And the Band Played On: Goldrick Elementary music concert

(originally printed Dec. 24, 2009, in the Denver Herald-Dispatch)
(story and photos by Joshua Cole)

The halls of Goldrick Elementary School were silenced this school year, but not for long.

When Goldrick Elementary School's (1050 South Zuni Street, on West Mississippi Avenue) size diminished so much that the number of students could no longer justify getting a half-day band teacher to come and instruct students in grades 3, 4 and 5, the school's music coordinator Kathy Miller was worried that instrumental music wouldn't return to the school. But in late September, it did.



Miller started teaching music lessons after school for anybody at the school who wanted to take a lesson. Students weren't required to join, but they had to commit to coming once a week after school for an hour and to practicing at home, at an aunt's house, at school or somewhere else every day.

Even though the music teacher had left, the music – and the instruments to make it – didn't. There were still guitars at the school, on South Zuni Street and West Mississippi Avenue. Each Wednesday afternoon, 25 students stayed after school for lessons, and they checked out the guitars every other day to practice at home. Ten students signed up for piano lessons, coming in for formal lessons on Thursday afternoons. Tuesdays were for the choir.

Principal Maria Uribe and Assistant Principal Martha Torres de Dominguez were so impressed, they signed up for piano lessons, too, playing next to the kids.

“It's so important to keep the music and arts in our program because of our children that don't do well academically will do well in the arts area,” Miller said. “It helps their self-esteem. It helps them in their mental and physical development and in their coordination.”

On Dec. 15, the students' initial lessons culminated in a musical performance at the school, with performances by the guitarists, singers and pianists.

“It makes a lot of beautiful sounds; it gets people's attention by all of the beautiful notes,” said fifth-grader piano player Melissa Garcia.

Miller plans to have another concert in May and a third-grade play about the life cycle, called “Nuts,” in late February or March.



Picture captions:
1. (top) Some of the Goldrick guitarists, from left, Cassie Ortiz, Ashley Jaquez, Christina Phelps, Aliya Ellid and Lesley Terrazas. Goldrick Elementary's instrumental music program was taken away this year, but students still volunteered for after-school lessons and performed at a school concert Dec. 15.
2. Goldrick Assistant Principal Martha Torres de Dominguez and student Joshua Truong play the piano during the school's winter music concert. Torres de Dominguez and Goldrick's principal, Maria Uribe, took piano lessons with students.
3. Ariana Corral and Joshua Truong lug bags for their choir song, “Joy to the world, my shopping's done.”
4. Kathy Miller, who has taught at Goldrick for 10 years, ran after-school lessons three days a week, one day each for guitarists, singers and pianists.