New Classical “Major” Makes Music, Creates Debate
By James Straub

BLUE HILL—Judging by the clutter of books, papers and boxes, the small office could belong to almost any high school department head.

Thanks to the tambourine, the tom-toms and the musical notation on the blackboard, however, there’s no doubt that this is the domain of a music teacher.

Standing at the center of the room, violinist Emeline Reynolds is frowning at the score propped up in front of her on a music stand. Teacher Thomas Martin Wubbenhorst settles onto a stuffed couch and urges his student to smile at the music.

It’s a quiet weekday afternoon at Liberty School, which is breaking ground by offering a full-fledged classical music major for its high school students as well as something called The Saturday Conservatory for its students and other musicians from the outside community.

The Saturday Conservatory features a chamber orchestra and provides its members with a musicianship class. It is popular among area music teachers, even those who are less than thrilled by the Liberty School Classical Music Program as a whole.

“The Saturday Conservatory program is something I strongly urged them to incorporate into their music program,” said Irene Rissi of Deer Isle, who has taught violin, viola and chamber music to young musicians for the past 22 years. The majority of string players in the Saturday Conservatory are her students.

Rissi said the area needs the type of venue the Saturday Conservatory offers younger students, who receive valuable experience by playing with an orchestra rather than working only with a private teacher.

She is less enthusiastic about the Liberty School’s weekday Classical Music Program. She objects to the “magnet school” approach of attracting serious and talented young musicians to cluster in one school. Such an approach hurts small community schools, she said.

“Those students are role models for younger students,” Rissi said. “They need to live and stay in their community. Those role models are very, very important.”

Wubbenhorst founded the Saturday Conservatory and the Liberty School Classical Music Program last fall. In addition to directing the new music program at Liberty School, he is an adjunct professor of music at Unity College. Before coming to Blue Hill, he taught music at the university level for 27 years.

He continues to be active as a conductor, composer,  competition judge and percussion teacher throughout the United States, Canada and South Africa.

Wubbenhorst said the Classical Music Program is designed to prepare students for the study of music at the college level. The comprehensive program includes performance, theory, ear training, history, literature, conducting and composition. Students majoring in music must also take courses in other areas to fulfill high school graduation requirements.

Rissi says other area music teachers agree with her objection to the program. Some, however, agree that well-rounded community schools are important but also support the Liberty School music program because it offers individual student musicians the background some of them need for success.

“The Liberty School Classical Music Program can provide the foundation for a lifetime of music-making, either as a professional or just for the sheer joy of it,” said Paul Sullivan, a pianist, composer and music teacher who lives in Brooklin.

Prospective students for the music program must audition, submit a portfolio and fulfill the regular application requirements of the school.

“It’s a new program,” Wubbenhorst said. “It’s growing. It’s in evolution.”

Currently three students at the school are music majors. Other students take some of the music courses and participate in the school’s brass trio, sextet, vocal group and “garage band.”

“I hear what Irene [Rissi] is saying,” Wubbenhorst said. “I think it’s possible she’s not the lone voice with that.”

In the short time the program has been in place, he has seen talented musicians decide against Liberty School and its music program in favor of attending school in their hometown or where their friends are going.

“The bottom line is what’s best for the student,” he said. “We’re providing an alternative, and in a lot of respects, an enhancement to what one might get in a different program. We are not trying to take kids out of public school or other private schools. We are trying to provide something unique that will appeal to a small number of people.”

Wubbenhorst teaches a music seminar each term. Last term, the course was titled “Music Through Time” and looked at how music works in rhythmic, melodic and harmonic time, as well as studying historical periods of music.

This semester’s seminar is titled “If It Ain’t Got That Swing.” The course is based in theory and performance and investigates the inner workings of jazz harmony, melody and rhythm.

Another class is loosely based on the book “Drumming at the Edge of Magic” written by Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart. Students study drumming traditions from throughout the world.

“The classes here can be classes like that,” Wubbenhorst said. “That’s what makes the program unique. There’s an interest, and you can have a class that discusses those elements in music. That type of class is difficult to find in a typical high school.

“We’re trying to offer something that is unique. A kid who really wants to have a conversation about music, and learn theory on a practically one-to-one level, should contemplate coming here. I think there’s a whole world of things that can happen.”

The debate over the school’s plan to provide intense preparation for students who want to study music at the post-secondary level likely will continue.

It is equally likely that the Saturday Conservatory will continue to win the support of area musicians and educators.

Wubbenhorst said the Saturday Conservatory started as a way to provide youth and adults opportunity to perform in an orchestra.

Membership in the orchestra is open to anyone who has studied an instrument privately for at least two years. Prospective members must pass an audition. For information, call Wubbenhorst at 374-2886.

“The challenge is to bring people at many different levels of development as players together in an ensemble where everyone is challenged but no one is overwhelmed,” Wubbenhorst said. “That’s a huge challenge.”

Wubbenhorst models the Saturday Conservatory on a professional music experience, rather than typical high school approaches which usually involve as many as 40 rehearsals in preparation for a concert. The Saturday Conservatory rehearses only six times before a concert.

The success of Liberty School’s Saturday Conservatory could be measured in many ways. One way will be a public concert the group will offer on Saturday, March 16, at St. Francis by the Sea Episcopal Church in Blue Hill.

The concert will feature the Saturday Conservatory Chamber Orchestra, a 21-piece orchestra made up of musicians ranging in age from 9 to adult. Liberty School students also will perform in chamber ensembles and as soloists before the chamber orchestra performance.

Members of the Saturday Conservatory Chamber Orchestra come from a wide geographic area. While most live on the Blue Hill Peninsula or Deer Isle, some travel from Bangor and Corea.

Wubbenhorst also offers an optional class for members of the Saturday Conservatory. He described it as a basic music composition class that focuses on the creative process and its sources.

The Saturday Conservatory scheduled three concerts this school year. The first, performed in December, featured winds, brass, percussion and piano. The concert on March 16 will focus on music for string orchestra.

The repertoire for that concert includes “Capriol Suite” by Peter Warlock, “A Gaelic Overture” from “St Patrick’s Breastplate” by David O’Fallon, “Russian Easter Overture” by Rimsky-Korsakov and “Gymnopedie No. 1” by Erik Satie.

A new session of the Saturday Conservatory will start in April. A spring concert date will be announced. Openings exist for all instruments, including strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion and piano.

Wubbenhorst said long-range plans for the Saturday Conservatory include the creation of multiple ensembles encompassing musicians at varying levels of experience. He also plans to form a vocal group and a woodwind band in addition to the orchestra.
 

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