Conservatory Lab
Charter School

In This Issue

Are You My Instrument?

Charter School Update

Charter School Showcase

Yo Yo Ma Article

Upcoming Events

Wednesday, Jan 29th

Professional Development - No School for Students

Whole School Assembly

Date will be determined

Friday, Feb 14th

Professional Development - No School for Students

Monday, Feb 17th - Friday, Feb. 21

February Vacation

Conservatory Lab

Grades 3 - 7

25 Arlington Street
Brighton, MA 02315
617.254.8904

Grades K1 - 2

320 Washington Street

Brighton, MA 02315
617.208.6200

www.conservatorylab.org

Family Notes

January 24, 2014

Dear Families,

When I heard the news of the passing of Claudio Abbado, internationally known and well-loved music conductor and of Bolivia Bottome, ambassador of El Sistema world- wide and right hand person to Dr. Antonio Abreu, El Sistema's founder, I began to think about what it means to leave a legacy.

A legacy is a gift of something well-honed and precious that passes from one person, one group, one generation to another in the hope and expectation that the qualities and values inherent in that legacy will continue. What is the legacy that Conservatory Lab Charter School gives to each of its students?

Perhaps the greatest legacy we can give our students is happy memories of precious moments; memories etched into their minds and hearts of teachers, companions and experiences they shared in creating. The music that surrounds us daily is certainly one way that the joy is infused into our everyday and imbedded in our memories. Knowing the joy of learning new things, of helping each other, of learning ways to make the world a better place gives our students a sense of their value and their promise.

We share in and celebrate this legacy.

Have a good week-end.

Warmly,

Ms. Lam

Diana Lam

The Passing of Two Dear Friends

El Sistema lost two champions this week. Here are our remembrances:

Claudio Abbado

by Josh Garver

It is with a heavy heart that we say farewell to conductor Claudio Abbado, who passed away on the 20th of January after a long battle with cancer. He leaves behind friends, family and colleagues that will remember him as a friendly, soft spoken musician with an intense passion for romantic and contemporary music, as well as music education. Maestro Abbado received many awards and accolades throughout his long career, including being named a senator for life by Italian president Giorgio Napolitano for his cultural contributions. Throughout his eighty year life, Abbado held many positions, including music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan (his birthplace), principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera and was chosen as the successor to conductor Herbert von Karajan with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Here at Conservatory Lab Charter School, we feel this loss very deeply. Just this year, we named our newest orchestra in his honor, the Abbado Orchestra. We named this young group of musicians after Maestro Abbado because of his staunch support of El Sistema. He met the founder of El Sistema, Dr. Jose Antonio Abreu, in 1999 and worked with their top group, the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra. He was overwhelmed with the success and scale of the program, one that not only brings music to millions of impoverished children, but also grants them shelter from the social challenges they face. Abbado had hoped to bring El Sistema to Italy with the help of Dr. Abreu.

We hope to continue carrying on the ideals of Maestro Claudio Abbado through the work we do here at Conservatory Lab Charter School. We are honored to have an orchestra named after him and will forever be thankful for his amazing contributions to the world of music.

Bolivia Bottome

El Sistema lost another friend this week. Bolivia Bottome, Director of International Relations and representative for Dr. Abreu for over thirty years, passed away after a brief illness, surrounded by family in Venezuela. Bolivia traveled the world sharing the "secret" of El Sistema with educators and leaders and acting as the eyes, ears and voice for Maestro Abreu. When our teachers toured El Sistema in Venezuela last April, they met with Bolivia several times and she took great joy in seeing our student products. She was very impressed with the authenticity of our students' work and was looking forward to her planned visits to our school.

We performed our first muestra for Bolivia and other distinguished visitors from Venezuela last May and she spoke movingly to our students and staff alike after each performance. The visitors then met with our music staff to give feedback and were all so encouraging and thoughtful in their suggestions and praise.

Two months later, when the Landmarks Orchestra chose to honor Dr. Abreu at our joint concert in July, it was again Bolivia who represented the Maestro and she took extra time to bring her wit and wisdom to share at a meeting of El Sistema nucleo leaders at Conservatory Lab. Bolivia Bottome dedicated the second half of her life to El Sistema and particularly to the work of bringing this revolutionary music program to children around the world. The popularity and growing influence of El Sistema around the world are due in many ways to Bolivia's eloquence and tireless efforts. We will miss her.

Are You My Instrument?

As all K2 students and their parents know, this year in music is all about climbing the learning "pyramid" to becoming an orchestra. The students spent the fall learning about the four string instruments, violin, viola, cello and bass. They then demonstrated their newfound knowledge with a play, Are You My Instrument, written by Resident Artist Levi Comstock and based on the book Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman.

For the second year in a row, the students took the show on the road, performing in the Common Room at the Boston Children's Museum. Ms. Biro and Ms. Snow's class performed the play twice to a standing room only crowd of parents and museum goers. The budding musicians demonstrated all the performance skills they had acquired along with the knowledge about their instruments. They spoke their lines clearly and with enthusiasm and showed how important it is to act like an orchestra. Unfortunately, Ms. Randolph and Ms. Watts' class performance was postponed due to snow, but we are looking forward to these young people sharing their play with a new audience soon.

These families are all looking forward to the next step up the pyramid: building their own instruments out of papier m�ch�. Stay tuned for more from these young musicians soon.

Transportation Update

What follows is a synopsis of what was discussed with Veolia (the bus company that provides buses) last Thursday. No "magic wand" answers emerged from the meeting, however, we do have the following commitments:

To correct morning route issues:

Focus on routes with pattern of lateness- we identified the buses HS048 and B533, for example
Gather data and examine the routes

To correct evening route issues:

Veolia Transportation will screen all routes for times
Set times to ensure drivers only pick up routes they can actually meet.

Conservatory Lab next steps:

Send weekly arrival and departure times data from both campuses
A safety will come for a few days to reiterate that 320 is the first stop

Tell Your Friends:

Behind The Cello

Please take a moment to read this excellent article by Yo Yo Ma recently published in the Huffington Post. What an eloquent champion of the arts in education!