Music lovers: School experiencing huge turnout for band and choir programs.
By: Melissa Hayes
It’s 2:30 p.m. on a Friday at Brooks Crossing School and students are walking in and out of the music classroom collecting their instruments for the weekend. The storage closet is overflowing with woodwinds and cases containing snare drums line the wall.
As one student leaves the room, general music teacher Bonnie Capes reminds him, "Don’t forget to practice."
The music teachers at this K-5 school have a lot of students to remind, what with 150 students playing strings, 125 instrumentalists and 110 singers in their program.
In a school of 672 students, there is a need for five orchestras, two concert bands Navy and Hunter in honor of their school colors and two choirs. Many students play an instrument and sing in the choir.
Students can begin playing an instrument and join the choir as early as third grade.
"Kids are really excited as third-graders to play an instrument," Ms. Capes said.
Third-graders have the option to sing in the choir or play a string instrument. Once they reach fourth grade they are able to choose any instrument in the band and orchestra. Ms. Capes said they may not stick with the same instrument throughout their career at Brooks Crossing, but the teachers encourage them to stay with the music program.
The string instruments have become so popular over the past year that teacher Milena Dawidowicz went from teaching classes once a week to four and a half days each week.
Although she wasn’t able to pinpoint why the music program is so popular, Ms. Capes said a lot of the third-graders see the fourth- and fifth-graders perform in concert and want to get involved.
Several fifth-grade students said they got involved in the music program because they had a sibling that played an instrument or sang in choir, or because they saw a show when they were younger and thought it would be fun.
Sarah Pawlak knew she wanted to play an instrument like her older sister. When she reached third grade, she tried the violin but decided to switch to the clarinet the following year and has played it ever since.
"My sister plays the flute," she said. "I wanted to play the clarinet."
Deanna Williams also has a sister who plays an instrument and that was one of the reasons why she decided to take up the flute.
Scott Coombs attributes his love of music to his older brother, who was a drum major for the South Brunswick High School marching band this year.
Scott plays the trumpet, sings in the chorus and participates in the school musical.
Star-students Robert Fay and Sean Yun also share Scott’s love of music.
Robert explained that the band directors pick one student each month that has practiced hard and demonstrated that they have learned all of their music to be a star student. Because they are star students, he and Sean had the honor of conducting warm-ups at Wednesday’s winter concert.
Robert said he chose to play the trumpet because of his grandfather.
"My grandfather played it and I wanted an instrument that wasn’t too heavy," he said.
Sean started out with the violin in third grade but has since moved on to the saxophone.
"I wanted to play both but my dad said pick one," he said.
Preethi Kamath also began with the violin but she went on to play the clarinet.
"It seemed different from the other instruments, it seemed challenging," she said.
Preethi said she decided to join the music program as a third-grader after seeing performances as a younger student.
"It seemed fun," she said.
Preethi and Sarah are also in the choir and musical.
"I really like acting, singing and dancing basically," Sarah said.
Both girls have been involved since third grade when they were able to join the choir and participate in the musical as choir members.
This will be Sean’s first time participating in the musical.
"I was a major part in a play in first grade so I wanted to get involved and thought I’d join the musical in fifth grade," he said.
The third-graders all agreed that they enjoy being part of the music program.
"We love to sing," Carina Perillo said.
Samathan Leavy said singing was her hobby, so it made sense to join the chorus.
"I like singing in groups better than singing alone because if you’re singing in a group and you sing a wrong note you can’t hear it as much," Rachel Vandemark said.
Of the 40 students in the third grade choir, more than half said they played an instrument, the most popular being the violin.
"It’s very impressive," said Gary Abbamont, the school’s principal.
Mr. Abbamont attributes the success of the program to his staff, who he says get the students excited about music.
"We support the arts and we believe it’s an important part of our program here at Brooks Crossing," he said.
The teachers wouldn’t take all the credit, but agreed that students do get excited about music. And they have reason to. For all of their hard work and practicing, some students get the opportunity to play at a conference or a minor league baseball game.
The Chamber orchestra, which is a very select group of talented students, will be performing at the State Music Education Conference this year for all of the music teachers in the state.
Chad Miller, a general music teacher and the choral director, boasts that this is the second year the chorus will be singing the national anthem at a Trenton Thunder baseball game, the Class-AA affiliate of the New York Yankees.
The students put in a lot of practice time, meeting once a week for band, chorus and orchestra group practices and attending "pull-out lessons."
Josh Tostevin only teaches at the school on Fridays, but he spends the entire day conducting "pull-out lessons," small, group lessons which students attend in lieu of regular class time.
The students have been rehearsing for their upcoming winter concerts scheduled for yesterday (Wednesday) and Jan. 20. On concert days they put on a morning performance for their classmates and an evening performance for the community.
In addition to conducting lessons, the music teachers also organize the spring musical. Ms. Capes said this is another way to show students what the department has to offer.
Earlier this year they held open auditions for the fourth- and fifth-graders for The Music Man Jr. Rehearsals have just started and the teachers have their hands full this year with a cast of 84 students.
"Every kid that wants to be in it is in it," Ms. Capes said of the musical.
She explained that the musical is a collective effort. While she and Mr. Miller work on the musical aspects, the art teachers work on scenery and a third-grade teachers takes care of the choreography.
On top of all of this, Ms. Capes and Mr. Miller teach general music education.
Ms. Capes teaches preschool, second grade and fifth grade and Mr. Miller teaches kindergarten, first, third and fourth grades.
Ms. Capes said they teach the basics of music, how to read rhythm and music vocabulary. She said her fifth-graders are currently working on music composition and will be using a computer program to create sheet music.
"All third-graders will be learning recorder," Mr. Miller said.
They’re hoping to start that process at the end of this month.
He said that he also assigns different cultures to each grade. The second-graders learned about American Indians. Another grade is learning about music in Africa.
"It’s a big program and it’s expanding," Ms. Capes said.