MUSICAL MESSAGE RESONATES WITH SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY STUDENTS

By Lori Gilbert
RecordNet

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Daniel Deus, like a lot of 9-year-olds, likes to listen to hip-hop or Mexican music.

On Friday, though, Daniel and about 80 other Martin Luther King Elementary School students who attended the voluntary interim session offered during fall break were bopping to a different beat.

They listened, many for the first time, to the sounds made by a cello, a bass saxophone, a barbershop quartet and others as University of the Pacific's branch of the all-male Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia musical fraternity entertained them.

"It was excellent," 11-year-old sixth-grader Cristina Garcia said. "I liked seeing the instruments I haven't seen before."

Eighth-grader Michael Luna, 13, plays guitar, but he learned something during the 45-minute concert, too.

"About the rhythm and harmony of the music," Luna said.

The 24-member group, led by musical director Sean Forte, visited Wilson Elementary and Sierra Middle School before finishing off their day at Martin Luther King. At all three schools, the objective was the same.

"If we can reach one of these kids, our job is done," said Jay Maddox, a senior music management major who plays the French horn.

The King students seemed mesmerized by the performance.

They laughed at the deep notes of the bass saxophone and oohed and aahed at their first glimpse of the cellos. Second-grader Jose Carlos waved his arm like a conductor during the show.

The 7-year-old said he liked the flute and might one day play an instrument himself.

Encouraging them to think about music is the whole idea behind the annual visit of the fraternity, which is a branch of the group founded in 1898 at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.

"It seemed to resonate with the kids," Maddox said.

"I liked it when they sang to the teachers," fourth-grader Ariana Fraga, 9, said, referring to the finale, "A Serenade to our Gal," sung directly to the female teachers and moms in the crowd.

The college students have come to expect different reactions from different students.

"The middle school students pretend they're not interested and make faces at each other in the crowd, but then when something cool happens on stage, they react to it," junior trumpet player Andrew Byars said.

Whether because they recognized the strains or lyrics of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," could imagine a circus during the cello duet as they were asked to do, or simply were excited by the clanging of cymbals and the beating of a drum during a brass ensemble rendition of "Battle Hymn of the Republic," King students reacted.

"They're wonderful," King Principal Connie Fabian said. "We're working on infusing arts in all of our curriculum, and this helps."

The school has music programs at all grade levels, with chorus in grades K-8 and instrumental instruction for students in fifth through eighth grades. Not all the students raised their hands when asked by the performers if they're involved in music, which might have made Fabian and music teacher Michael Hernandez wince a bit.

"They all should have raised their hands," Fabian noted.

Hernandez, a 1981 Pacific graduate who was a member of Phi Mu Alpha while a student there, appreciates the free performances the group provides to schools.

"It lets (students) see what's possible to do with music," Hernandez said. "Just to be exposed to the instruments, to see them and hear how they sound when they're played, hopefully they'll decide they want to try."

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