Page 8 - Priorities 6

Music!
A Conversation With Teachers and Pros
Making music is more than a pleasing social
diversion.
Musicmayhavepositivelinkswithintelligence,characterdevelopmentandevenSATs. Arts–includingmusic— are for the first time being recommended as essential subjects by state and federal offices of education. People overwhelmingly support music in schools and have faith in its beneficial effect on young peoples’ character, according to an August 1997 Gallup poll.
Music as a performing art exploded at Woodside Priory School in this decade, growing from – well, nothing – to a full orchestra, two choirs and multiple performing ensembles in just about five years. Community-based youth orchestras and choirs also proliferate and students flock to them. Spring ‘98 is a good time to take a look at what’s happening with music, for students who perform and for students who don’t.
This issue’s Conversation With draws on the collective knowledge of the four musicians who direct Woodside Priory’s music program. Dr. Martin Mayer founded the orchestra. Carla Sims founded the choirs and is the principal classroom teacher. Sara Salsbury joined the Priory as Director of Instrumental Music this year, and Wayne Davison is a committed parent volunteer. All have performing experience, advanced musical degrees and active lives in the music world outside of school.
C. Dobervich.
Sara Salsbury is well known to everyone involved with community music for students on the mid- Peninsula. She founded and/ or directed music programs in Mountain View, Palo Alto and Sunnyvale schools and churches, and she received an award for her outstanding artistic and administrative work over nearly 20 years with the El Camino Youth Symphony. She is one of the founding directors of the new Peninsula Youth Orchestra and directs instrumental music at McKinley Elementary and Middle Schools in Redwood City as well as at Woodside Priory.
Wayne Davison began singing as a child in church choir and continued through Occidental College and Stanford University (majoring in choral music). He sang with the San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Opera choirs, conducted a church choir and madrigal group and was stage manager for several West Bay Opera productions. Music is his very active avocation – he is senior manager at The Research Libraries Group, currently in charge of telecommunications and server computers.
Carla Sims has broad music curriculum experience, from elementary through high school, and she has directed (and still directs) adult church choirs. She is an active participant in professional music educators and choral directors associations, which offer a wide variety of off-campus opportunities for students as well as faculty. She teaches instrumental musice at Garfield Charter Elementary School in Menlo Park and is the principal classroom music teacher at the Priory.
Dr. Martin Mayer
At one time had his eye on the concert piano stage; he was a member of the Musician’s Union by age 17. He played oboe and English horn with the Bergen, New Jersey Philharmonic, produced student musicals and developed choral music programs on East and West Coast high school campuses. He reportedly logged a fair number of hours playing music in smoky music joints on both coasts. For the past ten years he has also been Woodside Priory School’s business manager.