Summer Quarter 2008 June 2 - August 31, 2008

Music Arts Hosts Open House and School Visits

Preston Davis, Rudolph Nemeth, Robert Alfonso, David King, and Harold Nagge

David King, Preston Davis

Your music school recently held an Open House at Roane State Community College to celebrate the award of grants from the Tennessee Arts Commission, through the Knoxville Arts and Culture Alliance and the Tennessee Arts Commission, with the other half  through the generosity of our local WalMart.

The first part of the program featured a performance by instructors David King (clarinet, sax and flute) and Preston Davis (upright bass and bass guitar) built around their presentation for the upcoming school visits.

Instructors Harold Nagge and Robert Alfonso, with their acoustic guitars, along with Rudolph Nemeth (piano) providing a background rhythm section, joined in a jam session to end all jam sessions. Fantastic!

This year’s school visits included Linden, Glenwood, Woodland and Willowbrook third and fourth grades.

After one demonstration, an enthusiastic Linden fourth grader told his mom: “The presentation was awesome because of all the different instruments, and they all sounded cool!”

The kids also learned a lot about how instruments worked, their ranges, what they’re made of, and how to choose an instrument that’s right for them.

David King's presentation to Linden students	David King plays five different woodwinds for the 3rd and 4th grade classes at Woodland, in May	David and five students demonstrate that while kids should be able to choose the instrument they want to study, some attention has to be paid to size of kid and size of instrument!
Preston Davis amazes the kids with his upright bass	Students enjoy being "fingers" on the "fingerboard,"helping Preston Davis illustrate sound waves, while he plays correspondingly higher notes on his bass	Preston Davis amazes the kids with the feeling of the big vibes that come from his bass

West Coast vocalist and professor gives workshop

Music Arts voice students recently took part in a two-hour workshop taught by Professor Emeritus Vernon Wicker of Seattle Pacific, where he was the  head of vocal studies. Professor Wicker is an internationally respected singer who performed extensively in Europe for over a decade and has published a book translation of Gustav Mahler’s works for voice. Prior to that he was under Columbia Artists’ Management in New York, with an active concertizing career.

Wicker then critiqued the students who were willing to perform in front of the group. He offered advice on breath production and support. He worked on using posture to improve student’s tone production and taught students how to visualize sound or pitch to enable students to hit a high note.

In the second part of the two hour program, those students who wished to have their work critiqued sang for the group. Dr. Wicker followed each presentation with encouraging suggestions regarding breath production and support, showing how posture can dramatically effect tone production, how to ensure hitting a high note by visualizing the sound, or pitch, of the note coming up. The slight changes suggested by Dr. Vicker brought immediate improvement and cheers from the audience.

Music Arts Gets New Recital Location

For the past several years, Music Arts recitals have been presented at the Grace Covenant Church on Adams. Lane.  At this point we are saying goodbye and thanks to that church, due to their increasingly busy building use.

We have been very fortunate to have been offered the use of space at the West Village Christian Church on Robertsville Road, near Linden School. The space is much larger, with a distinct stage area and semi-circular bench seating. The audience will be glad to learn that the benches are padded, both seat and back! There is ample parking, both in front and to the rear where the main entrance is located.

We’d like to thank Lore Heavilin, whose daughter Erin is a student of Rudolph’s, for her assistance in helping our school with the relocation.

See you at the Secret City Festival June 20 and 22

Music Arts has been part of our city’s festivals for about 25 years, and this year we’ll again be sponsoring a booth at the Secret City Festival at the Oak Ridge Civic Center June 20 and 21st. Please come by and meet some of our new instructors and visit with those you already know. The Secret City Festival it is free and open to the public from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday.  We hope to see you there!

Vocal Student Wins Music Scholarship

Blair Patterson, student of vocal instructor Cheryl Scappaticci, has been awarded a music scholarship to Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville. Blair will be starting her freshman year this fall in the Music Education Department. She has studied with Scappatticci for two years.

Congratulations, Blair!