Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 23, 1993 TAG: 9303230174
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BECKY HEPLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
A BIG VOICE FOR MUSIC IN SCHOOLS
It's not a cast of thousands, but with 450 voices, the concert being presented by the schools of Christiansburg tonight is still the largest event that Charlotte Smith has organized."I wanted to do something really big for Music in Our Schools Month, which is in March and that's when we have our spring concert," she said. "I didn't expect it to be quite like this."
The concert, which starts at 7:30, will be held in the high school auditorium. It is free to the public.
It all started when Smith, Christiansburg High School choral director, attended a choral music reading conference in Durham, N.C., last summer. She and some of the students who accompanied her were quite taken by the music presented there.
"It was `feel good' music, with an uplifting, supportive message," she said. "I kept thinking, how could I incorporate these into a concert?"
After bouncing ideas off other teachers, Smith finally devised the idea of a joint concert.
"I was thinking, a `little' bit of representation from the different grades," she said with a laugh. "Who would have thought it would grow to so big?"
The chorus includes selected voices from the second grades of Christiansburg Primary, all the third grades of Falling Branch Elementary, the two fourth grades at Belview Elementary, selected voices from the fifth grades of Christiansburg Elementary, and the choral students at Christiansburg Middle and High Schools.
"The little ones are so excited," Smith said. "A few of the ones who are going in the concert go to my church and they come up to me and go on and on about coming over to the high school."
Accompanying the singers for the concert is the pit band at the school. "We didn't have room for the full orchestra," she said.
The secondary students and the elementary pupils will each perform two songs. The entire cast will perform four songs.
"The biggest problem will be getting them all lined up to sing," Smith said. She'll place the elementary children on the stage and put the middle and high school students on risers in front of the stage. "I don't think we'll violate any fire codes."
March also is the month that celebrates art in the schools and theater in the schools. Smith saw this as an opportunity to showcase those venues as well. Art students have contributed paintings and sculpture, which will be displayed outside the auditorium. The school will be open at 6:30 so the audience will have time to see that show.
The drama class, which has recently been studying interpretive sign language, will sign the last song, the Michael Jackson hit, "Heal the World."
Emceeing the show is Scott Stevens of WPSK-FM, who will join the chorus on one of the songs.
"It's just like old times when he came to rehearse with the class," Smith said. "He was in my ninth grade class the first year I taught. He went on to win the all-state tenor award."
The spring concert is a chance to perform popular music, but it also is an opportunity to promote music education and Smith has several speakers on hand to address that.
"We see how endangered the arts are becoming in the school systems of Virginia," Smith said. "It's critical for people to see how these programs benefit the children."
Dan and Judy Schneck, movers and shakers in the New River Valley music scene, will speak to the importance of art and music in the schools, as will Mark Camphouse and Libby Curtis, music educators at Radford Unversity.
Speaking from the student perspective will be Stevens and Mark Hayden, who graduated from CHS last year and who is active in the New Virginians at Virginia Tech. His group, an cappella quintet named Sound Advice, also will also perform at the concert.