It was a humid Friday morning in the Meadow Drive School auditorium as music students, both beginners and intermediate players, gathered under the direction of their music teachers to demonstrate what they’d learned over the two weeks of classes they’d just completed.
Some students seemed tentative in their approach to their instruments. Some of the students had just started learning in the eight or nine hour-long practice sessions they’d had.
But their faces reflected the intensity they brought playing the right note at the right time.
“They really want to be here. For eight days playing, they’re well on their way,” said Mark Bennett, who is the Meadow Drive orchestra director and the Hampton School band and orchestra director during the regular school year.
Peter Freeman, supervisor of fine and performing arts for the Mineola School District, told the parents and siblings gathered for the informal concert that the students had learned how to hold their instruments properly and play them during their summer work – something that distinguished them from the majority of their peers.
“A lot of kids don’t want to be playing music over the summer. They just want to watch Sponge Bob,” he said.
Members of a small beginner string ensemble each took their turns playing solos, ending with a pleasant three-part rendition of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” Then violinist Ryan Hornberger played a trio in a duet with his teacher, Kristin Frazer.
Most of the 52 performers at Meadow Drive will be involved in small ensembles and jazz bands during the school year, according to Frazer, who said that 10 students were taking the summer course to learn a new instrument.
“A lot of them used this as an introduction to learning a second instrument,” said Frazer, who is the middle school music teacher. “I love the beginners. I love their enthusiasm.”
Hornberger, who is going into seventh grade in September, is working on three-stringed instruments. He’s played bass for the past three years, and he’s now learning to play violin and viola.
“After a while, it got boring playing one instrument. It’s more challenging,” he said of the array of instruments he was playing. He added that playing music in the summer was a refreshing alternative to playing outside every day in the steamy temperatures.
Julia Kelly, who was preparing for middle school, was visibly having fun playing the flute in the jazz band near the end of the morning’s program. She had never attempted to play jazz before, and she said she did have fun doing it.
“It just you lets you try new things,” she said of the summer program.
Last year, her mother Sue Kelly said her daughter was playing bass, and this year, she wanted to learn the flute.
“You have to foster it, whatever they want to do,” she said.
Joe Basel said he thought the concentrated period of daily practice enabled the students to learn more than they normally would during the school year over the two-week span. His daughter Maggie, who is going into sixth grade this fall, has been playing cello since third grade.
“It’s very intense,” he said of the summer program. “In the end, they get a lot out of it.”
Freeman said the school district has seen a marked increase in participation in the program from four years ago, when only 18 students participated. The district revamped it from a four-week program into two two-week sessions for $145 per student. The second summer music session runs from July 18 through July 28.
Mineola High School students volunteer for the summer program to assist teachers in helping the younger aspiring virtuosos to learn how to play their instruments.
Dennis Willis, a trumpet player and a drum major in the high school marching band who also made the all-state chorus as a junior this year, said he just enjoys music and the opportunity to help the younger kids learn.
“I want to be a music teacher when I get older and I just enjoy helping kids learn to play music,” he said.
