The halls of Herricks High School are resounding with the sounds of music for the third straight July as grade schoolers and middle school students spend a month honing their instrumental and choral skills in the Herricks School District’s summer music program.
This year 44 students are attending music classes at the high school, which started last week and continues through July 27, climaxing with a concert on the final day.
The daily classes running from 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. include group and individual instrumental classes, as well as four electives including rock band, world drumming, musical theater and basic piano.
The objective is to give students a chance to enhance skills on instruments they’ve already begun learning to play and an opportunity to try new things.
“They get to try something they never did before,” said Anyssa Arnold, the Herricks summer music director who is succeeding John McNeur as district music director.
The day starts with 20 minutes of choral singing to provide a sense of group unison to the program.
“It brings everyone together, whatever instrument they play. It’s a good way to start the day,” Arnold said.
Tuition is $325 for each student. The students receive instruction from five professional teachers and 12 volunteers who are all accomplished music students currently attending Herricks schools or recent graduates.
Shivani Sharma, a volunteer who will be a sophomore in Herricks High next fall, has been playing violin since she was in kindergarten.
“I felt I could help kids by applying whatever skills I have,” she said, pausing during a one-on-one session with a younger violin student in the hallway outside the high school auditorium.
Kaitlin Edmonston, a violinist going into seventh grade, has been playing the instrument since third grade and was visibly enjoying her individual lesson with Sharma. She said the summer sessions are “easier” than her regular music classes.
“I make a lot of mistakes and the teacher can help me more,” she said.
Samantha Madonna, who graduated Herricks High in 2008, has taught in the summer music program for the past three years. Having just graduated from Syracuse University with a double major in music education and music history, she’s teaching orchestra and string classes in the program this month.
“It’s great. It’s a little more relaxed,” she said of the class environment. “It’s a smaller orchestra setting so you can introduce them to things they wouldn’t get in school.”
Madonna will be starting studies for her masters degree in music education at Columbia University’s Teachers College this fall. She said she enjoys the opportunity to pass on something of the music education she gained from the Herricks district.
“They taught us how to play so it’s nice to give back,” Madonna said.
Emily Buckley just completed her freshman year of studies toward earning a bachelors degree in music education from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam and is teaching in the summer program as she did after her senior year at Herricks High.
“Since I’m going into music education, I wanted to get experience teaching in the summer,” she said. “It’s good just to teach anything.”
Michelina Cerbone, who teaches orchestra at the Center Street School, is teaching in the summer program for her second year. She said it’s a an opportunity for district teachers to see how their students have progressed and it gives students from different schools to get acquainted and share a common musical experience.
“I love where all the in the district get together and play with each other,” she said.
Taking an individual lesson from Cerbone, young double bassist Daniel Navy described his Center Street instructor as a “great teacher” and expressed a clear objective for being in the summer program.
“I want to be a great bass player,” Navy said.
Jeremy Lau, who’s going into fourth grade at Center Street, is a double threat on trumpet and piano. He said he was enjoying playing piano on “Frankenstein,” the Edgar Winter tune the rock band students selected to learn.
Josephine LaMarca, who’s going into sixth grade this fall, said she was having a good time banging out the beats as the rock band drummer.
“The drummer is the leader because the band has to follow the beat of the drummer,” she said.
The band’s beat wasn’t quite up to the pace of Edgar Winter’s original version of the tune, but LaMarca was keeping the beat steady and the rest of the players were following her lead.]
