Raegan Labat
Prior to the pandemic, on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Dufrocq Elementary School, students ages four to twelve from all around Baton Rouge would gather for Kids’ Orchestra’s music classes, which are taught by local teaching artists. Note: All photos were taken in early March 2020, weeks before schools were closed due to state social distancing measures.
On an afternoon in early March in Mid City Baton Rouge, down a back hallway of Dufrocq Elementary School, and inside a classroom with the desks shoved elsewhere, eight children under the age of seven banged on buckets with drumsticks, screaming at the top of their lungs, “Tee tee tee tee tee tee tap. Tap. Tee tee tee tee tee tee tap!” It was a recipe for ruckus, a war on peace, a homemaker’s nightmare. It was music.
Music is, after all—at its most basic form—organized sound, a definition to which I’d argue the amendment: evoking an emotional, physical, or cognitive reaction. Think: perfectly crafted oldies playlists drawing out our most precious nostalgias; a saxophone’s sonorous dribbling pouring into the busy street; the unsurpassable intricacy of Hendrick’s “Little Wing,”; an iPod nano you can’t throw out because it holds the soundtrack of your youth; tripping over ankles to match a fiddle’s melodic line; sitting in the back of a dark auditorium, every particle of air vibrating within you and without you with a Liszt Concerto; the one single lullaby that will get the baby to sleep, every single time. The list goes on, mine and yours too, of the instances that music has elevated our individual existences, even shaped them. What is the bumper sticker? “Music is life.” Children banging on buckets, screaming to the heavens in imperfect, ecstatic rhythm.
Over the past decade scholars, doctors, and educators have striven to get to the core of something that’s been universally understood for millennia: Music enriches our lives. Studies have shown that simple exposure to music, as early as in utero, can assist in building neural bridges, stimulating brain waves, and developing perceptual skills, spatial reasoning, and fine motor coordination. It can also help in building relationships. And that’s just listening to it.
Raegan Labat
Baton Rouge’s Kids’ Orchestra takes it a step further, putting instruments directly into people’s hands from the moment they are big enough to hold them. And even then, we’re talking about some tiny instruments. Founded in 2010 on the belief that music education can positively influence children’s lives, the organization has since grown into what was once one of the largest after-school music programs in the country, serving over three hundred fifty elementary-age students across East Baton Rouge Parish.
In the organization’s “Foundations” class at Dufrocq last March, the teaching artist leading the class began with movement, encouraging each student to stand and demonstrate a dance move for the rest of the class to imitate. In short order, eight tiny bodies were throwing their arms in the air, jumping up and down, bobbing their heads. Built on the teaching methods of the Gameplan Curriculum, Zoltán Kodály, and Carl Orff—who once said, “Since the beginning of time, children have not liked to study. They would much rather play, and if you have their interests at heart, you will let them learn while they play.”—Kids’ Orchestra’s “Foundations” class is where it all begins. Through songs, games, and exercises, young children are infused with the musical tools of rhythm, harmony, and melody—as well as in proper musical etiquette, such as sitting up straight with your drumsticks folded into your lap when you are not playing.
After “Foundations,” Kids’ Orchestra offers group lessons in violin, viola, cello, double bass, flute, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, and percussion for grades second through fifth. Students are given the opportunity to try out all of the available instruments and to choose the one they’d like to pursue. Then, the organization provides the instrument on loan to each child for the entirety of the program year.
“That is probably one of the most exciting parts of the program,” said Education Director Sam Trevathan. “Seeing how a child gets to experience an instrument for the first time.”
Raegan Labat
In classes, which normally take place twice a week from 3:30 pm to 5 pm at six elementary schools across East Baton Rouge Parish, area musicians teach students technique, instrument care, and performance, as well as a collection of beginner repertoire. Students who demonstrate especial aptitude in certain instruments are invited to audition for additional classes in the Kids’ Orchestra Honors Program, which includes a wind ensemble, a string orchestra, and a symphony orchestra.
Honors student Treazure Flowers has been attending Kids’ Orchestra classes for three years, starting in violin, then moving to flute—her favorite—and then last spring, she picked up the clarinet. “She’s trying to learn all of them,” said her mother, Shalese. “But she was really intrigued by the flute. I think she’ll stick with that one.”
Over the past decade scholars, doctors, and educators have striven to get to the core of something that’s been universally understood for millennia: Music enriches our lives.
Shalese described her daughter as a “spit of fire,” brimming with confidence and energy and an inclination towards leadership. “But a great leader requires being able to follow,” she said. “Those qualities can either hinder her in life, or they can make her more successful. Kids’ Orchestra has really channeled that energy into something positive.” In addition to a growing passion and knowledge of music, Shalese has observed in her daughter an increase in perspective, listening skills, and thoughtful reaction. “The teachers take more time with her than they are able to in her regular classes,” she said. “And the experience has taught her teamwork, how to help others—not just herself—to succeed. She’s more relaxed, more free-spirited. Her self-esteem is through the roof. She’s able to communicate with adults, stand up and look them in the eye. Her path is so wide open.”
