Shepherd Outreach
Viola in one hand and bow in the other, Joanne Wojtowicz
leans slightly out of her chair and asks, “Do you know what
the most dangerous job in the world is?” Curious and wide-eyed,
42 Kennedy Elementary first-graders turn their heads toward her.
“Being a composer,” she continues, now that she has
arrested their attention. “Beethoven went deaf, Schumann went
mad, and Bach, he had 20 children.”
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| Joanne Wojtowicz and a student
from Kennedy Elementary |
The children don’t seem particularly perturbed or impressed,
but they are certainly more interested. The next step is to provide
them with some ideas of what to listen for, such as “chase
scenes” and “swing sets.” Then, Wojtowicz and
four other Shepherd School students—Hermine Gagne (first violin),
Yen-ping Lai (second violin), Marilyn DeOliveira (cello), and Pi-ju
Chiang (piano)—perform the third movement of Schumann’s
Piano Quintet in E-flat Major. Not only do these children hear a
first-rate performance, they also discover in the process that music
of this kind can trigger the imagination, create pictures, and tell
a story.
Kennedy Elementary, a school in the Houston Independent School District,
is clearly in favor of encouraging music appreciation among its
students. Ted Russell, manager of the Community-in-Schools Project,
organizes these special events to expose the children to the arts.
These 42 first-graders weren’t the only ones who showed up
for a concert—a second group of 34 first- and second-graders
arrived later for the following half-hour session. Andrea Deese,
a special education aide who brought three of her charges, says,
“Young students need every chance to be exposed to the arts.”
Janet Rarick, an artist teacher in wind ensembles, is one of the
Shepherd School faculty members who help oversee this outreach program.
She explains that the program grew out of a discussion by the wind
chamber ensemble in fall 1998. Several students suggested using
outreach as a way to increase performance opportunities and potentially
increase audience size at regularly scheduled wind chamber music
concerts. Leone Buyse, professor of flute and chamber music, subsequently
created an independent study program for students who wished to
connect with the Houston community by coordinating outreach concerts.
Her husband, Michael Webster, an associate professor of clarinet
and ensembles, also plays an active role in overseeing and encouraging
outreach participation.
The first student coordinator was flutist Caen Thomason-Redus ’99,
who organized visits by student chamber groups to Kennedy and Whidby
Elementary Schools in 1999. He also obtained a grant from Leadership
Rice to cover transportation costs. His wife, Kristi Crago ’99,
also was involved in the first outreach concerts. Caen and Kristi
now work for the Evansville Philharmonic in Indiana—he as
orchestra personnel manager and regular substitute piccoloist, and
she as principal hornist. Both are involved in educational activities
throughout the Evansville region.
The same day that Joanne and her colleagues were at Kennedy, five
other Shepherd School musicians were performing at Lamar High School.
Joel Luks (flute), Katherine Young (oboe), Elizandro Garcia-Montoya
(clarinet), Brooke Bartels (bassoon), and Dave Brimhall (horn) played
two quintets by Klughart and Harbison for an audience of high schoolers.
“This program is a very good chance for performers like myself
to play in a friendly, low-pressure environment,” says Katie
Schott, a flutist and second-year graduate student who shares program
coordinating duties with Joanne. “Kids are very curious about
the music. It’s fun to hear their questions and comments about
the music, and it’s nice to know that you may have changed
that child’s life by performing for them. It has definitely
affected my life as a student. The program makes you get up and
talk about your instruments and your piece of music, which some
students feel uncomfortable doing, yet it is a necessary skill to
have in any field.”
Shepherd School chamber music students now perform at least four
outreach concerts each year. Audiences, ranging in size from 15
to 250 people, have included senior citizens from Sheltering Arms
as well as students from elementary, middle, and high schools in
Houston, Alief, and Pasadena.
Rarick observes that a major benefit of the program is the great
satisfaction that comes from reaching out to others. “We have
found that our concerts are a great way to get children exposed
to a college campus at an early age. Who knows what dreams may come
from these experiences? If even one or two children can be inspired
to go to college, it will be worth it.”
—Tse-Ying Koh
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