Kids Around the Bay

Music in the Schools Series: San Francisco Waldorf High School

We’re adding a new feature to the Kids Around the Bay column, in which we report on what’s going on in the schools. It’s an effort to give parents a close look at the resources and philosophy that different schools offer. We begin with the San Francisco Waldorf School and a chat with David Weber, a humanities and music teacher in the Waldorf High School. For many years he also taught children at the Waldorf lower school.

By way of background, the first Waldorf School opened in 1919 in Stuttgart Germany, the creation of Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian philosopher strongly influenced by, among others, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The education is “alternative,” holistic, and despite a common misconception, not religious. The San Francisco Waldorf School started in 1979; the high school opened in 1997. Its overall philosophy, which increasingly has been picked up by other schools, is “Head, Heart, Hands.” The music curriculum, which is in the very nature of holistic education, is practice-based but includes a good deal of music theory. Each high school student is required to take four years of music. Students who don’t have a music background sing in the choir or play the guitar in beginner classes. There are also an orchestra, a jazz band, a choir, and various ensembles, including a drum ensemble.

“Our primary goal,” says David Weber, “is not to turn out musicians but to influence a student’s approach to life and their ability to make sound judgments through the artistic effects of music. We think that the study of music makes students much more well-rounded.”

In the lower grades, the pedagogical approach is to use music to wake the child up through the “sensing of the heart”. As Weber puts it, “meeting the child where they are and involving them in the artistic process” — to feel, if not understand, how colors go together and shapes go together; how notes can be in tune and tones can go together. “It’s an effort to develop a very fine sense of what is beauty and harmony and allow that to become part of their thinking. The idea is that mind and heart go together and over time, as they get older, this enables them to use an appreciation of beauty to find truth.”

“Everybody talks about the ‘Mozart effect’ and how the brain and motor skills in particular are affected, and we’ve found that to be true. So we want younger children doing music every day. That’s why children play recorders initially, and then when they reach the third grade, around the age of nine, we encourage them to try out a standard orchestral instrument, and to take that up as a discipline. It doesn't mean we stop with singing and recorders, but we make music a subject lesson. That’s also when we begin forming small class ensembles, which continues right into the high school.”

The importance of storytelling in a Waldorf education, says Weber, cannot be overstated. “We want to encourage thinking that is not merely abstract, intellectual and cold, but is combined with a sense of humanity. And so the importance of stories and, of course, music tells its own kind of stories. It gives us the ability to create ‘landscapes of feeling’ when we play or listen to music. This is something that Steiner talks about: A melody statement in music is more specific and definite in its meaning than any written statement. Or think of it this way: The quality of a Schubert melody on a cello is more definite than any word expression, because you can feel it and understand it with your heart. For children, this offers new places to imagine themselves and new ways to be creative.”

The San Francisco Waldorf High School offers at least three music-related events every year: a winter concert in November; a Eurhythmy performance in the winter; and other musical performances later in the year. For more information go to sfwaldorf.org.

About Town

February 9 at First Congregational Church of Berkeley: Young People’s Symphony Orchestra Winter Concert. On the program: Brahms’ Double; Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. Amos Yang, from the S.F. Symphony, does the solo honors on cello. Along with 95 young musicians, ages 12 to 21, conducted by David Ramadanoff. YPSO is the oldest youth orchestra in the state and the second oldest in the United States. There is also a free outreach concert the next day, Sunday, February 10 at the San Leandro Performing Arts Center, featuring the same music. SFCV will have a table in the lobby at the Sunday performance. Come visitus! More information: see event info.

February 9  at African American Arts and Culture Complex: Carmen for Families. Created from San Francisco Opera’s performance of Carmen for Families in 2011, this one-hour movie is a wonderful first opera experience. The performance is in English, with English subtitles and is recommended for ages 10 and up. More information: see event info.

February 10 at the Albert & Janet Schultz Cultural Arts Hall in Palo Alto: Multicultural production of Peter and the Wolf. The OFJCC will offer four performances, narrated in Russian, Hebrew, Mandarin, and English, all conducted by maestro Ming Luke. Children will learn about different instruments that represent animals in the story and can participate in a mask-making workshop and instrument “petting zoo.” Children dressed as Peter and the Wolf characters will receive a special prize! More information: see event info.

