Springtime is concert time. Where? Right in your neighborhood, and at minimal or no cost.
In cities and towns across the country, local high school bands, choirs, and orchestras are staging their spring concerts. Some junior highs schedule such performances as well. If you are not in the habit of investigating local school performances for your children, I suggest you start considering these venues.
You may first object that high school ensembles, as a rule, do not play at the same level as university or professional ensembles. There can be truth to this. But young kids nevertheless will gain valuable musical experience by listening to performances given by students who, to them, seem “grown up.”
Think back. When you were a second grader, a sixth grader appeared as a wonder of sophistication. Fifth graders look up admiringly at ninth graders, and so it goes. While adults might cringe at the idea of a concert given by the seventh-grade band, your third grader is likely to find it fabulous.
Beyond that, if you haven’t noticed, things have changed! The world of secondary-school music-making today is characterized by a level of musicianship that would have been unthinkable in my youth. Well-funded, beautifully equipped choir, band, and orchestra halls have sprouted up in many schools. The new high school down from us boasts a luxurious music wing, complete with a logo-splattered eighteen-wheeler in the parking lot used solely to transport band and orchestral instruments. Plus, today’s high-school conductors often have masters and doctoral degrees. With spirit and pride, they labor to produce a fleet of accomplished musicians.
What happens if your district isn’t part of the luxury revival of school music-making? It’s okay if the concert is staged in an old auditorium and offers a puny program that you probably would not sit through unless you had a child up on stage. Remember, it won’t seem that way to your younger kids. Your little ones will be absorbed in experiencing what, to them, is a grown-up world where the “big kids” are doing real things.
Now if your children study music at a high level, then this venue may not be the best. Otherwise, the enthusiasm of young players compensates for their inexperience and goes a long way to make up for a shaky performance.
Here’s another great advantage to attending secondary-school performances: Generally you can get in free or with modestly priced tickets. And you can sit in the spots kids like best—perhaps the front row, despite the fact that the sound quality is not good there, nor does one see the whole stage.
But for kids, it’s important to be up close. There, they hear and see what is really going on. They are close enough to feel the heat and see the sweat! For, in any kind of serious performance, both of these pour off the stage, no matter the age of the players.
Let me give one final reason to patronize school concerts. These ensembles, particularly the bands, and choirs, tend to play music by today’s most interesting composers. Current superstars such as John Mackey and Eric Whitacre have enormous followings due in large part to the sparkling repertoire they have crafted for today’s very able high school musicians. The pieces are crisp, lyrical, innovative, and compelling. Hearing these new works, your children’s ears (and yours) will be stretched in delightful ways, and opened to a wider spectrum of melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic styles.
It’s all easily accomplished by checking your local calendars. Maybe the concert will be just a few blocks away, so everyone can walk!
So get the spirit. Go choir! Go band! Just plain . . . GO!
