St Augustine students score with symphony

MARYANNE FIRTH Staff Photo — Niagara Symphony Orchestra principal musicians Douglas Miller, Charlene Nagel, Marlene Dankiw-Bath and Gordon Cleland perform pieces created by the Grade 6 and 7 students at St. Augustine Catholic School in front of the entire student body Friday. Students created their own music as part of the Composer in the Classroom program.

WELLAND — It was music to their ears. The Grade 6 and 7 students at St. Augustine Catholic School watched on as members of the Niagara Symphony Orchestra performed in the school's gymnasium. This wasn't just any performance. The four orchestra members were performing pieces written by students themselves through the two-week Composer in the Classroom program.

Through the program, symphony education co-ordinator and associate conductor Laura Thomas taught students about music and composition. The goal of the program is to see students walk away with a greater understanding of what goes into creating all types of art, not just music, Thomas said. All artists begin with a "kernel of inspiration" which is then developed and built into a larger piece. The students began with their own kernel, working in groups to build eight original pieces of music they can be proud of.

At the end of the program, students got to showcase their work to the entire school through professional musicians, which is a motivating experience, Thomas said. "We help to make the kids' ideas come to life through the instruments." "It's always a great day when brand new Canadian music is heard for the first time," said Thomas before Friday's performance began.

She was impressed at how well staff at St. Augustine had prepared students for the program, teaching the basics of music and its parts during regular classroom time. Through Composer in the Classroom, students learn about harmony, formation and instrumentation.

Grade 6 teacher Melissa Heil has watched on in amazement as her students embraced music over the past two weeks. "The things they've done, it's just amazing. In five lessons, I never dreamed elementary students could do what they've done." Although school staff are beaming with pride, Heil said it's the students who are most proud of what they've accomplished in such a short time.
Each student was asked to research a composer in history. At the end of the program Heil informed her pupils they could now include themselves among the likes of famous composers from around the world.

Heil was particularly pleased with the program because it allows access to music for children whose families may not otherwise be able to afford lessons, she said. "It's important because it allows them to express themselves creatively and share their emotions." Learning how to read and create music benefits students' math skills and teaches them to make connections between music and literature, she said.

Heil said it's getting "harder and harder" for students to gain any musical education in elementary school. Youths with no musical experience may shy away when the opportunity to learn presents itself later in life, she said.

The program is also an opportunity for students to experience different forms of music, such as classical, that they may have never been exposed to before. "A lot of them have never experienced the Niagara Symphony." After Friday's performance, she told students: "Music is in every one of you, you just need to figure out how to get it out."

Symphony education co-ordinator BJ Armstrong said schools from both the public and Catholic school boards can apply to have the Composer in the Classroom program come to their school.
Six schools each year are selected to participate. Armstrong said the program, while beneficial to students, also helps to grow the symphony's audience. It helps youths to gain an appreciation for the creation of music of all kinds, she said.

Composer In The Classroom

By Jordan Nunziato for The Welland Tribune
February 4, 2010


Students at St. Augustine Catholic School in Welland are getting the opportunity to participate in the Composer in the Classroom program, presented by Niagara Symphony. The program, which kicked off last week, will end Feb. 12 with a live performance.

WELLAND — With a bang, toot, horn and whistle, the Composer in the Classroom series has begun at St. Augustine Catholic School.

Composer in the Classroom is an innovative, creative program offered by Niagara Symphony to students in Grade 5 to Grade 8 at select schools in Niagara. Students will engage in the creative process of developing their own music while learning the fundamentals of music theory. On the final day of this program, the students will witness their compositions being performed by professional musicians.

"Composer in the Classroom is a program we have been offering for about six years now — it definitely has developed," says associate Niagara Symphony conductor Laura Thomas. "It's amazing to see the transformation from the first day to the last."

Thomas adds that while on the first day many of the students aren't so interested, by last day they start to understand that the music is something that they created and will be performed.

The program consists of three 90-minute sessions with Thomas. Following that is an orchestration workshop with other symphony musicians to fine-tune each composition.

"It's kind of bitter-sweet for me. Being young people, they don't really know what they're involved in until they experience it," says Thomas.

This program not only teaches the children about music but much more, according to Niagara Symphony education co-ordinator B.J. Armstrong. "The possibility of cross-curricular application is huge," says Armstrong. "A really cool thing about this is that a kid who is good at math can understand music through it, and a kid who is good at music can access math through it." Armstrong says that the students will also learn that there is a connection to almost anything in the universe.

