From left to right: Shana Tucker, songwriting residency/ Graham Hepburn, CEO, Quaver Music HQ in Nashville/ Beverly Botsford, world music drumming residency

Gratitude for the North Carolina Symphony’s Education Concerts

~Jenni Sonstroem

(commissioned for the NC Symphony website blog as a curriculum author)

I am so excited to have the chance to express how grateful I am for the opportunities provided to teachers and students by our very own North Carolina Symphony. As a former “symphony student,” I understand how beneficial the NC Symphony educational concerts are for the youth of our state. I’m also honored to have been asked to author this year’s curricular materials published by the NC Symphony in partnership with the NC Department of Public Instruction. Every year, teacher workbooks featuring the composers and lesson plans that correspond to the concert program are published for use in the North Carolina arts education classrooms. These workbooks aid educators in preparing students for their NC Symphony field trip and education concert. Along with three other colleagues, I was invited to write lesson plans and present at the 2014-2015 Teacher Workshop on August 14, 2014.

I first got to hear the NC Symphony as a sixth-grader when my band director took students to the education concert at the War Memorial Auditorium in Greensboro. I remember being transformed by the sound of a live symphony orchestra. It was a completely different experience than hearing recorded music being played. I was enveloped in the larger-than-life sound that filled every corner of the concert hall. It was an incredibly memorable feeling! In relation to where I am now, that experience seems to have brought me full circle. Our guest speaker at the Teacher Workshop, David Hartman, encouraged us to reflect on our most powerful musical memories. I now look back on that first concert experience and see how it inspired my future path-- from early music studies to a Master’s in Jazz Piano Performance and on to becoming a National Board Certified Teacher.

As I prepare my elementary school students for their first Education Concert, I am just as excited for them to experience the same excitement. And, after teaching for thirteen years, I’ve been able to witness students’ enthusiasm upon returning from the Education Concert. They write about how the live music made them imagine all kinds of creative stories taking place. They say the music makes them feel suspenseful or like they are “walking on clouds.” They think the musicians are “fabulous” and they are especially impacted when the entire orchestra plays all together. My students also usually dress up for the event that they’ve been looking forward to since the beginning of the school year. They love it!

Writing curriculum for the Education Concert was a great experience. I have attended the NC Symphony Teacher Workshop for seven years now and always enjoy the presenters’ approach to teaching the music curriculum they’ve authored. The education workshop involves educators in the learning process and demonstrates the lesson plans they’ve developed for other teachers to share in their classrooms. Some music teachers will bring their students to Meymandi Hall (or Fletcher Hall) to showcase some of the curricular activities related to the featured composer’s piece. For example, this year, I decided to videotape my students demonstrating an activity on instrumental tone color for Claude Debussy’s piece entitled Nuages from Nocturnes. During my presentation for the teacher workshop, the video was played for other educators to see the lesson in action. I also videotaped a different group of students showing how to put three rhythmic parts together for an activity related to the study of Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag,” which will also be performed on the Education Concert. The lesson plans the four authors of the Teacher Workbook (Melissa Poraczky, Sue Reynolds, Wynette Wilson, and I) have created range from historical context to visual art connections. Our goal is to make the lessons an exciting prelude to attending the concert. It was fun for us to write and engaging for the students to study.

In fact, the Teacher Workshop is one of the best days of the school year for those who attend. We get to spend the day learning, collaborating with one another, and putting the lessons into practice. It brings so much clarity to the process of preparing our students. I enjoy seeing fellow music colleagues sharing ideas and getting geared up for the new school year.

I am very much looking forward to continuing to prepare my students to attend their Education Concert. We will certainly be covering the lessons that are included in the NC Symphony Teacher Workbook. Students will also do research with the Media Coordinator at my school to learn more about the composers’ lives. That’s the best part-- connecting with the music in a way that’s true to life, up close and personal. Similarly, when students attend the Education Concert, they’ll likely be transformed as audience members. Bravo North Carolina Symphony!