NFA Chaminade Celebrate Music and Rehearse for Spring Concert

March is Music in Our Schools month! The NFA muscial group Chaminade, under the direction of Ms. Jillian Caci, are rehearsing "Never One Thing" by Erlewine to prepare for their Spring Concert on June 4, 2021. 

Here's a clip of Chaminade singing "Never One Thing" by Erlewine. The rest of the class of 25 students in grades 9-12 is on the Google meet singing along.

The text is about the personal revolution of accepting and caring for all parts of ourselves and was inspired by the Walt Whitman verse: I am large, I contain multitudes.

Dr. Carroll will be joining us on the drums in this piece.
 

Students in the room are 12 feet apart, so Ms. Caci is using individual microphones to help them hear each other and so the performers at home can hear them. The scholars at home sing along with their microphones muted, as internet lag makes it impossible to sing simultaneously.

Here the scholars are wearing custom made 3-layer singers masks that make it easier to breathe and sing, and make the sound less muffled. The homemade masks were specially crafted for these scholars by their teacher, Ms. Jillian Caci, with a concert professional fabric on the outside and a music-themed festive fabric on the inside!

More about Music in Our Schools Month:

This March, music educators and music students will be celebrating music education in their school communities demonstrating how “Music. The Sound of My Heart” resonates with them. This is the theme of the 2021 observance of Music In Our Schools Month®. The impact of music education on the lives of students during this particular school year, unlike any other, is evident in how the social-emotional benefits have carried them through the pandemic and brought joy in their communities.

The National Association for Music Education (NAfME) recognizes March as the thirty-sixth annual Music In Our Schools Month (MIOSM®). Since 1985, MIOSM has been observed as a yearly month-long celebration when schools and communities celebrate music in their local schools and the educators who dedicate themselves to bringing music into the lives of students every day.

Every day, in music programs across the United States, music educators dedicate themselves to reaching all students with life-changing musical experiences. What parents, administrators, and the wider community have not always had the opportunity to observe, however, is the months of practice and rehearsals, and the process of learning that takes place in the music classroom—whether virtual or distanced in person.