This way of thinking, she says, can be driven by children being exposed to the arts early in life. "I think it's really, really sad that we don't have a system now that's teaching the kids to the level of art awareness and literacy," she says. "It's not that people here on the ground aren't trying; it's that it's not funded enough.

"This will affect children in the next generation and I believe, with every fibre of my being, that will be negative," says Thomas.

Composer in the Classroom began at St. Augustine Catholic School Feb. 2 and will run next week on Monday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to noon.

It will end on Friday with a live performance starting at 12:30 p.m.


Donated instrument helps symphony capture sounds of Christmas

By Marlene Bergsma for The Standard
December 14, 2009

Ludo Muntz used to pass the time or entertain shoppers in his Pen Centre music store with the mellow tones of his vibraphone, said Linda Sigfrid, his daughter. But the St. Catharines shopkeeper died in 2004 and there weren't many people interested in his unusual percussion instrument, said Sigfrid, who started a year ago trying to find it a new home. This weekend, the motorized, metallic instrument was moved to Brock University, as Sigfrid and her family donated it to the Niagara Symphony where it played a prominent role in the orchestra's two weekend performances of its holiday pops concert "Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus."

Timothy Hankewich conducted, as associate conductor and principal percussionist Laura Thomas played the vibraphone in a solo section of The Carol of the Bells. The two concerts also featured the Laura Secord Secondary School Chamber Strings ensemble performing in the lobby of the Brock Centre for the Arts during intermissions, and nine-year-old Abby Etling of Welland playing the role of young Virginia, the girl whose 1897 letter to the editor of the New York Sun prompted the response that inspired the beloved Christmas classic.

It was Thomas who paid a visit to Sigfrid's basement family room earlier this year to inspect the instrument and pronounce it worthy of the symphony's collection. But with a limited budget, there was no way the symphony could afford to buy it, said B. J. Armstrong, the symphony's education co-ordinator. That's when Sigfrid offered to donate the instrument, which is worth more than $2,000. Sigfrid said the instrument had been in her basement for a few years, and although her son and his friends would jam with the drums and guitars down there, "nobody really wanted to play it (the vibraphone). I think they were kind of scared of it because I always said, 'Be careful with that thing, it's not a toy.' "

Sigfrid said she really likes the sound of the vibraphone, which is played with string-wrapped rubber mallets, and was tempted to hang onto it "for sentimental reasons. But it was not being used as it should." Sigfrid said she had tried to sell it, but local music stores rejected it.

When Sigfrid learned the symphony would also be using it during its summer music camps, she knew her father, who "was always interested in music education," would have approved.
"My dad was an appreciator of music," Sigfrid said. "I think if he knew, he'd be very happy."

For her part, Thomas said she's delighted to be able to add the vibraphone to the symphony's collection. Most of the musicians provide their own instruments, but the symphony owns many of its percussion instruments. In the past, if a vibraphone was needed for a concert, the symphony would rent one or borrow hers, Thomas said. Having one saves the symphony the cost of rent or transportation, she said, and Armstrong said it will be well "cared for and looked after."

Sigfrid and her brother, Ron Muntz, and their spouses attended the concert Saturday night, and Sigfrid said it was wonderful to hear their father's vibraphone being played.
"We are so, so happy to see how happy they are with it," she said. "It makes us happy to see them happy."

The vibraphone is related to the xylophone or the glockenspiel, Thomas said, but the sound made by striking the metal bars with the mallet is sustained by the metal tubes that are suspended below, and a motorized system of rotating valves creates a "vibrato," or vibrating sound. "It's very popular in jazz," she said, and also essential for the bell-like sound required for much Christmas music.
"The Carol of the Bells," Thomas said. "How can you do that without a vibraphone?"


The Nearly Impossible Task Of Crafting A Business Plan For The Arts

By James Wegg for Business Link
December 2009

After an illustrious career of managing money and musicians in Toronto, Winnipeg, Denver, Ottawa, and Calgary, Jack Mills is settling down in Niagara for one more challenge of trying to keep an orchestra from drowning in a sea of artistically-driven red ink. For just over a couple of months he’s been on the job as Executive Director of the Niagara Symphony Association. Unlike previous incarnations (notably the Colorado and Calgary Philharmonic Orchestras—both had balance sheets loaded with over-valued assets and unforgiveable liabilities, remedied only by a trip to the bankruptcy court), the NSA has already weathered its economic tsunami (losing its music director in the wake of uncertain paydays for the fore-seeable future). Having staved off extinction, the orchestra is fortunate indeed to have a leader with such a strong background and at a time of life when the size of the paycheque is not as important as the opportunity to “more effectively serve a broader base in the community.”