Musicians Raise the Bar This Year at SHS

What a year this has been for musicians in the Scarsdale School District! During the 2009-2010 school year, Scarsdale student musicians of all genres have played at world-renowned performance halls in New York City. In previous years, individual SHS ensembles have performed at prestigious venues in Manhattan, but this is the first time that all major SHS performance ensembles have consecutively performed at the world’s greatest concert halls.

On March 7, the Scarsdale High School Wind Ensemble played at Carnege Hall; on March 11, the SHS Chamber Choir performed at Carnegie Hall; on March 24, the SHS Symphonic Orchestra Played at Avery Fisher Hall; and on April 21, all jazz ensembles in the district performed on the plaza at Lincoln Center. The Scarsdale district jazz performers at the Lincoln Center jazz extravaganza consisted of the Scarsdale All-District Elementary Jazz Ensemble, the SMS Jazz Ensemble, and the SHS Jazz Ensemble. “It beame a festival, and it was a really unique event that we liked very much,” said Dr. Craig Sherman, District Coordinator of Performing Arts, of the jazz performance at Lincoln Center.

Scarsdale’s young musicians had the unique opportunity this year to play individually with their own respective ensembles and under their own conductors. The Wind Ensemble is conducted by Jason Noble, the Chamber Choir by John Cuk, and the Symphonic Orchestra by Amedee Williams. Noble is also the conductor of the High School Jazz Ensemble, Jessica Slotwinski is the conductor of the All-District Elementary Jazz Ensemble, and Nick Lieto is the conductor of the Middle School Jazz Ensemble. The conductors of the high school ensembles lead classes with their musicians in school and have rehearsal up to four times per week.

At SHS, the Tri-M club is a music honor society; its members are musicians who commit to academic excellence, community service, and school involvement. Cuk is the faculty advisor of the club. Sherman emphasized, “Tri-M’s designation as an honor society is very important for us as a department. A large part of the significance of the group is its community service aspect.” In order to serve their community and promote music education, this year members of Tri-M at SHS ushered at peers’ concerts, supported younger musicians, arranged and performed a benefit concert to contribute funds to Haiti, and performed for patients at the Burke Rehabilitation Hospital in White Plains, NY. They also helped SHS host the two-day NYSSMA festival.

On Friday and Saturday, May 21 and 22, the halls of Scarsdale High School were resonant with timbres of all instruments. Scarsdale hosted the NYSSMA solo and small ensemble audition festival, an annual event that is hosted by a different local school each year. Scarsdale’s last instance hosting the event was in the late 1990s. This year, 2056 student musicians from Westchester came to Scarsdale High School to perform solos ranging from level one, beginner, through level six, expert. Approximately 50 professional musicians judged the performances during the two-day festival.

Scarsdale was recently recognized as one of the best communities for music education in the country for the second year in a row. The music program in the Scarsdale School District is a collaborative operation of the experienced musical professionals that lead it, and its dedicated students and parents. Over the past year, many Scarsdale music students had the special opportunity to perform at world-renowned venues because of the high standards, support, and persistence of their dedicated teachers.

Next year, the major SHS ensembles will continue their international performance tour schedules. The Orchestra and Chorus will travel to and perform in Italy; the Wind Ensemble will travel to and perform in Spain.

Sherman credited others around him for supporting the distinguished music program in Scarsdale. “We could not pursue all that we do without the support of the administration and the faculty,” said Sherman. “I feel very fortunate to have the people around me in the district.”

Scarsdale musicians and other artists are also bolstered by Friends of Music and the Arts in the Scarsdale Schools (FMA). FMA is a community organization led mainly by Scarsdale parents that actively raises funds to contribute to music and art education in the Scarsdale Schools. FMA plays an invaluable role towards supporting the artistic and musical pursuits and achievenments of students in the Scarsdale School District. For more information on the Friends of Music and the Arts and how to donate, visit http://scarsdalearts.org/Home/tabid/37/Default.aspx.