“I think, for me, one of the longstanding impacts of our program—a byproduct of what we are doing with music—is that parents are realizing what afterschool activities can be for kids,” said Trevathan. This component of Kids’ Orchestra—giving kids a safe, enriching space to be in between the end of the school day and the end of their parents’ workday—ties in with the organization’s larger mission to build a more creative, confident, and socially engaged community in Baton Rouge. Before each lesson, students are given supervised time to work on homework and to eat a nutritious snack provided through community partnerships. “It’s time where children are being cared for, believed in, and given access to the arts, all while learning skills driven by social-emotional learning,” said Trevathan. “These are things they’ll take with them as they grow into adults.”
Kids’ Orchestra also strips away the elitist perceptions of who classical musical education is for. The emphasis on inclusion is what most attracted its current Executive Director Jody Hanet to the organization in the first place. “This is not a conservatory,” she said. “A lot of kids don’t get this experience if their parents can’t afford private lessons. We can offer these great musical opportunities to any child that we can reach, regardless of ability, socio-economic status, household income, or where they live.” Tuition for Kids’ Orchestra works on a sliding scale, striving to meet the specific needs of each child and their family so that the program doesn’t have to refuse anyone on the basis of affordability.
Courtesy of Kids' Orchestra
In April, Kids’ Orchestra launched KO@Home, a virtual platform where students could access pre-recorded video lessons from their teachers, as well as a wealth of other music resources.
Courtesy of Kids' Orchestra
“In addition to just giving everyone access to music education, it’s been amazing to see all of these kids coming from all the different areas of Baton Rouge, all these different backgrounds, for the sole purpose of making music,” said Hanet. “Everything else goes out the window.”
Since March, of course, coming together to make music—or at all—has become somewhat wistful thinking. With schools closed and gatherings banned, Kids’ Orchestra spent the first few weeks of the COVID-19 lockdown coordinating with its twenty-five teaching artists—many of whom returned to their home state or country for the quarantine—to launch KO@Home. The virtual learning platform, rolled out in mid-March, delivered one hundred and fifty pre-recorded mini-lessons from teaching artists to Kids’ Orchestra students.
Going virtual also presented an opportunity, explained Marketing and Communications Manager Kristina Pepelko, to engage a wider community all around the world. “We provided instrument care guides, which were originally made for our students’ use, and realized that they could be used as a resource for the community,” she said. “We also shared social-emotional learning lessons for parents, with resources on how to talk with kids about managing emotions, especially during difficult times; as well as activities, projects, and games for the whole family.” The virtual platform also opened the door for collaboration with LSU School of Music’s Sunshine Project to create “Music for All” videos, designed as family-friendly musical exercises and activities for all students, especially those with different learning needs.
Raegan Labat
For their final mini-lesson, the Spring 2020 Kids’ Orchestra students focused on performance, and in lieu of their traditional Spring Neighborhood Concert Series, learned how to put on a concert at home for their families, dubbed KO@Home Concerts. “The teachers guided them on how to bow, how to introduce themselves, and encouraged them to showcase the music they’d been working on all semester,” said Pepelko. Across Baton Rouge, families sat down in their living rooms to celebrate the achievements of their tiny musicians. Each family was invited to submit a video of the mini-concerts to be featured in a final virtual Showcase on July 31. Miguel Garcia, a fifth-grade honors student, kicked it off with Suzuki’s “Allegro” on cello. Payton, a “Foundations” student, followed with a rendition of BINGO, featuring spoons as ornamentation. Student after student: “Twinkle Little Star”, the LSU fight song, even a rendition of “Billie Jean”. Moms interjecting “You’re doing great!s” and “Keep Going!s”. And viewers from all around the community, and beyond, applauding from their homes.
“Now more than ever, people are going back to what they know makes everyone feel good, or makes their child excited in engaging in learning. Music and culture come together in this beautiful way that reminds people—‘I can feel good in this moment.’ We want to be a part of that.”
—Sam Trevathan
For the fall, with COVID-19 unfortunately still lingering in the air, Kids’ Orchestra maintains its commitment to bringing the richness of music into young people’s lives, and plans to build on its first-ever virtual season. Still in the works, the fall promises a more fine-tuned program, offering options for live group and private lessons via Zoom in addition to weekly pre-recorded lessons for each instrument. “Private lessons have been a request for many years,” said Trevathan. “And now—working virtually—we have more bandwidth, with staff spread all out throughout our community in Louisiana and beyond. And in this virtual setting, some kids don’t thrive in a group. They need specific moments of instruction directed to them, and we want to try to help every kid be enriched in this educational sphere.”
While music education has—in so many instances—come as an “extra,” a “bonus” segment of the curriculum, Trevathan thinks that the challenges of the pandemic highlight its significance in a new way. “Now more than ever, people are going back to what they know makes everyone feel good, or makes their child excited in engaging in learning,” he said. “Music and culture come together in this beautiful way that reminds people—‘I can feel good in this moment.’ We want to be a part of that.”
Like so much in these utterly reframed days, music is now heard differently, made differently, taught differently. But thanks to the innovations of our digital age and—even more so—to the determination and creativity of organizations like Kids’ Orchestra, the power music holds is as potent, as universal, as ever. And the children of Kids’ Orchestra—growing up in this sure-to-be generational shift—will hold their own lists of musical moments. Starting with Suzuki in the living room, family gathered all around.
