LISTENING TO WHAT YOU HEAR

Listening to What You Hear was the theme of the first JUMP! concert of the Fall 2005 semester. Students from St. Stephen’s Montessori School and seniors from Sheltering Arms and Memorial Hermann at University Place Day Centers heard a variety of instrumentalists show how we can develop our music listening skills by learning how composers use instrumental voices in their compositions.

String quartet members Jennie Salmon, Lauren Avery (violins), Lizzy Charles (viola), and Sarah Wilson (cello) played excerpts from Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, and showed how Mozart used the instrumental voices to create melody and accompaniment in this famous composition.

Lauren Avery, violin and Diana Owens, oboe

JUMP! coordinators Melanie Lançon and Abigail Jones explained how composers use different instruments to create musical colors. Student listeners got a chance to create their own musical colors by arranging and changing the instrumentation in a short piece of music. Abigail Jones explained the difference between “notes” and “pitch” and this concept was demonstrated by woodwind quintet members Melanie Lançon (flute), Diana Owens (oboe). Brian Viliunas (clarinet), Brad Balliett (bassoon), and Erin Koertge (horn) in their performance of the first movement of the contemporary Quintet for Winds (1978) by American composer John Harbison. As always, there was time for a lively question and answer session at the end of the concert.

Just for U Music Program JUMP! offers six free concerts each year at the Shepherd School of Music for school groups and seniors. Created and administered by Shepherd School of Music graduate students, JUMP! has offered an interactive and entertaining introduction to classical chamber music since 1998. The inreach (in-house outreach concerts) concept was conceived by students and faculty from the wind chamber music class at the Shepherd School. Student coordinators soon expanded the program to include student performers from all departments at the school. Each year two graduate students coordinate JUMP! as an independent study course. In the process, they learn such valuable skills as concert programming, production, promotion, presentation and peer mentoring.

Rachel Buchman, head of the Young Children’s Division at the the Shepherd School, teaches participating students the special performing skills needed to create a fun and informative classical music experience. Other Shepherd School faculty coach the chamber music groups and advise student leaders on planning and administration.

Student coordinators find many benefits come from the JUMP! program. Sharing music with children is exciting, energizing, and brings a fresh perspective to their art. In addition to attending a free concert in the intimate setting of Duncan Recital Hall, some school groups include a campus tour in their visit to Rice.

For many, it is their first experience on a college campus. As one faculty member observed, “Who knows what dreams can come from these experiences? If even one or two children can be inspired to go to college, it will be worth it.”