[Magdalen] A concert series for children

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

We had just arrived at school, and the teacher welcomed a student into the
classroom. she apparently routinely welcomes people who have arrived at
school but a have a bit of time before classes begin. This young man wanted
to try to earn his yellow belt in recorder.  As we watched and agonized
through it, Manuel tried repeatedly to get through the little tune he
needed to master, and his teacher, in a no-big-deal way, said that of
course he had to get it absolutely perfect in order to get credit.  I felt
kind of bad for him, of course, but he just put his recorder away and went
to his assigned classroom.

A day or so after we got home, the teacher sent an email to thank us again,
especially me, since I travelled furthest, and she also noted that the day
after we were there, Manuel came in and passed his yellow belt.  Go,
Manuel!!

I told the teacher to please pass on to Manuel our congratulations.

Will he be another Frans Bruggen? There's no way to tell, but I do know
that this is one small way we oppose the continuing dumbing down of music
in America.  If we don't do it, I dread the pathetic excuse for music we'll
have in this putative country in another couple generations.

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Thu, Mar 17, 2016 at 3:02 AM, James Oppenheimer-Crawford <
oppenheimerjw at gmail.com> wrote:

> I belong to the Adirondack Baroque Consort, which is the oldest
> continuously operating early music group in the USA.  We give concerts for
> which we ask for payment. The money goes for music and supports scholarship
> funds.
>
> Recently a music teacher in an elementary school in Utica (NY) requested a
> grant to purchase recorders for her students. The school had cut funding
> for the recorders. We decided to give her a grant which paid for the
> recorders for her kids.
> I suggested that we ought to go to the school and play for the kids so
> they could get a real taste of what one could do with that recorder they
> have been given.
> We settled upon this past Monday as the day.
> We came to the school at about eight o'clock, and we played for all of the
> teacher's classes. Classes are a half-hour long, so we played a small
> repertoire again and again -- and again...  By the time we were done, at
> about three o'clock, we had lost track of how many concerts we did. "Nine,"
> said the teacher.  Goodness! No wonder we were exhausted!
>
> Seeing how this lady handled the seemingly endless parade of kids was a
> reminder of how much work it is to teach!  I was in awe of her patience and
> wisdom.
>
> Hopefully we made impressions on some of the kids that will last.  Our
> director said his first memory of the recorder was hearing one played when
> he was in the fifth grade, and it changed his life.  We all felt we had
> done a good thing, and perhaps made a difference.
>
> March is Play-the-recorder month.  Every recorder ensemble is asked to try
> to do something during March, to create some sort of groundswell, I
> suppose.  In the past, we have sometimes not done very much. This year, I
> think we did something!
>
>
>
> James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
> *“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
> except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy
>