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A Hidden Gem


I have always thought our recital week in April is one of the hidden gems of the ridiculously over crowded spring Berwick calendar. Behind the scenes, our applied music teachers work with so many Berwick students to encourage them to grow and develop as performers. At the heart of this experience is compelling growth in their confidence and sense of identity. Each year I am struck by the fact that separate from anything having to do with musical skills, the experience of performance reiterates to children that their own personal expression really matters to us.

I was lucky enough to have two daughters involved this year. In the first case, Kenna was set up behind a complex set of electronic drums as she rocked out to a Katy Perry song. Watching the intensity of her counting and her seriousness of purpose made me acknowledge just how much this performance mattered to her. Avery, on the other hand, had her first recital in the theater playing our massive Steinway piano under a rather intimidating spotlight. I truly had wondered all day if she would be able to get up there and make it through her two songs. Watching through the screen of my iPhone as I fashioned my archetypical parental video, I found my stomach churning as I wondered if she could actually do it. When she returned to her seat with her parents, task completed, her smile could not be controlled, as she knew that she had accomplished something real.


Stepping away from my own children, I am inevitably surprised when I attend one of these coffee house-like recitals in Mr. Harding’s lair of the “smoldering ruins” of guitar amps, capos, and microphones. Whether it is a Middle School student that I don’t know particularly well, or an Upper School athlete who is often assumed to be one-dimensional, I find myself speechless during these performances. Perhaps I am biased because music has played a large role in my own life, but there is something about the culture of music at Berwick that is unique. When students are treated like professionals, they rise to the occasion. When the adults create environments where students know it is safe to fail, kids push past what they believe they can do. And the assessment of their work is public. In this world of performance, it is less about a grade and more about a true connection with an audience. There is no hiding on a stage; there is no faking it. When we consider some of the goals behind our work on Curriculum 2020, I have little doubt that music instruction, in all of it forms, will play an essential part in our future.

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