by Leslie Ford –
What kind of relationship do you have with music? Do you attend the Georgetown Symphony Society performances or the Georgetown summer concerts on the Square? Do you enjoy performances at Hardtails or other local venues? No matter what type of music you like best, your relationship with music probably began when you were a child, or even a baby. And you would probably agree that enjoying music has made your life richer.
One important goal of the Georgetown Symphony Society is to expose elementary school children, in grades 4 and 5, to classical music performed by professional musicians. For about $2.50 per child, GSS puts on both fall and spring concerts for more than 4,000 students. In 2014, Seeds of Strength awarded the Georgetown Symphony Society a $7,500 grant to support the Musical Enrichment Program. This year, we awarded another $10,000 that funds bus transportation for the children and performance fees for the musicians.
Last fall, I was invited to attend the Musical Enrichment Program’s concert. It was fun to see the children respond to the performance by the Georgetown Fire Department Pipes and Drums. The boys and girls seemed quite interested in how the bagpipes and drums made their different sounds, as well as learning why the firemen wore kilts. After attending the concert, several children wrote to the Georgetown Symphony Society to thank them for the concert; some even shared that they hope to play an instrument in the future.
This year, the Austin Flute Choir performed at the Musical Enrichment Program’s fall concert. As I arrived at the Klett Performing Arts Center, a parade of school buses from Georgetown ISD and Florence ISD were arriving. The children took their seats in the theater and “turned off their outside voices,” as I heard one teacher say to her students. Nancy Robohn, Chair of the Musical Enrichment Program, welcomed the students and acknowledged that the concert was made possible by Seeds of Strength. She then introduced the Austin Flute Chair and its director Dr. David Oertal.
During the concert, each musician introduced her/his instrument and played a short solo piece. The smallest flute, the piccolo, was the first presented, and I learned that “piccolo” is the Italian word for “small.” The largest flute presented was the contrabass flute, which is taller than any of the students that attended the concert. The children learned that the contrabass flute is curved so that the musician can reach the instrument’s mouthpiece and keys.
A number of pieces by the full choir were performed; some familiar, such as, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” and some not, such as “Sugar Buzz” and “Daddy, Where’s My Cape?”
When the concert ended, a member of the audience asked the musicians how old they were when they began playing instruments. It turns out that several began when they were in the fourth grade. Perhaps this performance by the Austin Flute Choir will inspire many of these fourth and fifth graders to join a music program in middle school. And for those who do not learn to plan an instrument themselves, this concert will help develop their appreciation for a broad variety of music. Whatever path each student takes, I hope you agree that $2.50 per child is a very small price to pay for exposure to this level of musical enrichment.