Music education is essential at The New Century School. From classroom informal singing to formal vocal and instrumentation instruction to guest performances by professional musicians, TNCS exposes children daily to music in many forms.

As TNCS has grown and developed over the years, the music program has continued to evolve alongside. It’s time Immersed breaks it all down and shows readers what each piece looks like (sounds like?) and how the individual pieces fit together, well, harmoniously, all year long—including during summer and before, during, and after school.

TNCS’s Maestro: Martellies Warren

Music Director Martellies Warren has always been the linchpin of the TNCS music program. In addition to providing lessons in music history and on specific musicians, he also starts each academic year off with vocal instruction to prepare students for the two annual Winter and Spring Concerts (one each for primary students, one each for elementary and middle school students). These have grown in scope and intensity, with each somehow topping the last. Each show features a variety of songs in Mandarin Chinese and Spanish as well as a themed set of songs.

This year’s Spring Concert theme on May 18th was Dancing in the Streets, and the sound of Motown was prominent. “I’m always trying to make sure the concert is going to be as spectacular as it was the time before,” said Mr. Warren. “The students take great pride in it. From the time I introduce music at the beginning of the school year, I’m already thinking about what the children gravitate to. I played a little Motown, and they absolutely loved it.”

See the gallery below for photos of TNCS art teacher Jenny Miller’s beautiful set design, with album art help from her students. Check out TNCS’s Facebook page and YouTube channel for videos of individual performances.

For more on the limitless talent of Stellar Award–winning and Grammy-nominated Mr. Warren, see Music Is in the Air at TNCS! and TNCS Goes to the Grammys!.

Music Lessons at TNCS

But vocalization is not the only type of music class at TNCS. Instrument lessons are also offered in a variety of settings.

Have you visited the TNCS Music Education page? Click here.

Extracurricular String Lessons

In 2016, TNCS brought on acclaimed bassist Yoshiaki Horiguchi to teach beginning violin, viola, and cello lessons as well as leading more advanced string ensembles. These classes happen before and after school and are a great way for students to first learn the basics and subsequently use their skills to perform together.

To read more about beloved Mr. Yoshi, visit TNCS Launches Strings Program Yoshiaki Horiguchi!.

Space is always made in the Winter and Spring Concerts for Mr. Yoshi’s students to play a few songs, and their technical proficiency is impressive. Check out TNCS’s Facebook page and YouTube channel for videos of a play set to music and an original composition (yes, original!) by one of the strings students.

Although Mr. Yoshi is classically trained, he is no stranger to music’s funkier sides, which brings a lot of fun to his TNCS classes. He has taught bucket drumming to various groups, for example, and, perhaps unknown to most until today’s Spring Concert, he is also an accomplished beat boxer. Doug E. Fresh and Biz Markie, watch out. (Got a kid who wants to learn beat boxing? Scroll below to Music in Summer!)

Instrument Exploratory

In 2017, TNCS began offering an optional semester-long class each year to allow students in grades 2–8 to explore various instrument groups. Taught by Mr. Warren during music class, woodwind exploratory covers flute for 5 weeks, followed by clarinet for 5 weeks. Brass exploratory, which happened this year, covers trumpet for 5 weeks, followed by trombone for 5 weeks. The instrument groups covered alternate each year.

Trombone is Mr. Warren’s preferred instrument (apart from his vocal cords), but he started with the saxophone:

As a boy, I was all ready to play the sax, and I thought it looked so cool. I got to the music store in Montgomery, AL, picked up the sax and tried to play it. I knew it was going to take some time, but I got so frustrated because I just could not get it to sound like the guys on TV. So I begged my mom to take me back to the store, and she told me I needed to pick something and stick with it, to give it some time. The salesman suggested the trombone, and I immediately loved it. This was in 7th grade, and I became section leader and first chair all through junior high and high school.

Trombone has been well liked in Instrument Exploratory as well, but trumpet has so far been most popular of all. Mr. Warren thinks this is because kids can readily produce sounds on the trumpet, whereas some struggled last year with the flute (with one very notable exception).

“Flute is not a very easy instrument to play,” explained Mr. Warren. “You have to direct that air just right to get it to produce a sound. But that’s the experience we’re after. We’re not expecting amazing instrumentalists right away, but we want them to at least pick up instruments and see how they feel and how they sound. Maybe they’ll fall in love with something.”

More than one love affair with an instrument has happened already, which makes Mr. Warren “ecstatic.”

“They are doing some really wonderful things with brass and taking off with it. At this age, children are trying to find themselves, and we want to make sure that we’re offering whatever we can to assist them, especially musically. Whatever we can introduce to them now, even though they may not pick up on it right away, we hope that this will help sustain a lifelong love of music. Some may even make careers out of it.

