Young students get wind of music basics from campus ensemble

Instrumental music isn’t just for adults anymore.

On March 7 starting at 2 p.m. in Roone Arledge Auditorium, the Columbia University Wind Ensemble will host its second annual Festival of Winds, a day-long series of concerts featuring New York-area wind bands.

Making a notable appearance is the P.S. 125 Making Music Matter Band, made up of fourth and fifth graders from the Ralph Bunche School. Donations from the Ensemble and Morningside Area Alliance were used to create a new music education program at the school, which has allowed the Ensemble to spend the past year teaching young students to take care of instruments, read music, and play as a group.

Paul Lerner, CC ’11—a trumpet and trombone player and vice president of the Ensemble—is a key player in the Making Music Matter program. He said of the lessons, “In terms of instrumental musical education, we’re pretty much it for that school.”

Lerner added that the program has inspired several of the students to branch out and consider career paths they previously did not know were available to them. “I’ve had at least five kids tell me they wanted to be professional musicians,” he said.

The program, which meets Mondays and Fridays after school, is especially notable for this particular school: Without the trumpet, trombone, clarinet, and flute lessons provided by members of the Ensemble, most of these students wouldn’t be able to afford private lessons.

None of the students had attended a concert before, so concert etiquette lessons—such as learning to stand up when the conductor enters the room—became an important part of the students’ instruction. Lerner also noted that the program offered new opportunities for the female members of the P.S. 125 ensemble—as he said, all of the band’s trumpet players are girls, even though brass instruments are normally associated with male players.

Leonore Waldrip, BC ’10—the Ensemble president and an oboe player in the group—said, “We [the Columbia University Wind Ensemble] just wanted to donate money... But there wasn’t an organization that already met our needs.”

Originally, there was only enough money from last year’s festival for 14 students’ instruments and other necessities, such as instructional books and valve oil, but teachers at P.S. 125 donated their personal funds for two other students.

Ensemble members hope that the concert—and the program—will raise awareness of the importance of music education in schools. Citing one reason to keep music education in elementary schools, Lerner noted that “once you break the cost down, per kid, it’s really not that expensive.”

For Ensemble members, some of the most prized moments have come from the young instrumentalists’ joy at their newfound musical abilities. One fourth-grade girl played her trumpet at her own birthday gathering, while another student compared musical subdivision to fractions he had picked up in his latest mathematics lesson. Moments like these, Waldrip said, provide “concrete evidence of what positive effects you can have on students’ lives with music.” Lerner added, “The kids are all so excited about this concert. They’ve been talking about it for weeks.”

Besides the Making Music Matter Band and Columbia’s Ensemble, five other instrumental groups will be featured at the event. Student ensembles, including the Frank Sinatra High School Band and the Princeton University Wind Ensemble, and professional ensembles such as Jambalaya Brass Band, the Manhattan Wind Ensemble, and the Lesbian and Gay Big Apple Corps—who performed at Obama’s inauguration—will also take the stage. A different band will perform every 30 minutes, and attendees will receive wristbands so they can come and go as they choose.

The Columbia University Glee Club will also appear during interim periods while bands set up, and at the end of the night a headline performance will be given by top jazz trombone player and music education advocate Wycliffe Gordon and his quartet.

The major purpose of the Festival, Waldrip said, is to demonstrate the enriching and powerful impact of music on children’s lives. “You wouldn’t have the New York Philharmonic if you didn’t have elementary school music,” she said. “Because of this program, we’re able to say, this is what we’re doing in our community.”