Costa CostaRica RicaEx By Nathan Bogert, assistant professor of music performance (saxophone), and a Ball State alumnus.
Pictured above are Dr. Helton, Dr. Bogert, and Kaleigh Wilder with members of the Costa Rican community school.
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In January of 2017 I traveled with Dr. Jim Helton and then senior performance major Kaleigh Wilder (now at Michigan) to Perez Zeledon, Costa Rica. We taught at a community music school called La Escuela de Musica Sinfonica de Perez Zeledon. La Escuela is a community school that is funded by both the National University of Costa Rica (UNA) and the city of Perez Zeledon. The school provides private lessons, music theory classes, music history classes, and the opportunity for the students to perform in wind bands, orchestras, jazz bands, and choirs. The students who attend the school range in age from 5 years old until they graduate high school.
During the 2017 trip, Kaleigh, Jim and I taught the saxophone and piano classes at the schools summer camp. Each day consisted of private lessons for every student, master classes covering various topics, and group pedagogy classes. In addition to these classes, we helped the ensembles during rehearsals. There was also a recital in which Dr. Helton, Kaleigh and myself played a full program in front of the students and their families. In October of 2017, Ball State hosted 5 students from Perez Zeledon and a faculty member from the school. These 5 students stayed on campus for a full week. They attended academic classes, sat-in on rehearsals, had private lessons with BSU faculty members, attended concerts and even attended two football games and tailgated with Kevin Gerrity! All in all the trip was a great success and it was such a pleasure watching them answer questions for their peers at the summer camp in January of 2018.