His approach to teaching instruments is to start out with the fundamentals and systematically build on those, bit by bit. First, Mr. Warren “sets the tone” by insisting on good etiquette—musicians must sit up straight with their feet on the floor, and they must not interrupt while a fellow musician is talking or playing. Step two is to get everyone in tune. From there, they practice various exercises, each becoming more complex than the last.

Recorder Instruction

Those students not opting in for Instrument Exploratory receive recorder lessons during music class from Javais Bazemore (“Mr. J.” to students). Mr. J. says, “Recorder is what I grew up on, but I’ll play anything with a pipe. For me, recorder is the first thing that you start with. If you can read recorder music, you can read other music. It opens your eyes up to see exactly how it works.”

He also sings and plays piano and guitar, but recorder remains his main gig, and he played it in band throughout his school years and even into college at North Carolina State University. “Being in band built a lot of character for me, and we felt like a family. We had a strict instructor who insisted that we respect our instruments and show discipline,” he explained. “Here at TNCS, we just want to show students how to read music because you can start with that and go to anything else, really.”

Mr. J. is from Baltimore and came to TNCS through the suggestions of friends and his mother that he should work with children. He started in the TNCS aftercare program, loved it, and has since added various other roles, including teaching recorder. He demonstrated his musical ability to Mr. Warren, who deemed him a good fit.

“It’s really fun to see where the kids are now, from where they started. I can just play a note like a G, and they know how to play it back with no problem,” said Mr. J. “I gave them incentive at the beginning. I told them that if they showed me they can remember all the notes, I’d give them a 30-minute play break at the end of school.” He didn’t necessarily believe that would happen. “Little did I know, they outsmarted me and became really cohesive, teaching each other,” he laughed.

“This has been really great,” said Mr. J. “I love the kids. They’re just so smart. They’re like sponges—they want to soak up everything, and it’s really good to be around them.”

Band Ensemble

With a solid foundation in place from instrument exploratory or recorder lessons, these young musicians are ready to play together during the last couple of weeks of school. “Students can choose from trombone, trumpet, clarinet, flute, and recorder, said Mr. Warren. “We’ll come together and do somewhat of an ensemble, which should be really fun.” In fact, all students Grade 2 and up participate in band, which was composed of 18 recorder players, 5 clarinetists, 6 trumpet players, 3 trombonists, and 1 brave flautist.

As with Instrument Exploratory, exercises start simply and build in complexity.

Special Guest Performances

Music education doesn’t just take place in front of an audience. Sometimes, experiencing music as part of the audience opens students up to it in new and important ways. A new performance series begins at the end of May, featuring professional guest musicians. “Meet the Musicians” will start with a brief concert by each musician, followed up by a Q&A for students to learn about what it’s like to pursue a career in music.

Louna Dekker-Vargas will play the flute; Osi Atikphh, the tuba; and Mateen Milan, the bassoon, giving TNCS students a break from performing and allowing them to relax and enjoy the music.

Music in Summer

We all know that the saying “No more pencils, no more books” no longer applies to summer break, and playing music is no different. To keep skills sharp, children must continue practicing during the summer months.

TNCS has that covered, too. Back for the second year in a row, American Music Camp students learn from faculty who perform American Music (e.g., old-time music from the Appalachian Mountains to traditional Bluegrass) in all parts of the country. Students have the opportunity to play in ensembles and learn how to improvise—no improvisation experience needed.

Directed by Mr. Yoshi, AMC Baltimore includes a bucket band and beat boxing in its curriculum, bringing a facet of American music that is unique to this region. No matter what his or her experience level is, any student will fit right in. Each class is taught by world-class faculty and performers from Baltimore and throughout the country.

Read about last year’s absolutely amazing inaugural AMC camp: American Music System Summer Camp at TNCS!

But that’s not all. Debuting this year is an all-new musical theatre camp taught by none other than Mr. Warren. This came about, he explains, “because a lot of TNCS students are interested in what happens behind the scenes and are curious about what it’s like to be a working music professional. They’re always asking, ‘Mr. Warren what do you do? How do you feel on stage? What’s the preparation? Do you rehearse a lot? Do you do vocal exercises?’ So my hope for this summer is to give them a taste of what it takes to be a performer on stage, how to channel emotions into theatrical form.”

His plans for theatrical music camp include building sets and doing monologues in addition to musicality. “It should be really fun and, hopefully, maybe spark someone’s interest in theater. That’s my hope,” he says. Parents can attend a performance at the end of the camp week.

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Register your child for a music (or any other) camp this summer here. Also plan to enroll your child in a music class for the 2018–2019 school year. Both in-school and extracurricular lessons are affordable and taught by TNCS’s wonderful music instructors.