It was a pure and beautiful sound that came from Kari Carpenter‘s violin as she played for her students the beginning measures of the very first song they were ready to learn. Only four lessons into their string playing careers, MVES students could not yet reproduce the polished playing of their teacher but as their bows slid across their strings, it must have sounded just as sweet to the ears of Mrs. Carpenter. For those notes represent the granting of a 10-year-old wish.
Kari Carpenter, MVES music teacher, instructs students in her newly-established violin class. 27 students in grades 3-5 attend regularly each week to learn.
“There is a special place in my heart for the wonderful school strings program that I grew up with [in Prince William County, VA], that got me hooked on the violin, and inspired me to become a music teacher. It has been my dream to have a strings program in RCPS since I started teaching in Rockingham County ten years ago,” she reflected.
So when a parent approached her last year about starting a violin class at Mountain View, she jumped at the opportunity. But she knew it was certainly going to be an effort from the ground up.
“This program began with zero money. Parents have supplied instruments (some have purchased and many are renting), and students are using a violin method book that I wrote over the summer and we are working through that,” she described.
Support came to her from a variety of places to help ensure a successful launch.
Working together, building self-discipline, and developing responsibility are among the many worthy outcomes of music education, according to Mrs. Carpenter. Pictured: Kevin Matthew & Miriam Rhodes
“I’m so pleased with the amount of interest and support from parents, my administration, and from the ASTA (American String Teachers Association) chapter at JMU. I have some fantastic volunteers from JMU!” she offered.
Volunteers help students individually, moving through the group as Mrs. Carpenter instructs, assisting with such things as posture, finger positioning, and other fundamentals.
For now, she sees 27 students in grades 3-5 who show up each Wednesday right after school and they practice for an hour-and-a-half. They began at the start of October.
Having taught private violin lessons for 20 years, Mrs. Carpenter calls on that experience to have this group ready for its first public performance on November 7 at Barnes & Noble as part of an annual division fund raising event there, hosted by the Rockingham County Educational Foundation, Inc.
She plans to seek grant funding and hold a few fundraisers of her own in order to sustain and grow the program.
“I am hopeful that there will eventually be funds to provide some instruments for students in need and to purchase published method books for each student,” she adds.
Students will perform at Barnes & Noble on Nov. 7 then again in a spring concert with the hope of additional community performances scheduled in between. Above: Cortland Andrews
Certainly she, parents, and the students themselves must be pleased not only with their violin progress but also with other important outcomes.
“Students are learning how to work together in a group and the importance of encouraging one another, they are learning self-discipline and responsibility, they are learning how to read music and so they are improving their reading and comprehension and mathematical skills, they are learning how to work toward goals and overcome challenges to enjoy successes, they are getting smarter — they are learning to become musicians.”
With this one wish granted, Mrs. Carpenter replaces it with another.
“I hope that this class brings more awareness of the need for all students in Rockingham County schools to have the opportunity to learn to play a stringed instrument.”
Find additional pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcps/sets/72157636882439566/
Pictures and story by Rockingham County Public Schools
RCPS Highlights 