OPMS’s CoRE Band Practices with SDSU [Blog]

The Community Outreach Ensemble (CoRE) band of Olive Peirce Middle School (OPMS) will finish the 2012 holiday season with two concerts:

• Dec. 18 with the OPMS and Ramona Elementary Schools Bands
• Dec. 20 Combined Choir with the OPMS band

In order to improve their overall skills, the CoRE band visited the San Diego State University (SDSU) campus on Nov. 6, and had a practice session with one of the SDSU Symphonic Bands under Director Shannon Kitelinger. It was a memorable trip.

Director Kitelinger encouraged the CoRE members to “Keep their interest up and continue playing instruments in high school and college, even if they don’t major in music.”  

The college students also expressed that “playing in the symphonic band is a great stress outlet for the college students regardless of their majors.”

When you have a good teacher and conductor, it is amazing how much fun a player can have while learning. Tuesday evening is a normal practice time for the SDSU Symphonic Band. On this special Tuesday, 10 CoRE members were seated in their respective instrument areas among the SDSU players. They practiced under Director Kitelinger like a normal college student and played CoRE selected music: River of Dreams and Sparks. They learned to play the dynamics, articulation, and specifically the four-bar phrase. They also learned to listen to other players while practicing their own instruments.

After the practice, the CoRE members were pumped.

“It sounded so good when we played with SDSU,” they said. “They are so much better than we are!”

The middle school players definitely admire the college players.

OPMS Band director Lamp said, “Our kids learned a lot from that session. This was the best learning day for the CoRE band. I look forward to doing similar trips in the future.”