This Black-led California orchestra addresses mental health with sounds for the soul

Editor’s note: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org.

After nearly two decades of teaching exclusively Western classical composers, Stockton strings instructor Darcy Ford set out to celebrate her own heritage. As a Black artist, Ford knew the long history of African American music was as important as it was undertold.

But three years ago, just as her dream of starting a Black-led orchestra was coming together, a devastating personal loss made her reassess its mission. What has emerged is Stockton Soul, a group intent on spreading the history of Black music while uplifting Black communities across the Valley with a positive mental health message.

Like many musicians, Ford started playing music at school. In the third grade, she picked up the violin and never looked back. She went on to study music at the University of the Pacific. For the past 20 years, she has taught strings and spent the last decade working for the Lincoln Unified School District.

Yet, as a mixed-race musician — her parents were Black and white — she always felt a disconnect in her musical life. At home, she grew up listening to soul, R&B, jazz and more. But in the classroom, she only taught classical standards written by white composers.

“So in my mind it kind of set up this duality that the music that I loved and that I enjoyed and that I listened to at home was not worthy of study and that I shouldn’t be playing it on my violin,” Ford said. “I mean, that was never explicit, but it was just implicit in that the only thing we studied was Western classical music, so that made me feel that my music wasn’t important.”

Sparking the idea for a Black-led orchestra

Fast forward to the summer of 2020 and the George Floyd protests, and something started to shift in Ford’s mind. More than ever she wanted to bring the music she loved to her community. Around that time she also met Jonathon Lee Ivy, a talented Black cellist and singer who had recently graduated with a music degree from UOP.

She told him of her dream of forming a soul orchestra with Black musicians and other people of color performing and teaching from the canon of Black music. His enthusiasm helped jump-start the project, she said.

Together, they began to create Stockton Soul, a diverse mix of classically trained musicians playing Black American music, from Motown to R&B, blues to hip-hop.

But as the group was coming together in late 2021, Ivy, who had lived with depression, died by suicide. His death, at age 24, sent shock waves through the musical community.

At the time, the group had been rehearsing for its first concert. Instead, Stockton Soul’s debut was at its co-founder’s memorial service.

Ford said that after Ivy’s death, she felt derailed and wasn’t sure whether the group should carry on. But after talking with other members, she decided to move forward — and expand its message.

Mental health messaging honors co-founder

Among those encouraging Ford to keep the group going was violinist and vocalist Jelani Brown, who also was friends with Ivy. Brown, who teaches orchestra at Stockton middle schools and popular songwriting at UOP, said it was important to discuss Ivy’s life, death and depression as part of their shows.

“A lot of times within the Black community, we don’t talk about mental health,” Brown said. “For a long time, I don’t think mental health has been a priority for Black folks because (we) were always fighting for equality, right? It’s not often that we’ve had the time to sit back and say, ‘OK, well, how is your heart? How is your mind?’ “

The mental health challenges facing communities of color — particularly Black youth — have grown in recent years. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Wonder data system, the suicide rate for Black Americans increased 58% between 2011 and 2021. CDC data also showed suicide to be the third leading cause of death for Black youth ages 15 to 24.

Brown said that he has had his own struggles with depression and that his family and friends have too. One of the more powerful connections created through Stockton Soul, he said, is the sense of community and shared experience.

“You know me and John and Darcy, we all have that experience of being the minority in orchestra,” he said. “In those settings, often you didn’t play music by composers of color, let alone Black composers. And going to school at UOP, we were always just the one (Black) student in class, if that. So (Stockton Soul) was truly birthed out of that and wanting to find community amongst ourselves.”

Stockton Soul’s concerts are a vibrant mix of musical genres: soul, R&B, jazz, hip-hop, rap, even spoken word. During performances, Ford said, the group illustrates the connection between the American civil rights movement and Black musical perseverance.

“(Black music) is part of the narrative of the United States of America,” Ford said. “Every major movement in Black music has come from some major social movement. We have slavery itself. Coming out of that, we have the spirituals and we have work songs and slave songs. And then all the root music on the plantations, and that developed into jazz, that developed into R&B and even country. Rock music comes from blues.”

Spreading the importance of Black music

Stockton Soul has taken its message to schools, universities and community groups. Since 2021, it has performed at more than 20 schools in the Stockton, Lodi and Dublin areas.

In mid-November, the group performed as part of the long-running L’Chaim Concert Series from Congregation Beth Shalom in Modesto. Kate Trompetter, who with her husband, David Rogers, organizes the shows for the synagogue, said she was interested in Stockton Soul’s intertwined historical and mental health messages.

“The concert was fabulous; I can’t say enough about how much they came through — both putting on a show, but also their message,” Trompetter said. “They had me crying at one point, and I danced my tail off all night long. The timing was certainly not intentional on our part, but it came at the end of a contentious election. So for many reasons, our communities were feeling divided and uneasy. That added to the power of the evening.”

Trompetter said she heard nothing but raves after the concert, all the way from her own 11-year-old daughter to an 80-year-old attendee with a cane.

Stockton Soul continues to spread its musical message of determination and solidarity. Ford is still working add more musicians to the group. She credits Ivy with helping her overcome her own internalized feelings of inferiority about the music she loved most.

“I love that the music I love is a story of how Black people persevered and kept their dignity from the time they were enslaved until now,” she said. “They created this beauty that could not be kept down and squelched. To me, it’s beautiful. It is our shared history.”

Marijke Rowland is the senior health equity reporter for the Central Valley Journalism Collaborative, a nonprofit newsroom which publishes The Merced Focus, in collaboration with the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF).

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