February 10 at Marin Center Veterans Memorial Auditorium, in San Rafael: San Domenico alumna viola virtuoso Alexandra Simpson is the guest artist in a Valentine concert by the Marin Symphony. Music from the hit movie Brave by Patrick Doyle is the climax of the concert. More information: see event info.

February 10 at the Bankhead Theater in Livermore: Princess Ida from the Lamplighters Music Theater. A 20-year-old treaty states that Princess Ida and Prince Hilarion are to marry when they come of age. That time has come, but Ida refuses to honor the commitment, and has gone off to the country to start a women's university. There she teaches an interesting variation on Darwin's theory: that man — not woman, just man — is descended from apes, and is thus inferior to woman. The Prince, on the other hand, is an unabashed romantic, and decides to woo Ida and win her love. He and two friends make their way to the university, where they disguise themselves as women in order to enroll and get close to her. Last chance to see this funny, acclaimed production. For more information: see event info.

February 11 at the Dinkelspiel Auditorium, Stanford Museum. Violinist and Stanford Department of Music faculty member Dawn Harms and her musical guests present a lively educational program recommended for children in grades 2-8. Harms is a member of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and is the associate concertmaster of the New Century Chamber Orchestra and has been doing these great programs for a long time. see event info.

Through February 10 at the Firehouse Arts Center, Pacific Coast Repertory Theatre, and Pleasanton Civic Arts present Rent, Jonathan Larson’s Broadway musical based on Puccini’s La bohème. Instead of Paris in the 1840s, it’s Greenwich Village in the 1990s, instead of tuberculosis, AIDS. Otherwise, besides a gay drag queen and Mimi as an S&M dancer, characters and arcs are close to the original. The show, which opened in 1996, won both a Pulitzer and a Tony. Not for the whole family, one could argue, but for most of the family. It’s about falling in love, finding your voice and living for today. Or think of it this way: If you were going to see the premiere of La bohème on February 1, 1896, at the Teatro Regio in Turin, who would have taken to see that? This is a musical for its time. Tickets: $17 to $33.

Scholarship Opportunity for Classical Music Students in Marin

Deadline approaching: The Marin Music Chest, which was established in 1933, is still accepting applicationsto its annual scholarships program. This is for classical music students in Marin County, particularly those that play woodwinds, brass, string instruments, percussion, or study voice. The student must have lived in the county for at least two years and have studied music for at least two years.

Junior Division instrumentalists: between 10 and 13 years old; vocalists, between 14 and 16. The Junior Division application deadline is Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013; auditions will be held March 9, 2013. Senior Division instrumentalists: between 14 and 19 years old; vocalists between 17 and 24 years old. At the audition Junior and Senior applicants must perform a required piece and one piece of their choice.

All scholarship recipients must perform in the Marin Music Chest Scholarship Winners’ Concert, at San Domenico School in San Anselmo, on Sunday, April 28, 2013.

For more information visit the website at marinmusicchest.org or call Michael Struck at 415-892-9731.

Book Report

The other day a book arrived in the mail: When Stravinsky Met Nijinsky (Two Artists, The Ballet, and One Extraordinary Riot), by Lauren Stringer. It’s an oversize, 35-page children’s book about the commotion following the first performance of The Rite of Spring. The 100th anniversary of the first performance is on May 29.

I say it’s a children’s book, although for what age isn’t entirely clear. Here and there the level of diction is a little odd. “When Stravinsky composed music all by himself,” writes Stringer, “his piano trilled an orchestra with violins and flutes, trumpets, and tubas ….” Trilled an orchestra? As in producing a quavering sound? The grammar bells went off in my head, and may need some explanation to a child.

But little matter, the book is visually brilliant; each illustration is inspired by one or other of the great painters, movements, and themes of the period. Moreover, Stringer wisely includes a note from the author at the end of the story with more background about the two artists and The Rite of Spring..

The specific merits of the book aside, its real value is as a setting for an adult to talk about some of the abstractions not mentioned. The author leaves us with “…something very different and new began this remarkable night.” But for a child there’s more to say — for example, when you create something it may not be well received, but that doesn’t mean it was bad or in some way, unworthy. And collaboration is a good thing, and sometimes two people can work together, or be together, and achieve something that they couldn’t have done just by themselves. (Harcourt Children’s Books; $16.99)