140 Students, One Orchestra

 

In a school like ours, where something extraordinary is always happening, finding the time to reflect on the beauty, dare I say the exquisiteness of what our students are achieving is not necessarily easy, which reminds me of a story I once heard about the great violinist, Joshua Bell. Out of love for music, but also with a view to provoking thought among the thousands of people who pass through the subway so immersed in their own preoccupations that they often do not take the time to appreciate the splendor of what is taking place around them, Mr. Bell decided to engage in a fascinating experiment in the Washington DC underground a few years ago. In short, he played a particularly magnificent piece of classical music in a busy subway station, quietly filming the situation to determine the number of passers-by who would pause to listen, if only for a few instants. What percentage did so? According to the Washington Post article written about this investigation, a much smaller number than I would have thought: six out of hundreds, over a period of 45 minutes.

Artists in Residence: la Philharmonie de Paris

In the spirit of seizing the opportunities we have to mark the exceptional sonatas and symphonies our students so often make, I am writing today to highlight an occasion when such music was not just figurative, but literal. Indeed, this month proved to be unique in that respect. For a week, we welcomed seven musicians from the internationally acclaimed Philharmonie de Paris into our school as artists in residence and our fifth grade class left behind its regular program to participate in a once-in-a-lifetime project of learning how to play a wind or string instrument and to do so as members of a 140-strong orchestra. Suffice it to say that the experience was unlike anything else our students had ever encountered, from the Monday morning when they discovered their violas, violins, cellos, euphoniums, flutes, clarinets and tubas for the first time, through the Friday afternoon when they performed a live-streamed concert before an overflowing auditorium of rapt parents, faculty, staff and friends.

The Joys of Collaboration 

Thus immersed in the art and craft and life of an orchestra over several days of practice and performance, our students were able to feel for themselves the exceptional power of music to spark and cultivate the imagination, creativity and lyricism which each child holds within. They also experienced a dimension of the human adventure which music awakens with special clarity: the joys of collaboration, something the Merriam-Webster dictionary describes as “the work and activity of a number of persons who individually contribute toward the efficiency of the whole.” Sharing was the residency’s leitmotiv: our students shared aspects of themselves which otherwise might have remained dormant or secret; they shared the attention and care needed to act in unison with other people, while at the same time nurturing their own voices; they shared the challenge, as well as the courage it takes to express oneself in a public setting; they shared a willingness to deepen friendships with those they knew and to build new ones with those they did not, like the 40 students from the New York French American Charter School (NYFACS) who sang with us during the final concert; they shared a willingness to be encouraging of everyone around them, including their fifth-grade teachers, who learned to play instruments too and took part in the whole orchestral experience with impressive verve.

Our Heartfelt Gratitude to Many

It goes without saying that such a phenomenal experience would simply not have been possible without an unusually inspirational vision, that of Pascale Richard, the Director of the LFNY Cultural Center, Laurent Bayle, the President of the Cité de la Musique and the Philharmonie de Paris, and Victoria Sanger, a pioneering supporter of our artist-in-residence program. Nor would this audacious initiative have been conceivable without the tireless organizational efforts of our fifth-grade faculty, composed of Pierre Dechoux, Harold Gretouce, Carlyne Laurent, Hervé Mégras and Daphnée Marchini-Block, reinforced by the unstinting support of our Head of Cycle Gaëlle Lemercier Rossi. Among the adults involved, I would also like to underline the exemplary roles which other members of our faculty and staff played, beginning with Jacques Letalon, Rémy Loumbrozo and Sébastien Tomasini, LFNY music teachers, without forgetting Alex Asher, the conductor of our brass band, Johanna Zahraa and Zara Ruelle, amateur musicians in their own rights who were actively involved throughout the process, Clémence Rebourg, Cultural Center intern, Kamel Ouazzi and Edwig Timmer, sound and light engineers, and Martin Loper, videographer. Our profound gratitude as well to Marc Maurice, the Principal of NYFACS, and François Petit-Perrin,  a fifth-grade teacher at this partner school. On the Philharmonie team, in turn, we wish to acknowledge Pierre Charles, Elisabeth Coxall, Arianne Lysimaque, Mathilde Pais, Florent Renard Payen and Paolo Vignaroli, six unforgettable musicians, as well as Julien Vanhoutte, a brilliant conductor, and Alice Chamblas and Marie-Hélène Serra, highly effective program leaders. And last, but not least, please allow me to salute the fantastic students who brought this very special project to life: the dedicated members of our secondary orchestral ensemble and brass band who joined us for sections of the concluding concert, but above all our absolutely spellbinding fifth-grade students and their highly talented peers from NYFACS.

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