Medfield Schools Make Music During Pandemic

The following provided by Lynne Clifford, Medfield Music Association.

Medfield Schools Make Music During Pandemic

Forty-five Medfield High School Orchestra students and their director, Ms. Brenna Evans, filed into the Medfield High School gymnasium on April 6. The student musicians, all wearing face masks, took their seats and warmed up their instruments. Ms. Evans stood before them and raised her baton. And they began to play.

Unlike previous years, the Spring Orchestra Concert took place in the gymnasium instead of the auditorium to allow for more space and improved air circulation. Only senior parents were invited. Despite the restrictions—the distancing, masks and limited attendance—this was an event to mark and celebrate.

For Medfield Music Director Mr. Jason Bielik, the concert marked a major milestone in a year defined by challenges, creativity and student-centered collaboration. The idea of a concert such as this one was hard to envision last summer when music education restrictions seemed nearly insurmountable. “DESE (Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) initial guidelines affected every component of our program, from small inconveniences to the inability to deliver curriculum,” Mr. Bielik said. At the beginning of the school year, movement activities crucial to elementary music instruction were prohibited. And all singing and playing of band instruments was limited to outdoors, spaced 10 feet apart, with all students wearing masks. General coordination and feasibility of rehearsals and lessons proved to be very difficult.

Fortunately, by late October, DESE revised its guidelines to allow band students to return indoors, but put other challenging restrictions in place. For example, in addition to masks and student spacing requirements, schools were required to provide bell covers for wind instruments. Mr. Bielik recalls improvising in ways that bordered on humorous. “Because bell covers were in high demand and expensive, I needed cheaper and easily accessible options. I visited multiple Ocean State Job Lots and bought out all of their ladies knee-high socks and tights,” which were repurposed into bell covers. In recent weeks, DESE guidelines were revised again, allowing choral students to return indoors and sing while wearing masks and separated by 10 feet.

The early months of the school year called for innovation and agility on the part of music staff—and patience and flexibility from families managing the fluid situation from home. Choral Director Ms. Ann Marie Tremblay led the group most affected by restrictions at the middle and high school levels. She created a new choral curriculum that incorporated outdoor singing, online recording tools, a “History of Broadway Musicals” unit, and a new bucket drumming curriculum to allow student collaboration. “Even though we had all of those limitations,” she says, “I still saw growth with my students. And that is something to be celebrated.”

Despite the best efforts of teachers, however, MHS and Blake students were still missing the community connection that is essential to music: performance. Mr. Ryan Dexter, Director of Dale/Blake Bands and Jazz Band, and Ms. Tremblay, corralled 40 Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Choir students to create a virtual ensemble video of Lean On Me by Bill Withers that was shared with the community (view here). Mr. Dexter expressed, “I can’t think of a better way to embrace the power that music has in our society and in the education of our students.” The video garnered wide praise and has been viewed approximately 5,000 times.

Memorial and Wheelock Schools’ general music teachers faced logistical difficulties as well as the inherent challenge of engaging the youngest students without allowing movement, singing or playing instruments. “Our Memorial and Wheelock teachers were left trying to meaningfully deliver music curriculum without a majority of essential teaching vehicles at their disposal; yet, somehow they delivered their virtual curriculum in such polished ways that I thought I was watching produced television shows,” Mr. Bielik marveled. At Dale School, the older elementary students received both small group lessons and full ensemble classes in a remote format via Zoom. “Orchestra, chorus and band teachers created ways to keep grade 5 students engaged all year—to such an extent that sign-ups for grade 6 ensembles are through the roof,” putting the Blake Middle School music program in a very good position for next year.

“What we’ve been able to offer is beyond the norm,” Mr. Bielik says, looking back over this historic and sometimes strange year. He credits the superintendent’s office and individual schools’ principals with much of the music program’s success. “Each school’s administration was always looking to say ‘yes.’ A district can want to support its music program, but it requires financial resources, creativity and collaboration with administration for music programs to avoid getting stuck.” Superintendent Dr. Jeffrey Marsden agrees. “We need to provide students with opportunities to be involved in their passion. So much was taken away; it was important to support our music program for our students and our community.”