Schools

Crane Symphony Orchestra Partners with Herricks Music Department

Music professors come and help Herricks students with performance pieces.

The following article was posted and edited by Geoffrey Walter. It was written by Sachit Singal of the Herricks Class of 2014.

On February 27 the Herricks Music Department hosted the Crane Symphony Orchestra at the Herricks Middle School in front of an audience that included student musicians, parents, teachers, and even some Crane alumni.

The Potsdam-based school is one of three schools at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Potsdam, consisting of about 630 undergraduate and 30 graduate students and a faculty of 70 teachers and professional staff. It was founded in 1886 by Julia Etta Crane as the Crane Normal Institute of Music, making it one of the first institutions in the country to have programs dedicated to training public school music teachers.

Notable faculty and alumni include Renée Fleming (operatic soprano), Stephanie Blythe (operatic mezzosoprano and contralto), and Lisa Vroman (music theatre for The Phantom of the Opera and operacrossover).

Anissa Arnold, the Herricks Music Department Chairperson and a Crane alumnus, helped to showcase the Herricks Music Department the following day when some members of the Crane school visited Herricks High School to work with both the Herricks Chamber Orchestra and Wind Ensemble in one-to-one help sessions.

Andrew Lee, a current junior and a violist in the chamber orchestra, spoke ofthe Crane’s school’s performance on Wednesday night.

“The concert was amazing, the musicians were passionate, and [the performance] made me smile since I played one of the songsthey covered before in Metropolitan Youth Orchestra (MYO),” he said.

MYO is a musical group started by former Herricks Music Chairperson John McNeur.

In his master class, Lee worked with one of the orchestra professors from Crane on the Arpeggione Sonata by Schubert.

“It seemed intimidating at first,” Lee said, “but then afterwardssome of the students came up to me and discussed some of things that I could do to fix my vibrato, which is what the professor commented on. I won’t forget the advice given to me.”

Ravina Jain, also a junior and a cellist in the Herricks Chamber Orchestra, added of her class that it “was helpful since I was provided with a one-on-one lesson for a few minutes and... learned new techniques that exponentiallyimproved that quality of my playing. Also, the orchestra and the cello teacher were all very welcoming and supportive.”

For NYSSMA this year, Jain will playing Scherzo, Opus 12, by Van Goens.

Faculty form the Crane school also believed that the master classes were an enrichingexperience.

“I especially enjoyed the high level ofpreparation and wonderful attitudes of the students I coached,” cello professor Mathias Wexler said. “Clearly these were accomplishedyoung musicians who had spent much time and energy developing their talent. It was a pleasureto see and hear! Herricks has a great music program.”

Distinguished service professor John R. Lindsey, who worked with the violinists andviolists of the chamber orchestra, added, “though we had only a few minutes for each person, I think they were able to receive a lot of information they could use.”

After the master classes sessions were completed, both groups spoke for a brief social period, with conversation ranging from musical techniques and majoring in music to life in college compared to that in high school.

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