Week Two - Part Three

     Today is final preparation for the performance in Bass Performance Hall at 5 pm. B Sharp will perform first, followed by the Middle School and the High School summer camp choirs. At the start of camp today  the Wyeth String Quartet performed for the kids. Tonight they will perform on stage as part of the B Sharp Orchestra. How exciting to have these four incredible string players mentor our B Sharp strings and be with us on stage!
     Da'Yunna, Malachi, Esmerelda, Isiaha and Mr. Winckle will dance across stage before "New World Symphony" and the audience will love a rousing end as teh kids sing "Lean on Me". We hope everyone enjoys the concert!
     All videos of Summer Camp are now posted on Youtube.com/bsharpyouthmusic. There are links at the bottom of this blog to all videos from Week One and Week Two.

Week Two - Part Two

     Week two, days three and four, were filled with sectional time to work on "New World Symphony" and "Each of Us is a Flower". Ivan and Leslie worked with the woodwinds, Laura and Gustavo worked with the strings, Amanda worked with percussion and Jason with the brass. Bennett, a brass player from TCU, joined us for several days.
     Robert is working with the kids during choir time. They are singing "Lean on Me" and Sammi is going to sing a solo. The full orchestra came together at the end of each day to work on the three pieces to be performed on Friday.
    

Week Two - Part One

     This week all of our out-of-town musicians have returned to London and Baltimore and Chicago. Our musical teachers now include Ivan (woodwinds), Leslie (flute), Gustavo (violin), Laura (cello), Jason (brass) Amanda (percussion), Robert (choir) and Osvaldo, directing. We also have Bennett (brass), Maria (viola), Kelby (tuba) and Brianna (viola) working with the kids. The pieces being worked on are a Jamaican song, New World Symphony and" Lean on Me". It looks like Malachi will once again be a show-stopping break dancer and the percussion on the Jamaican song really rocks with Amanda directing the growing assortment of musicians and instruments.
     The kids are excited to be in their second week of camp. They are quite used to the schedule and the work needed to have a great perfromance on Friday. This Friday we share the stage with FWISD's middle and high school choirs who have put in long hours of work in preparation for Friday's performace. It will be an honor to be in the same program with Fort Worth's most talented young voices.

Week One - Day Five

     Picture a whirling tornado gathering speed heading directly towards you. You have nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, you just stand there and are pulled into the storm front. This was Week One of Summer Music Camp 2011--a storm gathering force and direction as it was energized by all the participants.  In the center of that swirling storm were 28 kids, 14 teachers, 3 student mentors and an assortment of musical instruments. They worked and played every day in the calm center of their own summer camp storm and on day five  the storm front moved to the stage of Bass Hall. All was deposited center stage and in a flurry of controlled and well-designed, yet spontaneous musical fun the kids played some amazing music from the eye of the storm.

Week One - Day Four

     If you miss the concert this Friday at Bass Performance Hall you will miss a unique opportunity to listen and watch 28 kids explore the universe of music like nothing you have seen or heard before. They have been experiencing music through their voices, their instruments, their bodies, their eyes, their ears and their inner beings for four days at summer music camp. Today our fourth day in camp I watchd Malachi hold his cello bow like he had played for months instead of four days--the same for Geronimo. Yanni is a natural holding his violin and moving with the music. Kahya quietly plays the violin exactly as she is taught. Jill leads them urging them to move, watch, and listen. She has their rapt attention because she has challenged them to make the music and they feel the thrill of success. .
     Dontavious blows the trumpet and holds it like he owns it. He leads the others indicating with a small gesture when to stop--a leader is born through his horn. Brandon has the baritone playing today and hits all the notes. Down the hall Brandon is at ease with his clarinet and Rogelio makes his flute sound like rain in a thunderstorm. The bucket band is rapping and dancing and beating the drums to a steady beat. Legend starts them and Isiaha raps it all up.
    The storm is coming and we have one more day to prepare.
 

Week One -Day Three

      You could almost feel the beat and intensity building as this afternoon's music camp progressed. Bits and pieces of what will be played at the concert on Friday are being strung together within percussion, woodwind, brass, string and choral groups.The students are experiencing first-hand what goes into creating a piece of music. What started as their suggested theme is now turning into music that they are playing.
      Words for the day: eye of the storm. Although it is the calming center the camp seemed to swirl on the outsides of that center all day--nothing calm about it. The kids learned about the eye of the storm from Jo in the afternoon full camp rehearsal. Each musical group had worked on storm sounds on day two with their instruments and then these were all brought together in group practice at the end of the day. They were beginning to hear what their musical creation was going to sound like with all the musical groups playing together.
   To view today's video go to:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkLFL4wsMuM

Week One Day Two

     It is hard to believe that today was just day two! By the end of the third hour of  B Sharp's four hour day, Jo and Detta had everyone assembled to work on the "storm" piece. The kids discussed on the first day what they would write music about. All sorts of ideas were suggested. Today they landed on storm for a musical theme. From there the ideas of how to represent a storm musically were suggested. Then each musical family broke out to create storm sounds using their instruments. Tomorrow the first bits of this composition will be pulled together.
     The whole musical team is moving toward a concert on Friday on the Bass Hall stage. Molly is picking her soloists. Pete is building on those three notes with the brass. Jill has everyone in the building, it seems, playing one of the string instruments. She successfully kept the violas, violins, cellos and bass playing as one large section. It is very magical how all the pieces and parts will come together. Today we got a glimpse of what the B Sharp orchestra will look like. So exciting!