When I joined the Pentucket team two years ago, I tried to create a strategic plan for building the instrumental music department. In just a short time we have doubled the size of the high school band, developed an active band parent group, and have raised our image within the community. Next year we will be adding a band camp in order to put together our first half-time show in 12 years. Along with all of these great accomplishments makes me think, how can I enhance the quality of my ensembles? This year I have really pushed singing in the band rehearsals and what I love most is that the students, not just me, hear a difference and they understand why we are singing. Next, I looked at my most successful students and wondered what it was that made them so great and the answer was simple, private music lessons.
The best programs in the state of Massachusetts have private lesson programs. It makes sense! I contacted the task force from MICCA (Massachusetts Instrumental and Choral Conductors Association) and asked for help in developing a private lesson program. Peter Tileston of King Philip Academy became my MICCA representative and helped me figure out how to start a private lesson program. Peter assisted me in making documents for the program and the different ways of charging students and hiring lesson teachers.
Next, Pentucket hired a new Director of Community Education, Sharon Pacenka. Sharon is a go-getter and a band parent herself. She has really vamped up the community ed program and we met and e-mailed many times to try and put this together. We worked hard on molding documents to fit our needs at Pentucket and for advertising the new program. She has build a new website for the Community Ed department which I have linked on Pentucket's music website as well. We will be sending home fliers this week to every elementary school student in the district. I have also sent fliers home to the middle and high school instrumental students.
The next step, and I think most tedious, was hiring the private lesson teachers. Basically, you are trying to start a new program which you know will not have a good amount of students the first time you run it while you are trying to recruit the best teachers who will not want to come to the high school to give lessons if there is not enough students to make it worth while. To sell the teachers of our program, I basically got them excited about the things happening at Pentucket. I told each candidate that great things are happening in our music department and that is why we want them to join in on this growth of success. It seems as though this excitement along with the fact that the program WILL build in the semesters to come draws these teachers in. They are make an investment by joining us in hopes for even more students next year.
I invite you to our Pentucket Music Academy website! I am excited that we will be starting lessons this Tuesday. My favorite part about this is the fact that students from the lower grade levels will be coming to the high school to take lessons. I just know that they will end up hearing one of the after-school jazz or percussion groups in the band room and will want to head down that hallway to check it out before they leave for home. This is about building a culture of music making and our new Pentucket Music Academy strives to reach this goal.
Links:
The New Pentucket Music Academy
Pentucket Music Department
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