Pine Ridge students play their own songs
Three groups of students also wrote their own tunes for a visiting composer.
Nanette Grant and her string students at Pine Ridge Middle School do not fiddle around.
Even beginning students are composers in music class here, crafting carefully penciled, single-line melodies with titles only the young can conceive.
Two of the most fanciful: Christian Listoe's "Chica-Cherry-Cola" and James Schlimmer's "Staple Wound," bisected by a couple of jarring ow-ie notes, presumably where finger meets pointy metal prongs.
This year, thanks to a Champions for Learning grant, the students have a composer looking at their songs for content, offering ideas and even playing them with the students.
Further, all three Pine Ridge string classes play a spring concert this week that include compositions written just for them. New York clinician-composer Lorie Gruneisen created three works formally dedicated to the beginning (or intermediate or concert orchestraclass string students at Pine Ridge Middle School."
That puts about 139 fifth- through eighth-graders in the company of Austrian emperors, for whom Haydn and Mozart wrote a good deal of their music.
Whether their dedicated works will be published as often as those composers' are, the kids are intent on giving them a good premiere at their 6:30 p.m. public concert Wednesday at the school.
At rehearsal Monday, bows were up, heads erect and all eyes were on Gruneisen as she leaned into her 67-musician beginner orchestra, pulling her arms in with shhh indicators and waving them into wings to elevate the volume.
"I like to change things up," Gruneisen said. "I think it makes playing the violin more fun." She had stuffed in pizzicato moves that required the students to pluck the strings as well as bow, and her young musicians were feeling the challenge.
"Focusing your bow hand, playing your music, concentrating on the conductor — it's hard to multitask," declared Olivia Lipman, 12, a first-year cellist. Nevertheless, she's happy to be playing: "I love music, so when I heard there was an orchestra opportunity at school I was ready. It was a chance I might not get otherwise."
"They're doing extremely well for first-year students," said Gruneisen, a former Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra violinist who alternates composing with teaching, performing in the Orchestra of Northern New York and adjudicating student competitions. "They're all doing really well here."
"In fact, the work I wrote for the concert-level students, they sent back because it wasn't enough of a challenge," she said, laughing."I had to write a tougher one for them!"
The students' enthusiasm reflects that of Grant, who feels so strongly about string instrument education that she has begun offering Orchestra Club before classes begin in the morning. Five days a week, she arrives early so students can practice.
"Anyone of any level can come in and work on their music. They can ask for help, they can collaborate with each other, or they can just get away from the noise of the cafeteria to play," Grant said. "Along with the chance to play, it's a good way for the beginners to see where they can be in two or three years if they keep practicing. For the older students, it's a reminder that, 'Oh yeah, I was there once.' "
The string orchestras comprise violin, viola and cello students, and several of them said they were influenced listening to other musicians in their family: For Giulia Nelson, 11, a violin-playing cousin was the inspiration; for Case Zumbrum, also 11, hearing his sister play caused him to throw over the viola: "Once I heard the deeper notes on the cello, I decided on it."
Only one interviewed student mentioned parents who played a string instrument. "I guess it runs in our family," said Lydia Otero, 12. "My grandmother played the violin, and my mother took violin in middle school." She added with a mischievous smile, "Why, what a coincidence!"
Even with the financial help, Grant has to be a concert impresario, arranging for programs, setting up chairs, setting lights and printing programs.
But the 39-year teaching veteran loves her work. She began playing violin thanks to a program in her school.
"That's why I'm so passionate about it," she said. "That brought me such phenomenal opportunities and so much growth I said, 'I really want to share this with others.' "
Pine Ridge Middle School Concert
Who: Beginner and intermediate string students
Where: Pine Ridge Middle School, 1515 Pine Ridge Road, North Naples (enter by turning north at the traffic light at Mission Hills shopping center)
When: 6:30 p.m. Wednesday
Admission: Free