Starting tomorrow I am teaching 3 consecutive weeks of Music Camp for my school district. Basically since our traditional school year didn't end until 1 :30pm on June 20th, it would be fair to say I am a 11th month employee. August is always "vacation month" and get my daughter back to college month. Yet this will be the final August for that. Our daughter will graduate this December.
My youngest attended a Music Camp (1 week) when she was in eight grade. I'll be honest, I attended every concert my kids were involved with over the school years and the music shows were close to music, but not quite. The choices of pieces that were used were things that no one had ever heard of. It was obvious the the kids had no feelings for the music and it showed in a very unspectacular show.
Anyway, she wanted to go to this Music Camp and since I had been in the Barbershoppers (SPEBSQSA) with my Father when I was 12 years old, I thought it would be a good experience for her. And it was great. These were the same kids that just a couple weeks previous were singing with no enthusiasm or enjoyment had one week the learn the words, the music, the harmonies, build the sets and WOW, they were great. I have it on VCR and am planning to have it put on a CD since I no longer have a VCR Player anymore. If I remember correctly the name of the musical was
Showboatin'. I don't recall a single note they missed or harmony not accomplished. I was never so proud of my girl and all the kids, but all the difference had to have come from the system/director/instructor. She belted out the lyrics with such confidence and joy I thought I was going to cry. She went on to join the Madrigal group in High School and they gave concerts all over the state and in the Statehouse in Montpelier for then Governor, Howard Dean.
I hope what I said isn't interpreted as an insult to school based music teachers because the limited time and concentration required for such a production along with lack of adequate funding of these events means they do the best they can. They do the best they can with the time and resources that they are given and I have great respect for all of them. I know it isn't easy to do and probably is a lot like herding cats.
This same thing applies to most High School Choruses as well. I found it sad that they weren't able to find or use music scores that the kids could really get into. That said, however, I did attend my granddaughters High School Concert and they took on “Bohemian Rhapsody”. They were terrific.
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) and crawled into bed. Then I got up and watched the Jays.
