Well folks, I am really happy because tomorrow morning I am playing the Chaconne for approximately 150 5th grade Violin students at PS K 179 in Brooklyn. I am performing courtesy of Principal Bernadette Amato, Director Toby Kasavan of Neighborhood Music and Arts (who provides the music program for the school) and the children’s violin teacher Megan Berson. Stand by for the results in the next few days!
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Well this turned out just great – we had terrific support from Principal Amato the classroom teachers Ms. Campili, Ms. Moshitz, Ms. Orlando, Ms. Pacheco-Vitulli, Ms. Durka, Mrs Dibella and Ms. Crass, as well as the children’s violin teach Ms. Berson.
The performance was pretty good, I had enough time to warm up. I used a new approach to rhythmic organization – really letting the time drive hard and build all the way through the first section into the major section, and then treat that section in a similar manner, only letting the third section meander and wander as it would.
It was very gratifying to feel the kids being with me the whole way through the Chaconne – a good 15 minutes of solid music. As I anticipated, there was no problem whatsoever with their attention span.
Afterwards we were able to capture on video the most informative reactions of a number of individual students (I will edit them and post them here in few weeks).