From the South Orange-Maplewood School District:
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. – When music teacher Todd Van Beveren picked up his violin to demonstrate how to play a piece by J.S. Bach at the District’s Summer Music Enrichment program on Tuesday, his students were fixated on him.
One reason may have been how beautifully Van Beveren played the music. Another reason may have been his violin.
Van Beveren brought in his Guarneri violin, one of 2,000 created by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù who might be considered the working man’s rival to Antonio Stradivari. Of the 2,000 Guarneri violins that were originally made, only a little more than 100 exist in the world today.
The students appreciated the instrument’s rarity. One took a photo of it, with Van Beveren’s permission. But Van Beveren was also using his Guarneri to teach a lesson in musical dynamics, and what be heard when an instrument is played softly.
Todd Van Beveren shares a joke with his students in the orchestra session of the Summer Music Enrichment Program.
“Soft is where the average instrument will lose its tone. Whereas with a real good violin, cello, bass, or viola it should keep that with a different kind of warm sound,” he said to the 30 student musicians on the stage at Delia Bolden Elementary School. “That’s why it’s important as an orchestra that we learn to be just as good in that softer range as we are when we power up.”
The three-and-a-half week Summer Music enrichment program is aimed at giving the students new experiences, instrumentally and vocally. About 140 middle school students are in the program, up from last year’s total of 60 students. This year there are 80 students in the orchestra classes, 40 in the symphonic band classes, and 20 in the choir. The program first began two summers ago as a result of the pandemic, Van Beveren said.
James Manno, Fine & Performing Arts Supervisor, said that the consistent increase in numbers for the program “coincides with the enrollment increase we have seen in the K-8 Fall and Spring music programs each year post Covid. SOMSD students and families have always had a great love for and been great supporters of our music education programs, and the Summer Music Enrichment Program is no exception.”
“This partnership between the administration, staff, students, and the community has allowed the District to maintain its national designation of being one of the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) ‘Best Communities for Music’ annually,” added Manno.
There is no cost to the families whose children play an instrument or sing in the chorus. The program’s total cost is $22,000, which is paid for by the District’s use of ESSER II (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) funds. The funding covers expenses such as paying the instructors and some musical instrument rentals and supplies.
Newcomers are welcome to the program. Experienced student musicians are encouraged to pick up instruments they have never played. The day’s repertoire can range from Bach to Backstreet Boys.
“They are learning how to challenge themselves,” said Van Beveren. “We’re also building a lot of comradery.”
Students from different elementary schools become familiar with each other and the music teachers through the program, he said.
Domenic Croce, who will be entering his third year as a music teacher in the District in September, said that working in the program benefitted him professionally.
“This is the place where, as an educator, you can really be creative,” said Croce, who student taught in the District while he attended Montclair State University.
One day could be spent with works of music that are entirely in the same key, and the next day could be spent working with a variety of keys, he said.
Chris Balas conducts the symphonic band students in the Summer Music Enrichment Program.
In a classroom down the hall from the auditorium, Music Teacher Chris Balas was coaching his symphonic band students on their musicianship.
“I think everybody could play a little less to hear yourself,” he said, “and a little more to hear the other people in the room.”
The concept was reinforced later by Chorus Teacher Regina Bradshaw, who completed her 27th year teaching in the District in June.
At the end of every session in the program, Bradshaw leads all of the student musicians from all three sections together in the auditorium in a choral session.
On Tuesday, Bradshaw – in a matter of minutes – had the students singing a song that was new to them in perfect time, with one side of the auditorium echoing the other.
Regina Bradshaw leads a choral session with all of the afternoon students of the Summer Music Enrichment Program.
“When you bring them all together, they begin to understand how everything fits together,” said Bradshaw.
It’s a concept that goes beyond singing or playing music, she said.
“A lot of students don’t understand how the pieces of their education fit together,” said Bradshaw.
The fractions and division learned in math classes apply to the rhythms of the notes of music they play and sing, Bradshaw said.
“Everything connects,” she said.
Related:
- South Orange-Maplewood School District Lags in COVID Fund Spending, June 14, 2023
- Rising Stars Summer Program Underway At Seth Boyden Elementary School, July 6, 2023
- SOMSD Receives $2.9 Million in FEMA Reimbursement for Pandemic Expenditures, July 14, 2023
- Maplewood Middle School ‘Summer Experience’ Program Expands, July 17, 2023
- South Orange & Maplewood Teens Earn Coveted Spots in Paper Mill’s Summer Musical Theater Conservatory, July 21, 2023
