NSMA’s Music Education Workshops and Residencies for Local K-12 Classrooms

Nirmala Photo by Cindy Moy

Over the past nine months, the North Shore Music Association has enjoyed bringing liveliness to local classrooms with outreach programs led by talented Minnesota music educators. Through these programs, students have been able to connect with guest artists via Zoom and Google Classroom and learn about the music, movement, instruments, and traditions of cultures from around the globe. Thanks to grant funding from the MN State Arts Board and the support of our NSMA members and business sponsors, these programs have been a key way for NSMA to continue offering high-quality interactive programs and residencies for students in a way that’s aligned with school health protocols. Tailored to meet the specific needs of individual classrooms, these programs have been a fun and enriching way for teachers to broaden not only their students’ musical knowledge, but also their awareness of and sense of belonging within the global community.

Last spring at Great Expectations School, the 7th/8th-grade Otters classroom learned how to play wooden Afro-Cuban drums called cajóns, which had been built by a previous Otter class. The students had six weekly virtual lessons with Portland, Oregon-based master drummer Mark Powers. Their learning culminated in a performance at the 8th-grade graduation ceremony in June.

Djenane Saint Juste

Also last spring, at Sawtooth Elementary School, NSMA hosted a virtual program for 3rd–5th graders, led by American roots musician/scholars Robert Jones and Matt Watroba. With “Music That Matters,” a program that emphasizes the power and celebration of cultural diversity, the duo taught students how European and African instruments and styles fused to make American music. Students learned that the evolution of American music is a journey of tolerance and acceptance—from early spirituals set in the 1840s, through the songs of the Underground Railroad, early Blues, country, jazz, bluegrass, gospel, R&B, to today’s rap and hip-hop.

In late October, Nirmala Rajasekar, one of the premier Saraswati veena players in the world, taught second graders at Sawtooth Elementary about the music and traditions of her native India. It was an enriching addition to the classroom’s study of the traditional holiday Diwali, the festival of lights that is annually celebrated throughout India.

In November, dancer Djenane Saint Juste and Afouyati held a three-day residency with kindergartners at Great Expectations, teaching them how to move their bodies to traditional and folkloric Haitian rhythms and music. Students also learned about the costumes used in the traditional dance forms, traditional games, and the relationship between song and storytelling in traditional Haitian and popular Creole culture.

In December, Steve Sklar and Johnna Morrow will work with first graders in four sessions at Great Expectations, teaching them about the science of sound. Their focus will be on metal instruments such as gongs and Himalayan singing bowls, and the Australian aboriginal instrument the didgeridoo. While the metal instruments are played with sticks, mallets, and superballs, and the didgeridoo is a wooden wind instrument, all are based on harmonics, valuable as a basic concept in many branches of science and math.

Also in December, hip-hop artist See More Perspective will lead GES middle schoolers in five sessions focused on personal identity. And Juan Dies of the traditional Mexican music group Sones de Mexico will spend four mornings with Spanish 2 and Spanish 3 students at Cook County High School, teaching Geografia Musica de México. Dies will also deliver a virtual evening presentation of Geografia Musica de México (in English) for the general public in December, time and date to be announced.

NSMA is always eager to offer quality programming to our local young people, including at a time when the nourishment for mind and soul that music provides is especially needed. This activity is made possible in part by the voters of Minnesota through grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to legislative appropriations from the Minnesota State Legislature’s General Fund and the Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.