The four musicians will return to the school Friday as part of a

follow-up to last summer’s Kingfield POPS concert.
By Samantha C. DePoy
Staff Writer
KINGFIELD
Want a surefire way to get on the good side of a gym full of antsy elementary school students? Just have some fun with one of their teachers.

Clipping an outrageous bow tie onto the collar of teacher David Spear and handing him the baton, the Bangor Symphony Orchestra’s brass quartet was able to connect with Kingfield Elementary School students Thursday afternoon.

“We’ve never had a conductor shake his booty so much,” quartet trumpeter Lori Wingo teased the giggling crowd, after Spear had finished his animated stint as a conductor that included several high kicks.

Members of the symphony, including trumpeter Bill Whitener, trombonist Jim Trembley, french horn player Ken Miller and Wingo, will be back Friday to connect area youngsters to good music as a follow-up to this past summer’s Kingfield POPS concert.

By the end of their two-day stint, part of an educational outreach program, they’ll have rocked the gymnasiums at elementary schools in Strong, Phillips, Stratton and Kingfield and managed to get the toes tapping of every kindergarten-to-eighth-grade student in SAD 58.

Thursday’s show in Kingfield started with a brass rendition of children’s favorite “Rubber Ducky.” After the crowd’s applause and hoots tuned down, Wingo began her lesson, teaching students, and even teachers, about the importance of brass instruments throughout the ages.

Then, Whitener and Wingo taught kids how to make their own trumpet out of a piece of garden hose and a funnel, and they recruited kindergartener Ron Lobdell to the front of the assembly to give it a try.

The boy carefully blew into the hose, glancing around nervously as a few wobbly notes rolled out before giving it another strong gust of air and managing, to the delight of the crowd, to get a nice resonating note that was met with whoops and claps from his peers.

Kingfield teachers and students also got treated to a private concert as the quartet performed selected songs from “The Nutcracker,” Mozart and even pulled up stunned community members Mauno and Kay Kankainen, ages 79 and 80, respectively, right out of their seats to dance the jitterbug.

After the one-hour performance/educational presentation, selected student musicians, such as 11-year-olds Phil Shurtleff and Ben Morse of Carrabassett Valley, got private lessons from quartet members.

“They sounded good, even without the rest of the orchestra,” said Morse. “It was cool. We know some things about trumpets because we play them, but they introduced brass to the other kids.”

The Kankainens, who attended the summer POPS concert, said they came Thursday because they are proud to see that music is being revived in their community.

“We are musical and we wanted to see the kids, see how they would react,” said Mauno. “It’s a great thing, just great. These kids need it. It’s something we all need.”

Wingo said visits are important in rural areas where music programs have played second fiddle due to budgetary problems. “We bring that seed, that interest, back in here and plant the idea that this is essential to their lives and it’s fun. That’s what we are trying to do here, plant all those seeds.”

After the quartet’s appearance at Strong Elementary School, music teacher Micah Voter said several students asked when they could start learning to play a brass instrument. “We got immediate results from this,” Voter said. “It really piqued their interest.”

sdepoy@sunjournal.com

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