Sixth-graders get to be maestro for a day
Classroom of the Week
With a wave of his hand, maestro Thomas Hinds hushed the crowd of more than 2,000 sixth-graders inside the Davis Theatre at Troy Montgomery.
This season marks his 34th year with the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra and that includes conducting for the annual Children's Concerts. Each year the Montgomery Symphony League, the education arm of the MSO invites public school, private school and home schooled sixth-graders to come to one of two free concerts given just for them.
Last week, students, teachers and chaperones from more than a dozen different schools packed out the historic theater downtown where Hinds conducted musicians to play a classical melody. Then he had each section of the orchestra play separately so the children could pick out the differences between the percussion, the brass, the woodwinds and the string instruments.
"Each one is distinct in its sound, yet when those different sounds come together, they make beautiful music and that's what makes up an orchestra," Hinds told the crowd.
Toward the end of the show he brought several students on stage, handed them his baton and allowed them to try out his role as maestro. With a wave of the hand and a flick of the wrist, students "conducted" the dozens of musicians in the orchestra. For Leah Stephens, the president of the Montgomery Symphony League, it's one of the highlights of the show.
Sponsored by Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama, the Children's Concerts are a way to reach children who have a passion for the arts or those who may never have an opportunity to experience a live classic orchestra and broaden their professional horizons.
"It is great way to introduce them to classical music," Stephens said.
"We want to provide more dimension and to give students more choices in life," added Richard Gill, president of the Montgomery Symphony Board. "It's a gift from the orchestra to the schools each year."
Baldwin Arts and Academic Magnet students Claudia Hines and Jezreel Fishoe were both grateful recipients.
"It was good, and you can really tell that they [musicians] spend their whole lives doing this," said Fishoe, who plays a recorder at Baldwin.
Fishoe and Hines also saw student cellist Anita Burgher perform a solo with the orchestra. Burgher is a senior home school student.