Grade Schools Line Up Winter Concerts

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Created on Tuesday, 03 December 2024 15:51

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By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    Keet Gooshi Heen Elementary School’s Winter Concert season opens Wednesday with a 30-minute performance by the third-graders at the Performing Arts Center.
    The school’s music teacher, Susan Brandt-Ferguson, says parents and community members at the four KGH grade-level concerts should enjoy not only the music, but seeing the “culmination of the of the music and the skills that they’ve been working on all fall.”

Third-graders rehearse this morning at Keet Gooshi Heen Elementary School for their Winter Concert. The third-graders kick off the series of free school concerts held at the Performing Arts Center 7 p.m. Wednesday. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)

    “It’s not really a holiday sort of concert, although we like to have a little bit of seasonal something in there somewhere,” she said. “At each grade level hopefully you’ll see more maturity in their performance and their musical abilities.”
    The concerts at the PAC are free and open to the public, and are about a half-hour long, with the exception of the 45-minute fifth-grade show:
    Third Grade – 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 4
    Fourth Grade – 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 9
    Second Grade – 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 12
    Fifth Grade – 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 16
    The high school and middle school concerts are December 11 and 17, respectively.
    The Wednesday concert will feature a number of folk songs, including the a favorite “The Tailor and the Mouse.” The audience will be treated to the students’ skills in singing harmony, one with the kids taking parts, and the other sung in canon (“rounds”). The holiday features include “Over the River and Through the Woods” and “Jingle Bells.”
    Brandt-Ferguson said the kids in all grade levels are looking forward to showing their families and the community what they’ve learned.
    “They’re very excited,” she said.
    Brandt-Ferguson was raised in Sitka, and is in her 31st year teaching music, all but two of them in the Sitka School District. As a student in Sitka she played baritone saxophone, and studied bassoon while earning her music education degree at Pacific Lutheran University.
    Brandt-Ferguson said while the audience will enjoy seeing what the kids have learned this semester, their concert work isn’t the only focus of the music education program at Keet.
    “The thing you don’t see on this stage but happens a lot in my classroom is lots of singing, games and dances, and that’s why I like to just do one grade level concert every year,” she said. “I don’t want the performance to be the only focus of the program. I want there to be a lot of just experiential music classroom.”