17 March, 2014
Music plays a special part someway in nearly everyone's life. This week at Elmwood School, kids got a taste of just how fun it can be to make music, as Tony Vacca was the Artist-in-Residence at Elmwood School. Tony is known for his worldly rhythms and American percussion. In the first of three workshops at Elmwood, he showed and let students play a wide array of instruments.
"The idea is sort of two-fold I guess, one is the sense of team work in the music and what the music teaches us....You heard me saying to them, either we work together or we fall apart..the other side of it, is to dig deeper...we're going to look at the math of the rhythm, look at the science of the sound." Tony also talked about how instrumentation formed across the world has come together, in much of the music we hear today. "What we're honestly practicing, is a kind of global citizenship, we're saying we are connected." The children had a look of joy as they had the chance to play many of the instruments. "I think their enthusiasm is, wait a minute, we get to play for a change, we're not just watching the film or seeing people in the band, we're in the band...what I'm teaching them, it's applicable in math class, its applicable in science and obviously applicable in music, so it's that reclamation of music, as an all around developer of mind and body".
The children and some of the teachers got involved and showed excitement, many students were quick to volunteer to play the various forms of percussion instruments. Tony will be back at the school for 2 more workshops; April 8th, April 9th and May 13, May 14th, leading up to an evening performance by Tony and some of the students on May 15th for "Family Musical Heritage Night".
To learn more about Tony Vacca, click the following link: www.tonyvacca.com
