Students in the Southwest Middle School Orchestra are learning that making beautiful music means paying attention at rehearsals and making time to practice.

Monday, January 14, 2002

Students in the Southwest Middle School Orchestra are learning that making beautiful music means paying attention at rehearsals and making time to practice.

&uot;What I am trying to ‘teach’ them is the inherent power and beauty of music, that hard work does indeed yield results,&uot; said Gene Schott, Albert Lea Area Schools orchestra teacher.

At a recent rehearsal, Schott had the orchestra, made up of both seventh- and eighth-graders, practice the same few measures of a section of &uot;The Planets&uot; by Gustav Holst several times in a row. Students sighed or groaned, but were ready to play as soon as Schott raised his baton again. They often don’t get past the first piece of music on the list during a rehearsal, several students in the orchestra said.

The students mostly learn music arranged for youth orchestras, but Schott likes to mix in a few pieces of what he calls &uot;real&uot; music, he said. And the students seem to enjoy learning the new music.

&uot;It’s pretty exciting performing classical music. It sounds cool when you get to play it with lots of people, when you play by yourself you don’t get to hear the other parts,&uot; said Abraham Swee, a seventh-grader in the orchestra.

Including string and wind instruments, brass and percussion, there are 53 students involved in the middle school orchestra program in Albert Lea. And all of those students spend a lot of time in school and at home with their music. Students typically practice from a half hour to hour each time they get their instruments out, especially on weekends.

&uot;I get the orchestra students five days a week, and each student gets a one-on-one 10-minute lesson with me per week, and I expect them to take their music home and practice,&uot; said Schott. Orchestra classes are 75 minutes each day, although some students are also in the Southwest Band or Chorus, and are not always present for a full rehearsal.

Some of the results of the program at Southwest can be seen in honors and awards for orchestra members. Four members of the Southwest Middle School in Albert Lea have been invited to play with a statewide honor orchestra in February.