Feature article

Philharmonic strikes a chord with schools

Article and pictures by Tammy Lane
January 22, 2008

Tempo. Pitch. Melody. Rhythm. – Retired music teacher Marsha Pendley has children at Arlington Elementary School marching to her beat.
  As she plays her cello – first fast, then slow – fifth-graders in Amy Pavona’s class close their eyes and focus on changes in the music, raising their hands as the pace ebbs and flows.
  Later, as Pendley waves an orange makeshift conductor’s baton, they clap along to her direction.
  Pendley, a cellist with the Lexington Philharmonic, is sharing her knowledge with fourth- and fifth-graders at Arlington and Dixie elementary schools in a pilot program called Partners in Education.
  “It gets kids’ attention,” she said of the classroom sessions. “They’re attentive and interested.”
  On Friday Jan. 18, Pendley paid her second visit to Arlington and brought along Joe Tackett, the Philharmonic’s education coordinator. As she plucked the strings and explained how her cello makes sound, Tackett walked among the students pointing out the sound post inside a small violin.
  The Lexington Philharmonic’s outreach is modeled on the Pacific Symphony Class Act Program in Orange County, Calif., where elementary school classrooms “adopt” an orchestra musician.
  “The idea is you have a professional musician in a classroom making personal connections with children and supplementing the education they get and preparing them to experience the orchestra,” Tackett said. “Hopefully they’ll come (to the concert) feeling they have a friend on the stage instead of a faceless orchestra.”
  Fifth-graders at Arlington Elementary have connected with Pendley, who also used Friday’s 45-minute class to explain the values of notes and rests.
  “It’s all math,” she told the students, who spent a few minutes puzzling out some music equations.
  “Do you think playing an instrument makes you smarter?” Pendley asked. “Believe it!”
  Classmates Lizbeth Linares, Dakota Johnson and Bobby Goforth agreed that seeing a musician in person is better than studying about music in books.
  “It’s easier to learn and more fun, too,” Lizbeth said, adding: “It’s relaxing to listen” to the cello.
  Bobby and Dakota both said the cellist’s visits help them retain what they study. “A professional musician can teach you stuff the books can’t,” Bobby explained.
  At the end of class, several hands shot in the air with more questions for Pendley:
• How did you learn to play the cello?
• How much practice does it take to play so well?
• Hold old is your cello? (Incidentally, her instrument is from 1890 and made in France. “It’s more valuable than my car,” Pendley joked.)
  “That personal connection is invaluable,” said Pendley, who hopes the students gain a greater awareness of what it’s like to be a professional musician and what it takes to be onstage in a performance.
  In the Philharmonic’s partnership program, she will have seven opportunities to interact with the children:
• Three classroom visits (November, January and February);
• An Instrument Petting Zoo (“The kids go nuts for it,” Tackett said. “The kids go home and they’ve held a trumpet that day.”);
• An ensemble performance for the entire student body, set for Feb. 29 at Arlington and March 6 at Dixie;
• The March 11 Discovery concert at Singletary Center for the Arts (“I’ll be a familiar face on stage,” Pendley said.);
• A late-March follow-up classroom visit.
  In the schools, Pendley – who still teaches fourth- and fifth-grade orchestra at Russell Cave Elementary School – might hit hard on music terminology one day, then read a book the next. “The Philharmonic Gets Dressed,” for example, is a children’s book that shows musicians coming together to prepare for a concert.
  Andrea Marcum, the music teacher at Arlington Elementary, said it’s a little early in the pilot program to gauge its overall success, but she expects her students will benefit.
  “I want them to become more familiar with string instruments and methods of sound production as well as the acoustical values of the instruments,” she said.
  Most of all, Marcum wants students to realize the hard work that goes into being a professional musician, and to understand that “the music doesn’t just pop into their head. … There’s talent and perspiration involved in all this.”
  Getting to know someone like Pendley helps youngsters see the potential, Marcum said.
  Marybeth Paolucci, the music teacher at Dixie, agreed.
  “They get to see a real live person put the elements of music into their occupation.” Paolucci said. “(Pendley is) just one puzzle piece to the Philharmonic, and they’ll see how this puzzle piece connects right into the Philharmonic picture.”
  The students also will pick up an overall appreciation for music, Paolucci said, “It’s part of being well-rounded.”
  Pendley’s first classroom visits to Dixie are set for Jan. 28 and 30. The students there already have enjoyed the Instrument Petting Zoo, led by Tackett.
  The children were super-excited when they saw all the instruments laid out on a table, Paolucci said: “It was organized chaos.”
  Tackett brings along various instruments, including string (violin, harp, cello, bass), brass (trumpet, trombone), woodwind (clarinet, flute) and percussion (drums, cymbals).
  “You get a good feel for each of the four instrument families,” Paolucci said. “If it weren’t for such programs, some kids would never get to hold an instrument.”
  Pendley and Tackett will evaluate the Partners in Education program this spring to figure out what worked and what didn’t. Tackett said the Philharmonic hopes to include more schools and perhaps add third-graders next year.
  The Partners in Education initiative was made possible through the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra Foundation’s Fortissimo: Philharmonic Fund for the Future campaign.
  All Lexington Philharmonic programs and performances are made possible, in part, through the generous support of LexArts Campaign for the Arts.
  The Kentucky Arts Council, a state agency in the Commerce Cabinet, provides operational support funding for the Lexington Philharmonic with state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.

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