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Music in the Schools Series: San Domenico School

Mark MacNamara on February 28, 2013
San Domenico School
Marin Music Chest winners at the San Domenico School

Each week the Kids Around the Bay column includes a profile of a local school music program, to provide parents with a sense of the resources and philosophy offered, as well as how programs compare. This week we spoke with Rob DeNunzio, Director of the Music Conservatory and Music Programs at San Domenico School in Marin.

San Domenico opened in 1850, founded by Mother Mary Goemaere, who traveled from Paris to Monterey, via Panama — and this was before the canal — to open the first independent school, and the first Catholic school, in California. The school, inspired by the Dominican spirit of “freedom and love in constant search for truth” eventually settled in the Sleepy Hollow neighborhood of San Anselmo in 1965.

The school includes grades pre-K through 12. The high school is all-girls, and has 160 students of which about 50 percent participate in some form of music education.

The school’s conservatory was born in 1977, from the brow of Faith France (see more), who felt there should be a private school alternative for students who could no longer find music programs in public school. From the beginning, her vision was to use string ensembles as the cornerstone for what has become known as the Virtuoso Program, a scholarship program that this year has 20 students. The heart of the program’s curriculum is chamber music.

Beyond the focus on string instruments, the school offers instruction and groupings for other instruments as well. Moreover, the middle school offers elective music classes and, as part of every school day, students are engaged in some kind of music setting, in a chorus, for example, or a group guitar or a string ensemble.

“We see generally two kinds of students,” DeNunzio told us, “those for whom music has been a lifelong arc — and actually the number of those students has gone down in the past few years — and another group who continue to study music and may be very passionate, but have a kind of dual identity and are drawn to the whole package of academic and music study.”

“I can’t think of another school, Crowden excepted, where there are so many opportunities to engage in the study and performing of music. From rock bands to ukulele groups to vocal ensembles, from string to percussion, we cater to a great variety of interests and talents. And we can do that because we have 25 music teachers on our staff. Some teach five days a week; some, one day a week. Many lead ensembles as well as teach. Together they provide an extraordinary resource of knowledge and leadership. Essentially, the school provides the space and administrative support for what is a true conservatory. ”

There is an audition process for prospective high school students, in which applicants meet with DeNunzio, play scales, sight read, and then come to an orchestra rehearsal. “We look to see how a student might approach unfamiliar music, and how they fit into a group. We’re looking at chemistry. We’ve found that one reason our orchestra has been so successful is that time spent in small groups has a great effect on the orchestra as a whole.”

Auditions for classes starting in the fall of 2013 have passed; however, latecomers should contact DeNunzio, who can make special arrangements. Not every student gets through the audition process but “we always give her an idea of where they are and we can help them get to where they need to be. We often know their music teachers and we have students who are working to get into the program. I can only say, the doors are not closed.”

In the past few years students in the Virtuoso program have gone on to The New England Conservatory, Oberlin, Harvard, Princeton, UC Berkeley, and Stanford. “It’s become increasingly clear,” says DeNunzio, who has a degree in composition from the University of Oregon, “that colleges and universities are attracted to students that have taken music seriously, because kids driven to pursue music at this level, who have shown the drive and focus you need to flourish, tend to do very well throughout their academic careers.”

“We have kids doing music in pre-K and even at that point we have those kids up on stage. I always tell parents that whether or not their child studies music in great depth, the basic foundation of learning to play an instrument, along with the effects of practice and overcoming the fear of being on a stage, for example, all those experiences and the confidence they engender, stay with you all your life. And of course we’re looking at kids who may or may not be fully engaged with music now, but they recognize that music is important and they will probably support opera and symphonies later on.”

As for tuition, grade 9 this year cost $34,700; boarding is around $51,000. Of the 20 students in the Virtuoso program, most are boarders, if only because their academic and instrument practice schedules are so tight.