Recruiting Replacements: Rogers Student Musicians Offer Lesson

Band, Choir, Orchestra Members Part of Demonstration

STAFF PHOTO FLIP PUTTHOFF 
Students in the Rogers High School FX Show Choir rehearse Tuesday before a choir and orchestra performance at the high school. The program introduced Rogers fourth-graders to music oppotunities they’ll have starting in the sixth grade. Show choir singers, front frow from left, Manuel Sandoval, Bradley Board and Griffin Hance rehearse with the choir before the performance.

STAFF PHOTO FLIP PUTTHOFF Students in the Rogers High School FX Show Choir rehearse Tuesday before a choir and orchestra performance at the high school. The program introduced Rogers fourth-graders to music oppotunities they’ll have starting in the sixth grade. Show choir singers, front frow from left, Manuel Sandoval, Bradley Board and Griffin Hance rehearse with the choir before the performance.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

— Fourth-graders filled the Rogers High School auditorium Tuesday to hear from orchestra, show choir and band members for an experience teachers hope will guide music participation.

The annual Music Appreciation in Rogers Schools concert is a field trip introduction to middle and high school music.

Students can start music electives in sixth grade.

At A Glance

What Did They Play?

High school students demonstrated orchestra and marching band instruments for fourth-graders during Tuesday’s concert.

Percussion: tenor drum, snare drum, bass drum and cymbals

Woodwinds: flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet and bassoon

Stringed instruments: violin, viola, cello and double bass

Brass instruments: trumpet, French horn, trombone and tuba

Source: Staff Report

Braeden Acosta, a fourth-grader at Janie Darr Elementary School, came to the assembly ready to evaluate his options.

“It gives me an opportunity to know what I wanna do in the future,” Braeden said of the concert. “I might play football. I might be in the orchestra or something.”

High school band and orchestra directors introduced different instruments. Students played string instruments from high to low. They showed the reeds from their woodwind instruments before playing. There was a drum line demonstration from Bill Rowan, Rogers High School band director who also had high school players take off the mouthpiece of brass instruments and blow buzzes through them.

Fourth-graders whispered recognition as the orchestra played the “Pink Panther” theme and bobbed up and down in their seats to Jacques Offenbach’s “Can-Can.”

Brian Patrick, a sophomore at Rogers High School, said he remembers his fourth-grade visit to high school.

“They played Harry Potter and memorable music pieces, and that made it cool and relatable, I guess,” Patrick said.

He plays the viola, which he started in sixth grade.

“I didn’t know what an orchestra was as a kid,” said Jerry Lane, orchestra director at Rogers High School and Elmwood Middle School. “Had I not ever been exposed to it at some time, everything in my life would be vastly different.”

The annual show gives high school students a good audience and a joint performance for band and orchestra members who don't typically work together. This year, the schools added a Monday night performance for parents and fifth-graders to the tradition of a fourth-grade concert.

“You can only aspire to what you’re aware of,” Lane said.

The concert was her first orchestra concert, said Giselle Moran, a junior at Heritage High School. She picked the violin for her instrument.

“I could see the passion when people played it,” Moran said.

Mounika Seeram, a junior at Heritage, also plays the violin, but friends influenced her selection.

Ellie Sebastian, a fourth-grader at Darr, said she likes both pop and classical music. She said she isn’t sure if she’d ever be in orchestra.

“I’m into dance,” Ellie said.

Maggie Donnell, a sophomore and Rogers High School FX Show Choir member, took dance as a girl. In fourth grade she went home from a concert and told her mom she knew what she wanted to do in high school.

“Singing was something I loved to do, and then putting them together was like heaven to me,” Maggie said.

Her brother was part of the show when Mary Coffin, a junior and Rogers show choir member, was in fourth grade, but it was the dresses that caught her eye. She remembers thinking the choir would be “cool.”

Music has a healing power, Coffin said.

“I hope that they get inspired to be in music because music is just so fabulous,” she said.