Dallas Symphony’s Young Musicians program teaches music, life skills
Inside a portable classroom at Trinity Basin Middle School near Redbird, flutist Kaylee Rodriguez practices keeping her triplets on schedule.
You sit in a room full of elementary and middle school flute and clarinet players rehearsing a Christmas piece Paseo Navedino.
“Can I hear you at 12 and take the first end?” “First Flute,” says instructor Laura Kidder as her fingers tap sharply to the beat in a way that only music teachers can.
Kylie is one of about 300 students who are part of the Kim Nolteme Young Musicians Program, which provides free musical lessons and instruments to students in South Dallas. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays throughout the year, the program teaches students at five South Dallas locations: Ebby Halliday Elementary, Maria Moreno Elementary, Ascher Silberstein Elementary, Trinity Basin Prep Ledbetter Campus, and Owenwood Farm & Neighborhood Space.
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the program, which has weathered the pandemic and provided free arts education as programs across the state have faced budget cuts. Fort Worth ISD Cut $1.2 million of its upcoming visual and performing arts budget for the 2024-25 school year, according to a Fort Worth report.
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Dallas Morning News
Ashley Alarcón, the program’s director of teaching and learning, said the cuts to arts education make her feel more responsible for the work done through the program.
As students learn octaves and key signatures, Alarcón said the overall goal of the program is “[instill] Values that make you a conscious citizen“.
““Being a conscious citizen of this world requires a sense of humility because you want to see beyond yourself to what others are doing and embrace their talents,” she said.
Music education has been shown to have positive effects on teens, such as increased confidence, creativity, and mental and emotional health, according to one study. Research study 2023 From the University of Southern California.
Students in the program learn life lessons, including how to embrace and encourage their neighbors, accept their strengths and weaknesses, and show up on days they don’t want to.
Kylie, 11, has been in the Young Musicians Program since she was just six years old. She keeps in touch with teachers and new friends, especially clarinetists and fellow flutists.
“You learn that you have to be prepared every day, and be calm while everyone else is playing. “It helps me in most of my classes where you just have to be calm or disciplined to get your stuff and not lose any of it,” she said.
The sixth-grader said that with Alarcón’s help, she also learned to overcome one of her biggest challenges.
“I played it over and over again so that I wouldn’t stop even if I heard a mistake. After I did it a few times, I would write down the mistakes I made on the piece, and write that down while playing it. And that’s how I overcame that,” she said.
Shafqat Anwar
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Dallas Morning News
Mariana Lara, 12, is a seventh-grader who has played the violin for two years in the Young Musicians Program. She said she learned how to be patient with herself by practicing the violin.
These days, she’s working on vibrato, a tricky technique in which violinists shake their fingers back and forth to subtly change pitch and add richness to their sound.
“In any music they give us, if it’s difficult or a specific part, I have to really go over it to get it right. “Sometimes it’s hard because it’s frustrating for me,” she said.
Behind the scenes, more than 25 music teachers support students’ growth. One of those teachers, Roy Gonzalez, has been teaching trombone and trumpet at the program’s Trinity Basin Prep Ledbetter Campus for the past four years.
Gonzalez previously taught at the college level, but now the Young Musicians Program is a special opportunity to teach students who are starting with a clean slate.
““I like this challenge to help give them the best tools from A to Z,” he said. “So when they go to middle school or high school, they have strong fundamentals. They know how to play and they know how to make a beautiful sound.”
He said the program presents challenges because it serves students of all different skill levels and in mostly group settings. But Gonzalez said he has seen many of the young musicians in the program improve quickly. One of his students, a trumpet player, started working three months ago and already plays a two-octave scale.
Shafqat Anwar
/
Dallas Morning News
One of his favorite memories from the program was watching the students perform at a concert last fall. Gonzalez said his students make fun of him because he cries a lot, and this was another occasion where he proved them right.
“It’s one of the biggest improvements I’ve heard in such a short period of time. I feel like things have actually been clicking on teaching, clicking on entry order And they looked so beautiful. “I just cried,” he said.
These performances are made possible through constant rehearsals. As darkness falls outside, students gather inside the main portable instrument room at Trinity Basin Prep to rehearse Brahms’s “Tragic Overture.”
The vibration of the violins fills the room while the woodwinds sound off. Before long, the rolling thunder of drums and plucked strings announced the big finale. As soon as the conductor’s hand falls, the room fills with the sounds of chatting and packing.
Tomorrow, the students will be back to do it again.
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