— Hart MS Bands (@HartMsBands) May 20, 2016
What a night we had on Friday! After months of work, our students performed at our first ever Chamber Music Night! It was not without its bumps, but there are just some things that have to try first to get a feel for the best way to make them work.
Friday's event started about a week after I got the job this summer. I was meeting with my new teaching partner, Lauren. She is the band director at the high school across the street and also teaches one of the four sections of sixth grade band at the middle school. We were sharing ideas for where our program would go and she started telling me about some of the very cool composition and chamber music projects her students were doing. This turned into:
- What if the high school students could actually hear their compositions performed?
- What if the middle school students played them?
- What if the high school students had a culminating event to share the music they'd been working on?
- What if we did one big blow out event?
- What if we did it at the park downtown in the spring?
The whole process was as student driven as we could possibly make it. Students created the music, students selected the music and chose their own groups, students practiced together with minimal teacher intervention, and students performed. It was absolutely wonderful witnessing students as young as sixth grade having musical conversations. As we grew closer to the event, they even had the opportunity to perform for their classes and receive student (and some teacher) feedback.
We had a beautiful night! Families came prepared with picnics, set up on the hill, and enjoyed the performances. But while the preparation and weather went pretty smoothly, the event itself admittedly did not. Our sign up list was set up on the minute within a three hour block. Students with longer pieces signed up for multiple time spots in a row, however with all of the middle school and high school student participating in at least one group, we ran out of sign up spots. We started at 5PM and quickly ended up about 30-40 minutes behind the schedule. For those who have experienced it, the situation felt much like running a Solo and Ensemble room that was running late.
We had a beautiful night! Families came prepared with picnics, set up on the hill, and enjoyed the performances. But while the preparation and weather went pretty smoothly, the event itself admittedly did not. Our sign up list was set up on the minute within a three hour block. Students with longer pieces signed up for multiple time spots in a row, however with all of the middle school and high school student participating in at least one group, we ran out of sign up spots. We started at 5PM and quickly ended up about 30-40 minutes behind the schedule. For those who have experienced it, the situation felt much like running a Solo and Ensemble room that was running late.
Most families were very understanding, but some were very justifiably frustrated, especially those whose students had selected a specific time because of another event that evening. We worked hard to keep things moving (which they really did, as one group left the stage another was coming on. No down time.) but the last performers didn't go on until about 8:40 when we were supposed to be done at 8:00.
Now that we've done it here are our alterations for next year's so far:
- Sixth graders will double up on parts (duet will be four people, trio will be six, etc). Even though we were really going for the responsibility of individual students on individual parts, this will help both their confidence for their first small ensemble performance, and it will be a big help on time.
- Keep high school performances to three minutes or less.
- We need more pieces composed for groups larger than two. Many of the pieces written were duets so we needed more groups to allow for all students to perform.
- Pieces composed by the high school students cannot be longer than 16 bars (in 4/4).
- Possibly start earlier and end a little later.
- Plan some breaks into the performance schedule so that we have a chance to get caught up if necessary.
The work that went into providing our students an authentic performance experience was well worth it and we're already excited for possibilities next year's Chamber Music Night will bring.
Suggestions for keeping things running smoothly? Ever done something like this before and have words of wisdom?
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