The Mpingo Parables

The Mpingo Parables were commissioned by clarinetist Michele Von Haugg and inspired by her remarkable work with Clarinets for Conservation. Each summer Michele fearlessly leads a group of mild mannered clarinetists to Tanzania where she battles complacency, greed, corruption and ignorance to teach the youth of small communities to play the clarinet and plant the Mpingo tree, the source of clarinets, oboes, and piano keys. The Mpingo trees are planted in a sustainable manner and villages taught the potential of this important resource to enrich and empower their community.

Michele has made a career of teaching important lessons to everyone she encounters from the children of Tanzania to the faculty of local schools, government officials and local police forces, as well as her own staff of music educators. Michele teaches lessons of self-determination, persistence, foresight (the Mpingo takes sixty years to mature), tireless hard work, and courage. The Mpingo Parables are dedicated to Michele and the legion of amazed, exhausted, and enlightened students she leaves in her wake.