This program is offered as a model or template from which to plan a sequential, meaningful curriculum with fundamental learning experiences for all children. The general music classes are being offered at four of our local Clubs including the Iberia Unit on Mondays, the Vermilion Unit on Tuesdays, the Granberry Unit on Wednesdays, and the Jackie Unit on Fridays. The classes are comprised of the elements of melody, harmony, rhythm, and form to which all other musical elements are related. The classes include singing, moving, listening, performing, and reading and writing music in each class meeting.
It is the hope of ASO that the collaboration between ASO and BGC will allow them to be able to bus a small group of these kids from each participating Club to the Conservatory of Music. At the Conservatory, the children will be able to study music on a more personal intimate level or rather on a much higher intense pace.
Periodically throughout the year the kids will have many opportunities to perform, including the annual Steak and Burger Dinner, the Oil Centers' Festival of Lights, and twice with the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra Acadiana Sings and the Orchestra Sings Concert. The Orchestra Moves is a collaboration between the ASO and Carnegie Hall. This program allows the children to learn and preform on stage with the ASO in concert. Link Up as it is sometimes called gives the children the ability to discover how composers create musical movement using elements such as motif, melodic direction, steps and leaps, dynamics, and orchestration. Exploring a range of orchestral repertoire, students sing, or play the recorder, compose, and perform in a culminating concert at Heyman Preforming Arts Center.
Music Teacher, Rafael Henry says, "It is my personal goal that by the "end product" of these classes the children demonstrate that they have acquired a basic and fundamental working knowledge of music".
Thank you to Mr. Rafael Henry for starting this wonderful program.
A Native of Parks, Louisiana Mr. Henry's musical studies began in 1992 studying Trombone, Flute and Piano with James Witlow. He later went on to study Piano and Organ Technique with Patrick Melancon. He went on to study organ proficiency with Dr. Harry McMurray at Saint Joseph Seminary College, Covington, Louisiana and Thomas Neil, Director of Music and Organist of Saint John the Evangelist Cathedral, Lafayette, Louisiana. Rafael also studied voice and vocal pedagogy at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with Margret Daniel. He has preformed as a Pianist and Organist at recitals in Washington, D.C., Crestview, Florida, Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi, Galveston, Texas, Covington, Louisiana, Lafayette, Louisiana, and will be a guest organ recitalist in 2013 at Saint Patrick Cathedral New York, New York! Rafael is a member of the American Guild of Organist, and he is the Director of Music and Organist of Saint Leo the Great Catholic Church here in Lafayette. He has been a part of the Faculty of the Conservatory since October of 2007 and he enjoys every minute of it.
