It was a zoo at Sister Lakes Elementary School Wednesday.
Not the kind with animals, though a few in this musical menagerie unleashed raucous blasts, which could have trumpeted from an elephant.
This is an instrument petting zoo. Children handle and play Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra horns, strings and percussion through a nationally award-winning, hands-on traveling exhibit.
Tara Fletcher, K-5 music teacher, was, pardon the pun, instrumental in bringing the zoo to fifth-graders Wednesday at Sister Lakes and Kincheloe as an introduction to their field trip to the spring youth concert to hear the orchestra that opened the middle school Performing Arts Center six years ago.
“It’s a great educational opportunity and a wonderful way to encourage kids to join band,” Fletcher said of the program sponsored by the schools’ respective Parent Teacher Organizations (PTOs).
Two symphony volunteers — Jane is a registered nurse by training — coordinate 60 active docents for these school outreaches.
“We’ll be on the road 33 days at 31 schools. Three zoos use high schools. All the rest (including Kalamazoo, Portage, Lawton) I use my docents. These outlying zoos — Dowagiac, Marcellus and Galesburg-Augusta — I use high school students. I have a daughter who went into music education. I love kids, and I love music. Volunteers just have to love children. I can teach them how to teach a child to make a sound.”
A dozen of C.J. Brooks’ Union High School band members are arrayed around the gymnasium in orange T-shirts at stations such as strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion and conducting, where Sydney Foote and Ben Thompson are not only demonstrating baton, but directing the unspooling of color-coded cords halfway across the floor to approximate the length of tubing if it was unrolled.
Some DUHS students sparkle with enthusiasm and people skills like they’re trying out to teach.
All seem to gravitate curiously to strings, absent from Dowagiac’s music program.
Junior Drum Major Jeremy Collins patiently encourages Carson Ausra, who wants to turn the cello the other way to accommodate being left-handed.
Jeremy was a percussionist, but wanting to try something new, Brooks is teaching him bassoon. He volunteered at festival in Vicksburg, which has an orchestra, and stayed close by that rehearsal space because “I love the sound of strings. Cello is the one instrument I always wanted to learn how to play. I’m so jealous of people who get to because cello has such a nice sound. (Becoming a music educator) has been a little bit of a thought,” but being a funeral director remains his leading career goal.
“Maybe I’ll minor in music. I love the kids and I got really happy halfway through as people started to get interested.”
The most animated mentor, junior Becca Luth, high-fives those who show promise on flute and piccolo, which she plays, contrary to Courtney Brisbois, a clarinet player who is gamely guiding violins.
“I like helping people,” Becca said, but she doesn’t want to be a teacher. “I want to be a social worker.”
Jane blows a whistle when it’s time to change stations. Two ground rules are everybody tries and “I can’t” is banished.
Samantha Belmares has no trouble coaxing sound from the horn Harley Beaver is demonstrating. Harley started on trumpet.
“I loved working with the kids,” she said. “They’re adorable.”