SPRINGDALE -- Zion May said he wants to perform in school musicals because he was inspired by an opera performance at Westwood Elementary School.
The Opera on Tour group from the Tulsa, Okla., Opera performed "The Coyotes and the Rabbits" at Westwood on Thursday. The show is a bilingual opera based on a Mexican folk tale, said Felicia Gay, music teacher. The group has performed at Westwood in each of the past six years.
At A Glance (w/logo)
Music Benefits
• Children have better concentration skills.
• Children have better math skills.
• Children have better spelling skills.
• Children are better at remembering a sequence of events.
• Music helps increase a child’s cognitive development.
• Children might express interest in playing an instrument.
• Children will have a greater appreciation for the arts.
Source: Staff Report
The floor of the cafeteria was crowded with students laughing as performers sang and acted out the story of a pair of rabbits outsmarting an uneducated coyote who wanted to eat them. In the end, the coyote fell down a well because he couldn't read the "danger" sign.
"My friends don't think it's cool to read, but just pick up a book and read," sang the coyote's cousin. "Read about things you've never heard of and watch them come alive."
Exposing children to music helps them academically, said Elizabeth Lasko, assistant executive director of the National Association For Music Education. Learning about music can help children achieve better test scores and reading skills. Music also helps brain development, because it teaches children to process sounds and analyze them.
"You have to think about things a certain way when you learn music," she said. "It teaches you to focus and concentrate."
Exposure to music can increase a child's appreciation for art, Lasko said. Appreciation is important when it comes to opera, because many children only think of opera stereotypes until they see and hear it, said Aaron Beck, director of education and outreach for Tulsa Opera.
"Whether or not these kids become opera fans, we want them to know that opera is more than a fat lady standing on a stage, wearing horns and screaming," Beck said. "The stereotypes of opera are really inaccurate."
Zion, a fifth-grader, said he didn't realize there was acting in opera before he saw the shows at school.
"I always thought opera was no instruments, just singing," he said.
Exposure to different styles of music also can cause children to be more open-minded and form their own opinions about certain types of music, Gay said.
Westwood students have music class once a week, Gay said. She connected the performance to the lessons by speaking to the children about folk tales, culture and opera.
Janet Huerta, also a fifth-grader, said she heard the story the opera is based on from her grandmother who lives in Mexico. Janet said her grandmother told her the story because of its message about the importance of education.
The tour group performs at about 100 schools every year in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri, Beck said.
NW News on 03/07/2014