On January 25, LM’s music department held its yearly open house. Like previous years, they held their meeting over an evening zoom in order to make it more accessible for more families.
During the hour-long zoom meeting, music teachers Jessica Villante, Aaron Datsko, Joshua Hunnex, and Joshua Cooperstein explained the many ways students could become involved with the music department at LM. They began with an informational powerpoint in which they explained the scheduling of music classes as well as the vocal and instrumental ensembles available to students. These include Concert Choir, Symphony Orchestra, Concert Band, Electronic Piano, Music Tech and Production, and Music and Modern Culture.
Within the slideshow, they played a video of student testimonials. Current students and alumni appeared in the touching video speaking about their love for the music department as a welcoming community, learning environment, and safe space, thanks to its amazing faculty.
After the presentation, the meeting ended with a Q and A session, in which prospective students and their parents were encouraged to ask questions to teachers and current LM students.
Accessibility and outreach is something the music department consistently works towards. Jessica Villante, director of LM’s orchestra program, explained that through events throughout the year, the department works to “increase [their] visibility in the district.” Among these events are the virtual open house in January, visits to the middle schools in which they “talk to the eighth graders about what orchestra at the high school level looks like,” and their newly adopted Fall Festival, “in which they team up with Players, BuildOn, and a couple of other performing arts based [groups] in the school” and “invite the broader community to come experience performing arts here.” Villante explained that events and outreach programs are extremely important because “to do performing arts you kind of want to have things like, you know, an audience!” To get community members to attend LM performances, she emphasized that the music department has “to make this space accessible” and “make this a space that people feel comfortable coming to.” Besides outreach initiatives, these networking events are crucial in reaching students within the district so that they can get to know what the performing arts “looks like at the highschool level, simply because it’s different.” Her goal through these events is to ensure that this “Knowledge is spread across levels, across schools, and into the broader community.”
As one of the main organizers of these programs, Villante shared that in putting together events,“what [she focuses] on when [she’s] thinking through what outreach [they’re] going to do is what message [they] want to get across.” Among these messages, the most prominent that the music department works to get across“to everybody, be it the really young ones or the eighth graders…is that music at the high school level is for everybody; period, full stop, end of story.” Therefore, during events such as their recent Open House, the music teachers crack jokes, encourage conversation, and share the experiences of students who can testify to the welcoming nature of the music department. And, during the open house and visits to the eighth graders, they will emphasize that while the music department has many audition-based ensembles, such as Chamber Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, and Chamber Choir, they have corresponding ensembles for every instrument and vocalists that don’t require auditions or high-level prior experience. The music department welcomes musicians of all levels and through their many outreach programs, they hope to grow and share their community with more students and audience members.
