Congrats Waterville High School

Heritage Festival, New York City

Recently Waterville High School musicians traveled to New York City for the Heritage Festival. Not only did they come home with awards but they had a chance to experience part of the culture that New York has to offer.

Chaperone and Waterville High School nurse Ann Bouchard describes the pride in the music students and their trip to New York City:

“So lucky to have been part of this amazing experience with exceptional musicians and people—-our students!!!  Colleagues and chaperones were top notch.  Thanks to our music educators for giving the gift of music to our children and students and for enriching our lives with their gifts.  As was said at the festival, “The arts make our world civilized.”  Thank goodness something does and these educators and musicians have a hand in the civilizing of our part of the world”.

Sue Barre with her son and daughter, juniors at Waterville High School

Waterville music educator Sue Barre words to school staff on the return from New York:

“We had a wonderful few days. First and foremost we would like to share the compliments we received on how polite and well behaved our students are. Kudos to all at WSHS for that”!

DESCRIPTION OF THE EXPERIENCE

Ensembles are adjudicated on a scale that is used nationwide at Heritage Festivals. Student ensembles were from California, Florida, Maryland, Ohio, and Maine. This included 700-800 students.

Gold awards indicates scores of 90-100. The Waterville ensembles that earned Gold ratings:

• chorus
• sound check
• strings
• band
• jazz band

Four of the six awards presented for Outstanding Musicianship were presented to Waterville students

• Alex Lecrone – sound check
• Soren Nyhus – strings
• Natalia Fuentes – string
• Aubrey Fossett – band and jazz band

Each school was asked to nominate a student who not only is a strong musician but also a good school citizen, scholar, and overall person. Selected for this award from the entire festival was Waterville’s Soren Nyhus!

• Best overall Band Program – Waterville
• Best overall String Program – Waterville
• Best overall Instrumental Program – Waterville
• Adjudicators Award for Concert Band – average of 92 or more on scores – Superior Performance
• Festival Award for Best Program – Waterville

Congratulations to the Waterville Music educators for their outstanding teaching and preparing students to participate in this event!

• Sue Barre – Band and department chair
• Ciara Hargrove – Vocals
• Graybert Beacham – Strings

Master Musician Visits Waterville

Waterville students benefit

Waterville schools had the privilege of hosting Srinivas Krishnan, an Indian Musician, for a week-long residency. The educational experience impacted the 80 members of the high school band, the 40 member chorus and 50 member orchestra. In addition, Srini worked with the 38, grades 4-8 elementary and middle school gifted and talented students from AOS 92 (Waterville, Winslow, and Vassalboro).

While in Waterville Krishnan, taught the students about music from other cultures, cooked and treated them to Indian food and told stories. As often happens when providing unique learning opportunities for students, he enlightened the students about life and humanity. Scrini’s goal is to work in small towns to share his culture with students who would not otherwise be able to have access.

Not only was this a learning opportunity for students but when teaching artists spend time in schools, teachers benefit as well. It was an initial contact that Scrini had with Sam Lyons while he was at USM that lead to this residency. It was evident that Scrini impacted Sam and music educators Sue Barre and Ciara Hargrove as well.

Ciara, Scrini, Sue, Sam

I joined Maine DOE visual and performing arts specialist Beth Lambert for the culminating performance at Waterville Senior High School and it was evident that the impact Scrini had on the music program and students during the week was enormous. In addition to the performance that I attended the community packed the auditorium on one evening that a day school was canceled.

Playing Tablas with high school students

Srinivas Krishnan who goes by Scrini, is a Master Percussionist from India and has been trained under four master musicians in India. He gave his first solo recital at the age of 16 and was featured as a percussionist at the University of North Texas at the age of 21. Srinivas performs on the tabla, the ghatam, the Middle Eastern dumbek, the Irish Bodhran, and the mridangam. He has degrees in areas of the science, engineering and management from Miami University. You can read his entire biography at THIS LINK.

Ciara and Scrini singing

The English department chair, Katie Dunn sent the following note to the members of the music department Sue Barre, Ciara Hargrove, and Sam Lyons:
Thank you for such a heartwarming cultural experience on Friday. I was overwhelmed to see so many of our students singing and playing music with Scrini Krishnan. Over a quarter of the school was on that stage! And they had embraced this Indian rhythm and sound that is so different than what I imagine they usually hear and play. It was awesome to see and hear the results.

Check out a segment of the performance Scrini directed with the audience by CLICKING HERE.

Amy Calder from the Kennebec Journal attended the Friday concert and she describes the experience very well in the article at THIS LINK.

I think the experience was best summed up by accomplished sophomore musician Soren Nyhus, 15, a cellist in the school orchestra. “We all work to make the music better with the notes, the rhythms and all that stuff. Working with Scrini taught me that music is more than working on the notes. Music has the ability to speak to all of us through the heart, music is our common language.”

CLICK HERE for a glimpse at a rehearsal with Scrini that lead up to the performances.

CLICK HERE for video footage of the afternoon at Waterville High School.

Sue Barre, department chair, hopes that Scrini will return and involved more learners as part of a Global Rhythms Concert. If you’d like more information please contact Sue at sbarre@aos92.org.

Great Day for Arts Education

Celebration at the State House

Last week 75 students in grades PK-12 were honored for their accomplishments in visual art and music education. We celebrated in the Hall of Flags in Maine’s State House. We are honored to have the First Lady Ann LePage as a partner in the Excellence in Visual and Performing Arts Education and to join us in recognizing the students in the ceremony.

Joining the First Lady in the Hall of Flags was Maine Arts Commission Executive Director Julie Richard, State Board of Education Chair Martha Harris, Acting Education Commissioner Bill Beardsley, and Legislators, Mick Devin (Nobleboro) and Martin Grohman (Biddeford).

Students from AOS 93, AOS 92, MSAD 41, and the Biddeford School districts were presented certificates and viewed their artwork on display throughout the State House complex, in the Maine Arts Commission and the Maine Department of Education.

Additionally, students from the Waterville High School Jazz Band under the direction of Sue Barre and a select choir under the direction of Ciara Hargrove performed at the ceremony. I know that Sue, Ciara and visual art teachers Lisa Workman, Kate Grant, Suzanne Goulet, and Sasha Bladen are proud of their students’ accomplishments!

This is a first for the State of Maine. The Maine Department of Education and the Maine Arts Commission are collaborating to bring together this exhibit and in celebrating the students and teachers in a ceremony. I am sooooo excited that this is happening for Maine’s students and teachers!

It is a pleasure to work with Maine’s DOE Visual and Performing Arts Specialist, Beth Lambert on the Excellence in Maine Visual and Performing Arts Education exhibit and celebration ceremony.

If you have questions or are interested in participating, please contact Beth at beth.lambert@maine.gov or me at argy.nestor@maine.gov.

Photo credits to the Maine Department of Education and the Maine Arts Commission.