On January 10, 2008 I attended the Waubonsie Valley High School Music Department's Meet the Artist Concert and can only describe it as awesome! Music in our schools is very important at every level in schools. First a bit about Waubonsie Valley High School's Music Department:
- The GRAMMY Foundation® Signature Schools program, recognized the top 22 public schools across the country for outstanding commitment to their music education programs. Determined by a blue-ribbon panel of top music educators and professionals, schools are awarded grants for their music departments. In 2007, Waubonsie Valley High School located in Aurora IL was among the top 3 schools in the country, which gave it GRAMMY Signature Schools Gold status.
Last night's concert featured only the Freshman students from the following groups: Concert Bands, Concert Orchestras, Bass Chorus, Cecillian Singers. Each group performed individually. And the entire group (nearly 200 students) performed with an Artist-in-Residence, Tom Sharpe. Tom is an internationally recognized, award-winning composer, performer, and recording artist (read more about the artist).
The concert was about 2 hours worth of excellent music. All performances were great! Particularly enjoyable was the Percussion Ensemble performance of Nutcracker Sweets arranged by David Steinquest.
But they truly saved the best for last with all performance groups and Tom Sharpe performing Tom's World Percussion Symphony #1 in C minor. This is my type of music - lots of world percussion, lots of keyboard, and an inspiring combination of orchestra, band and vocals.
This artist-in-residence program was funded by a grant from the Indian Prairie Education Foundation, which supports all elementary, middle and high schools in Illinois' Indian Prairie School District 204. WorldMusicalInstruments.com is proud to be a fine arts patron to help support these wonderful school music programs.
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