Project Grant

The outcomes of this residency are: 1) to provide supplemental, lasting, and meaningful learning opportunities for Rockford students; 2) improved student playing and enhanced leadership skills; 3) to connect the students with an in-depth experience with professionals; and 4) to provide an exceptional and unique experience in the arts for the community members of Rockford, benefitting them positively through a quality arts presentation, resulting in a deeper arts understanding and appreciation.; The ultimate project intention and outcome of this residency for the student community is to provide an experience to Rockford students that supplements school music curricula through an in-depth residency. The Copper Street Brass Quintet will engage my students not only in music, but also in activities enhancing their creativity, sequential thinking, self-control, and concentration, among other skills. They use specific pieces of music to facilitate an experience that instills an appreciation of music, runs concurrent to the Minnesota State Academic Standards for music, and advances the school arts curriculum. Specific educational goals for this residency are to: Supplement, not supplant, my existing school music curricula. Increase students’ musical skills (tone production, note-recognition, rhythm, listening, etc.). Provide students with the chance to perform alongside professionals at the capstone performance (increasing self-confidence and motivation, and cultivating community support through excellence and achievement). Create strong leaders within my band program, encouraging excelled and continuing participation in band. Each program component is carefully designed not only to coincide with relevant classroom curriculum but also to be age-appropriate, high energy and engaging, and sequential. The band students here in Rockford range in ability levels from beginners to more advanced young musicians. In each classroom performance, the Copper Street Brass Quintet’s teaching artists tailor their teaching methods and curricula to meet the student at their ability level, thus providing the opportunity for the most efficient student improvement. I am excited that this residency would make possible the quintet to come in and speak to and perform for my students, and not just travel through town for a concert and be gone. My students will build a relationship with the Copper Street Brass Quintet and will benefit from this in-depth, unique, and positive musical instruction beyond what they get in their regular daily music lessons and band class. All elements of the residency will be evaluated. In the context of a residency, there are several indicators that both the Copper Street Brass Quintet and I will monitor. They include: Students who are visually engaged, who ask questions, participate in discussions and volunteer. This is a strong indicator that my students are interacting with the material and processing the information in ways that will be retained. Improved instrumental playing. I will hear my bands play more in tune, play together better, and use proper warm-ups prior to rehearsals. Positive feedback from my students. I will specifically ask my students between activities about what they learned and how those concepts are relevant to their own music-making. A successful capstone performance: the students enjoy a chance to perform, show a focused effort, and produce a polished end product. We will attract a large audience from the community. Student reflection is built into each educational activity by the Copper Street Brass Quintet. For example, in the Copper Street Brass Quintet’s classroom showcases, the group performs a variety of music for the students and also asks them to make thoughtful observations about what they see and hear. Specifically, with junior high and high school bands, the Copper Street Brass Quintet uses a suite of three pieces of music from the famous opera “Carmen” to sequence three clear learning goals. Each movement from the suite is followed by a discussion focused on connecting the observations to the music and concepts the students are studying in band. The first piece encourages careful listening to identify an important element of music - the melody. The students are challenged first to describe what a melody is, and then to follow the melody as it is passed from the trumpet to the trombone during the performance. After the piece concludes, students will identify what instruments performed the melody, why it is important to listen carefully and find the melody, and how those listening skills can improve the sound and balance of their own band. The other two pieces performed from the “Carmen” suite build on the skill of careful listening to incorporate thoughtful observation and discussion of the performer’s body language and ensemble communication and finally more advanced instrumental technique, such as changing the sound to communicate the style of music. In this way, students can enjoy hearing an exciting, professional performance and also grow as musicians themselves. In class: students are participating and improving their musical understanding. After the classes: verbal feedback from the students. After the school day: surveys from school faculty and staff. At the evening concert: surveys from parents and audience. The quintet video and audio records all of their sessions during residencies, and I will follow suit and also set up my video camera and audio recorder as well. This goes for the in-class educational sessions as well as the evening performance. This will provide the opportunity for feedback the day-of as well as after the residency is complete, and will be invaluable both for me and the Copper Street Brass Quintet for my program’s future residency/educational projects and for the quintet’s future programming. The day after the residency, in my music classes, my students and I will watch and listen to the final performance. I will then start a dialogue with my students about what they thought. I will ask questions, aiming for thoughtful and in-depth feedback from them, such as: “What do you observe the Copper Street Brass Quintet doing when they’re performing? Do they look relaxed? Like they’re having fun? Did you perceive them to make mistakes?” “What do you observe us doing when we’re performing? How did our performance go? Aside from notes and rhythms, how did we do? How did we look as a band? Did we look proud to be on stage? Did we seem comfortable? Did you have fun performing?” “How did the audience react to our music versus other concerts we’ve done? Do you think the community enjoyed it?” In addition to the in-class and video/audio described above, the quintet and I will work together to provide a concrete evaluation of the residency in three ways: 1) a record of in-class observations and responses from the students, recorded at the end of each residency day; 2) online exit and paper surveys after the evening performance for the audience in attendance; and 3) online surveys for school faculty/staff, parents, students, and community members upon the residency’s culmination. The most basic evaluation measure is careful planning and communication between myself and the Copper Street Brass Quintet. We will establish baseline goals with at the beginning of the residency and touch base before each activity about progress towards those goals. Notes from all communications are kept in an online database where we can see progress. I have worked with the Copper Street Brass Quintet to develop a simple feedback survey that we will use to measure overall reaction to the project and to solicit ideas for improvement. The survey is available online as a Google form and in print at the concert. The results from these surveys are compiled online by the survey host (Google) and will provide data to aid in our evaluation of the residency and will give me and my band program the tools I need to duplicate, as well as improve upon, certain aspects for future residencies we host here in Rockford.