From Classical Piano to Classic Rock, Young Artist Series Showcases Student Talent

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From the classical strains of Beethoven, Chopin, and Schubert to the classic taunts of Pink Floyd's rock anthem, "Another Brick in the Wall," Upper School students stepped into the footlights and up to the microphones in the Young Artist Series of performances held on March 24, April 7, and April 21.



The Young Artist Series was instituted by Upper School music teacher Molly Hoffman Aiken as a way for students to share their artistic talents with their peers.



Noting that while students regularly share their interests in athletics and co-curricular activities, Mrs. Aiken remarked that few have time to share the interests they pursue outside of school.

“Students spend many solitary hours often in intense study of their particular musical interest. The Young Artist Series allows them a conduit to show their friends another side of themselves and contributes to their growth in terms of the value of performing for an appreciative (and judgmental) group," she commented.



According to Mrs. Aiken, "The most difficult audience for any teen is their own peer group. To rise above the fear of performing in the midst of such intimidation is a mark of growing confidence, maturity, and realization of the value of one’s artistry.”



Several students performed numbers from such popular musicals as Cats, Phantom of the Opera, Showboat, and Rent, while others chose songs from lesser-known but equally exciting works, such as Sarah's Encores and Jane Eyre.



In addition to the musical performances, several students took to the stage with their energetically choreographed dances.



In the last concert, when one of the bands encountered some potentially embarrassing technical difficulties,



the students showed their resourcefulness and stage presence by quickly improvising a temporary fix--and ad libbing their way through the incident ("I didn't know I was going to do standup today too," quipped one of the students.)



The incident aptly illustrated Mrs. Aiken's belief that by nurturing our students' creativity we can help them develop many important skills, such as critical thinking.



“In a technological world where getting at facts is almost instantaneous, creativity, independent thinking, intelligence, culture, sensitivity, assertiveness, and flexibility, assets associated with the arts, are a marketable commodity, in the arts themselves or in other fields," she noted. "...their world may just depend on the creative solutions these very unique young artists might in the future contribute to the world.”



"Skills in the fine arts are a culmination of many types of intelligence. Music, for instance, utilizes all the senses, both hemispheres of the brain, and incorporates language, science, and math/logic, not just peripherally, but intensely.”

The students proved an attentive and appreciative audience throughout the series, clapping in time as the Blue Belles performed “Seasons of Love” from the musical Rent, shouting "We love ya" at the lead singer of one of the bands, and chuckling at the weird sounds of the Australian aboriginal didjeridoo, played by a particularly brave student.



“This is the final extension of learning, in which learning becomes not only reflective and judgmental, but creative, recycled, inventive, productive, renewed, and progressive, reflecting, as it were, the heart and soul of mankind, be it the very best or even the worst that man can be. The arts are a mirror, as it has often been said," concluded Mrs. Aiken.



"So, for these reasons, we celebrate our individual students and applaud their successes.”



For more photos from the Young Artists Series, click here.