Island Trees Summer Music Instrumental Program had another successful season. The four-week camp runs through the month of July and consists of an advanced Band and Orchestra for students in grades 5-9 and a Beginner Band and Orchestra for incoming fourth grade students. The summer instrumental program was facilitated by band teacher and program director Aaron Robertson, and orchestra teacher MCynthia Marcus. This year had the most registrants compared to recent years with a total of 73 participants and 37 of them were incoming fourth grade students. The students were mostly from Island Trees, but there were also a few guests from Brooklyn and Bethpage.
The young musicians were very busy learning and developing skills on their instrument, gaining knowledge of music theory, playing music games and using technology to enhance their learning with Chromebooks and Smartboards. All of the skills the students acquired were demonstrated in a concert at the conclusion of the program. Furthermore, students learned to conduct and lead the ensemble. Ninth grader Nicolette Digena made her conducting debut conducting the Advanced Band playing Comet Ride by Brian Balmages. New this year there were four high school students that helped the beginner band students. We would like to thank Molly Oberting, Erin Reeves, Michael Mazzalo and Nicolette LoMonte for their dedication and hard work helping the fourth graders.
The summer music program culminated with two concerts in the Island Trees Memorial Middle School Courtyard. The courtyard was recently redone and was a nice place to host a concert. The morning of the concert the sun was shining and the grass was green with a beautiful butterfly flying around the colorful flowers, setting the perfect atmosphere for a concert in the park. Parents, family and friends filled the courtyard bringing lawn chairs and blankets to enjoy the performances. The first concert was the fourth-grade band and orchestra. They performed standard repertoire for beginners; Hot Cross Buns, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Baby Shark and Old MacDonald. The Advanced Orchestra played the Batman Theme Song, the Can-Can and a select string trio played Duet Op. 38 No. 4 by Mazas. The advanced band played Overture Galactica, Comet Ride and Eclipsys.
Once again this was a wonderful camp where the students developed as musicians. Thank you to the students, parents, teachers and administrators for all their support. The distrcit look forward to seeing everyone back at the Island Trees Summer Music Program next year.
