Music instruction finding a place in Sedona
by Dennis Sigman
The looks on the faces of Sedona’s visitors and new residents range from mystified to horrified over the realization that despite the onset of miles of expensive development, there is no art in the public schools. It has become a cliché.
You would have thought that since our paradise has only two major industries - real estate development and the arts - and that when Sedona’s school system was conceived, real estate and development would have been a necessary program in the curriculum. Teach the little tykes to earn a fast buck, ASAP.
It was only fair though, that if the arts were denied a place in our schools, well, then……
But that’s all changing. No, not the slumping real estate market; arts programming is getting into the schools!
Kim Randall had been coming to Sedona to enjoy the Jazz on the Rocks festivals for several years, but it wasn’t until she came here as the new superintendent of the school district, that she too discovered Sedona’s sad secret: “It became clear to me that there was a need for a comprehensive performing arts program,” said Randall.
It has been no secret, of course, to local arts organizations like Chamber Music Sedona, which has exposed our students to world renowned classical musicians for years through free concerts, or to theatre artists like Mark Riley, who gave his time and expertise without pay for two years to start a theatre program at Red Rock High School.
A valiant effort to fill the gap was the Artists in the Schools program which offered a token pay to community artists to bring their preferred mediums to the students. And, the Marilyn Sunderman Foundation has, over the past five years, given $31,000 to teachers in “creative classroom” grants and scholarships, in order to enhance teachers’ professional creativity.
As Randall dug deeper, she found that, although some talented young musicians were emerging from the Big Park and West Sedona school music programs, they were taking lessons outside of school because of the music void that awaited them in high school.
Some were also choosing other schools, such as charter high school Flagstaff Arts & Leadership Academy. Randall saw a disparity of opportunity, based on economics.
“That’s what public schools are about – providing a level playing field for opportunities for all kids,” said Randall.
So, she made an impassioned pledge a couple years ago: “We will build the arts!” But, she said that we needed “somebody who could bring the community assets and the school’s needs together and make it work; someone who has proven he or she understands the big picture.”
Enter Sedona’s reliable muse, Synchronicity……
Bill Dederer and his wife Julie, also a life-long educator, came out in March of ’03, and purchased a condo in the Village of Oak Creek for their future retirement. Bill, whose credentials are as long and inspiring as Sedona’s hiking trails, was then dean of the Conservatory of Music at Capitol University, in Ohio. He holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in music education and music performance. He has played trumpet for prestigious philharmonic, opera and ballet orchestras, taught trumpet and conducted ensembles and choirs from elementary school to college. Dederer has headed departments and colleges and has collected nearly four decades of honors in a career of music education.
“Working here never occurred to us, until some time in April, I was feeling uneasy, feeling there was something else I needed to be doing.”
Forces at work suggested to him that, “maybe I should get on with the career I said I was going to have, which was public school music.” Dederer and his wife thought: maybe Sedona sooner rather than later. Then, Dederer’s resume found its way to Randall’s desk.
Randall, with the help of Shirley Carroll of MSF, brought Dederer together with the community’s arts leaders, from organizations that already have been giving support to the schools and were eager to do more.
The upcoming elections on the budget override and bond issue offered exciting possibilities. The bond’s centerpiece was the expansion of the existing Red Rock High School auditorium to a 750-seat performing arts center for student and community use. And, Dederer appears to be the right person at the right time.
Bert Harclerode, Chamber Music Sedona executive director said, “To my eyes, this all suggests developing an arts education philosophy, and an acoustic hall that will serve a multitude of arts genres within the school curriculum, and the arts community.”
Dederer has become a pivotal addition to the district’s staff. Into Dederer’s backpack the superintendent stuffed the weighty title of District Facilitator for Performing Arts Program Development, along with a full course load of music to teach at the high school.
“The first step is to figure out where we are and what we want the programs to look like down the road,” said Dederer. “My impression is that there’s little or no communication among the schools to be doing similar things in the arts.”
For the students there is no tradition carried forward from the elementary through the junior high up to the high school.
He was surprised to find that the first course he was to teach was “choir/ jazz band. These are things that do not go together well, as they say on Sesame Street,” said Dederer.
Then, the drum class: “I quickly expanded the drum class into a percussion ensemble with different instruments.”
By the end of the semester, the group had mastered a couple of simple but legitimate pieces they could perform. Dederer changed the title of that course to Instrumental Ensembles.
“Whatever you play, take this course and I will create ensembles appropriate to your instrument,” he said. He believes that it doesn’t serve the students well to teach them by rote. It is the teacher’s duty to give them the independence that learning musical concepts and learning to read music allows.
He also put himself out on a limb with drama teacher Terry Bramwell. Dederer had been here about five days when he said, “It is deplorable that the musical at the high school is using a CD for its accompaniment – it’s no more than karaoke.”
And with a confidence rooted in accomplishments, he continued, “We will have live musicians in the orchestra pit.” He had no idea where he was going to get them.
The show at the high school is Little Shop of Horrors, and it needs is a ‘50s rock band. He got welcomed relief from musician and Arts and Culture commissioner, Steve Douglas who promised to get him, pro bono, an appropriate professional ensemble to play in the pit.
“And I’m going to conduct it,” said Dederer. “It’ll be great fun!”
This semester Dederer’s total enrollment has doubled from 25 to 50. “The instrumental ensembles and steel drum bands are approaching maximum enrollment,” said Dederer. “I’d love to have more in choir.”
“When I first talked to Dr. Randall, I said, ‘what you’re talking about will take about five years to see much difference at the high school level,’ and she said that sounded right to her,” said Dederer.
They have a verbal commitment to each other – “let’s give it five years.”
The bond issue passing shows what kind of community Sedona is. There are many other parts of the country where this would not have happened, where arts programs are being cut.
Of course, in Sedona there is nothing to cut. It’s only up from here.