Lee Kendall began playing the violin at about the same age as the fifth-graders who flooded Rogers High School's auditorium Tuesday to hear him and his peers demonstrate their musical talents.
Kendall, 17, is now in his seventh year playing the violin.
Music Poll
The Harris Poll surveyed 2,286 American adults in May about music education. Here are some results of that survey:
• 76 percent had some sort of music education during school.
• 39 percent played in a school orchestra or band.
• 49 percent sang in a chorus.
• 37 percent said their music education was either “extremely” or “very” influential in contributing to their current level of personal fulfillment.
• 49 percent said music education was either “extremely” or “very” important in teaching them a disciplined approach to solving problems.
Source: HarrisInteractive.c…
"Besides the fact I love to play with and meet other musicians, it's also taught me how to put in the time to succeed at something I want to do," Kendall said. "It's taught me discipline and how to prepare for something challenging."
Kendall was one of the dozens of Rogers' orchestra, band and choir students who performed as part of the Music Appreciation in Rogers Schools concert, also known as MARS. The annual event offers fifth-graders exposure to their options when it comes to picking a path in music education. All sixth-graders in the Rogers district must take either choir, orchestra or band.
Jerry Lane, orchestra director at Rogers High, said Rogers and other Northwest Arkansas school districts grasp the importance of music education. He cites research showing the study of music is beneficial to students' overall academic performance.
"Music has tons of math in it," Lane said.
And for some students, music becomes a passion.
"For a lot of kids, it's why they go to school," Lane said.
The same kind of sentiment can be heard from other music teachers across Northwest Arkansas.
"Every year we have several parents who say things to us like, 'The band saved our kid,'" said Mike Echols, band director at Springdale's George Junior High School. About 500 out of the school's 600 students are involved in at least one music program, he said.
George's symphonic band traveled to Chicago in December to play in the Midwest Clinic, the world's largest instrumental music conference. Thousands flock to the conference each year from around the world.
Invitations to play at the conference are extremely hard to get. George was one of only four bands from the middle or junior high school level invited to play at the 2014 conference. The band played 11 songs over the course of about 45 minutes.
Jason Lindstrom, a freshman percussion player, didn't know what to expect before he got there. The size of the venue astounded him.
"From the stage where we were, I couldn't see the back of the room," Jason said.
Thomas Gray, an eighth-grader and alto saxophone player in the band, said playing music has taught him a work ethic he might not otherwise have. The challenges that come with band, added to the rest of his school work, have taught him time management, too.
"I know I need to study this piece of music, but then I have to study for my algebra test," Thomas said.
The George band's bus trip to Chicago was a five-day whirlwind adventure that included stops in Branson, Springfield and St. Louis, Mo. Along the way they stopped at museums and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.
Chris Moore, George's assistant band director, has a picture on his cellphone of one of his students touching the arch. If not for that trip, that student might never have had such an experience, Moore said.
"There are avenues and opportunities through music that wouldn't otherwise be available to some of these kids," Moore said.
While budget cuts have taken a toll on music education programs in some other parts of the country, that doesn't seem to be the case in Northwest Arkansas.
Dawnelle Fincher, choir director at Fayetteville High School, said while there's always room for improvement, music education in Arkansas is "very healthy." She's looking forward to taking 40 of her choir students to Washington this spring where they will sing at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Interest in choir has increased, Fincher said.
"Students want to be a part of excellence," she said. "And I think for any program you have in your school, when it has a reputation of being great, students want to be a part of that."
Bentonville High School expects to have more than 1,000 students involved in some kind of music program next year, said Jesse Collett, director of orchestras.
Collett believes music education in Arkansas is "on the right track," but more can be done. He notes Bentonville is home to one of only four high school orchestra programs in the northern half of the state; the others are in Rogers, Fayetteville and Fort Smith. Arkansas schools aren't required to have orchestras.
"It's a cultural thing. If people have not been exposed to orchestra, they don't understand the importance of it," Collett said. "It's a discipline that takes dedication and commitment and perseverance and patience and intelligence."
Bentonville's orchestra program began about 10 years ago. The high school has three orchestras, each with at least 50 students; the school will add another orchestra next year. Though the orchestra program will lose 18 seniors this spring, it will gain 90 with the incoming freshman class, Collett said.
That will add to the challenge of finding space for the orchestras to play in a school of more than 4,200 students. The orchestras already share space with the band program, a situation that's far from ideal, Collett said.
In spite of space challenges, the orchestra program has made huge strides, Collett said.
Music teachers such as Mary Catherine Stringfield, who works at Bentonville's Apple Glen Elementary School, continue to foster appreciation of music at the lower levels of education.
This school year Stringfield started integrating technology into her lessons. Students are using instrument applications on iPads to compose and record music. The applications allow them to experiment with everything from pianos to bagpipes.
"The students enjoy doing it," Stringfield said. "I just want them to enjoy music. That enhances their quality of life."
NW News on 02/01/2015