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Weston Music Society Turns School Cafeterias Into Concert Halls
WHILE MANY ADULTS WOULD BE HARDpressed to name four woodwind instruments, Weston elementary school students can not only identify the instruments but also the unique sound each one makes. It’s all thanks to the Weston Music Society’s (WMS) in-school music program.
Established by WMS Past President Rochelle Koenig, this music appreciation program brings professional musicians into our schools to teach students about their instruments, how each is played and how it sounds.
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Every “concert” features a different instrument family – woodwind, bass, string, or percussion –within a philharmonic orchestra. This past semester, the woodwind quartet from the Symphony of the Americas “toured” all of the elementary schools in Weston, exposing more than 5,000 children to the unique sounds of the flute, oboe, clarinet, and bassoon.
Christy Blackford, co-vice president of education for WMS, says the reason they feature quartets is because with four instruments you get to hear all of the harmonies. She compares it to a spaghetti dinner, explaining that without a garlic roll and salad, the meal is okay, but it’s not complete.
“We are introducing the students to instruments that they wouldn’t generally have access to. These are instruments that when they are a few years older they will have the opportunity to play in middle school band or in youth orchestras,” explains Blackford. “Even if the children never take up the clarinet or trumpet, it is just one more thing that they have learned about and enriched their lives.”
During each in-school music presentation, students from kindergarten through fifth grade get to hear how each instrument sounds on its own and with the other instruments. One of the highlights of each concert is when the quartet plays together.
“The children love the concerts, you can tell that from their faces,” notes Blackford. “They get so excited when they recognize a song, like ‘The Imperial March’ (Darth Vader’s theme) or the tune from ‘Harry Potter,’ played by the musicians.”
