecticut, and at age 21, went to work as an intern in Senator Joe Biden's press office. In 1991, he helped launch the first Clinton presidential campaign and later served on the White House legislative team that crafted AmeriCorps—the national program that sends teams of recent college grads out for a year of service in the community.

Join the Movement

Choral singers can play a key role in this new initiative to spread music programs into parts of our communities that desperately need them.

Become a Musician Mentor. The initiative needs talented musicians who can give a few hours a week to teach a young musician.

Ask for a MusicianCorps fellow to serve in your chorus or your community. Your chorus, or a group of choruses, could provide service opportunities for a MusicianCorps fellow, especially if you have an outreach to underserved groups.

Give a donation. MNSI is a movement that will only be sustained by a broadbase of supporters at the grassroots. Join the movement to make music an integral part of our community life once again.

To sign up or to give, visit to http://www.musicnationalservice.org/.

But music never stayed long in the back of the closet. During those years in DC he created and produced a local hip hop, acid jazz project called Funnybone, which played U Street clubs like State of the Union and Republic Gardens.

In 1996, Kiff moved to San Francisco to help manage the Odwalla juice company, at the time, a pioneer in the new "socially conscious" business movement. In 1999, he was appointed the youngest-ever president of Social Venture Network—a national alliance of socially responsible businesses. Meanwhile at home, he was jotting down thoughts about how music might be used as a civic and social strategy. (See his original vision at PeaceLabs Music.)

So you wanna be a rock star?

He was also writing songs, and in 2003, Kiff walked away from politics and business to write and produce his first CD. Will and Surrender became an instant hit in the "do-it-yourself" pop music world. Soon Kiff was the headliner at top Bay Area venues, and traveling to LA and New York to try out new songs he was working on for his next CD. You Can't Keep It Down, released in 2005, attracted top session talent from acts like Macy Gray, Fiona Apple, Seal and The Matrix—all very heady stuff, but where was it leading?

"I was out there as a musician, engaging deeply with my community," he said, "but not seeing the connection—that music itself is a form of service."

"Then it dawned on me that my underlying passion for songwriting and sharing creative experience, was the same impulse and source of energy that fueled my desire to serve," he continued. "Music has a key role to play in bringing people together in our increasingly fragmented society; as an artist, I realized how little support there is for those who are engaged in this type of service work. It is the recognition that can only come from trying to do it for a living, I think."

A musical "Peace Corps"

Kiff's epiphany led to the creation of the Music National Service Initiative, a new social enterprise to support and expand the use of music as a means of addressing important civic and social needs.

The main program of MNSI is MusicianCorps, a "musical Peace Corps," in which thousands of "teaching musicians" serve for one to two years in disadvantaged public schools and communities. MusicianCorps builds on the successful model of AmeriCorps and the other national service programs, such as Senior Corps and VISTA, under the umbrella of the Corporation for National and Community Service.

With seed funding from the Hewlett Foundation, MNSI plans to launch a pilot of the MusicianCorps program in August of 2009.

To expand the reach and impact of MusicianCorps, MNSI also is building a national database and network of Musician Mentors. The Musician Mentors Network will identify and connect talented musicians who are willing to give one to two hours a week to a young musician who lacks access to private music instruction.

More than entertainment

The "musical Peace Corps" idea has gained bi-partisan support among policymakers and national leaders. The Aspen Institute named MNSI a "top 10 policy innovation to strengthen U.S. communities." On September 10, 2008, the Center for American Progress, a liberal thinktank, hosted a presentation, performance, and endorsement of MNSI by Governor (and bass player) Mike Huckabee and New York Congressman (and singer/guitarist) Joe Crowley. Crowley also is co-chairing a new Congressional Musicians Caucus to support the inclusion of musicians in an expansion of national service programs such as AmeriCorps, Peace Corps, and Senior Corps.

"Most people think of music simply as entertainment," Kiff said. "This initiative recognizes and leverages the fact that music has always has a far more critical role to play in society."