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Music Haven Grooves With The Holidays

Jamiah Green | December 23rd, 2019

Music Haven Grooves With The Holidays

Music  |  Arts & Culture  |  Music Haven

 

MusicHaven2
Mandi Jackson Photo. 

The performers stood at attention, bows placed gingerly above their heads. The room had fallen to a hush; classmates looked on with excitement from a line at the side of the auditorium. Their teacher lifted a hand, and gave a swift signal to begin. With that, some of New Haven’s youngest musicians were summoning all the joy and cheer they could offer.

Thursday, over 80 Music Haven students gathered for the group’s winter performance and party at John C. Daniels School, fighting plummeting temperatures with a mix of holiday and classical pieces. The nonprofit, which started at Daniels and Wexler Grant Elementary Schools over a decade ago, provides tuition-free music lessons with a resident string quartet and teachers for special “Music Bridge” and “Music 101” classes.

As they appeared in groups, performers sailed from J.S. Bach and Amadeus Mozart to more contemporary favorites, including a particularly cheery “Jingle Bell Rock” and heartfelt “Little Drummer Boy.” In William Grant Still’s “Lyric Quartelle II. The Quiet One,” Harmony In Action musicians started with a quiet, settled harmony, as if they were just at the beginning of a story and wanted to make the pages last.

Strings rose and fell together, their music almost like a lullaby. But as the song progressed, audience members hung on to every note. They weren’t lulled to sleep at all, too busy watching and listening to what was happening right in front of them.

Other pieces captured an upbeat spirit of the season, whether they were holiday-themed or not. In Amadeus Mozart’s “String Quartet, K. 157: Prestos,” Harmony In Action students wrapped the room in fast, lifting strings and cello that dove and rose joyously. They slowed it down for just a moment, then pushed on to a finale.

Earlier in the evening, students had delighted members of the audience with one of the group’s longtime favorites—Ben King’s soulful “Stand By Me” (arranged by musician- and teacher-in-residence Philip Boulanger). They challenged listeners to follow a sort of paced musical chase in Richard Meyer’s “Dragon Hunter.”

They ended, per tradition, with an invitation to fellow musicians in the audience to join them for Johann Pachelbel’s “Canon In D.” Then kids headed towards the party and its bright cookie section, smiles exploding across their faces.

For both students and attendees, the performance party was also a chance to listen and reconnect, and show off their skills to their parents. One student said she'd excited to be part of the program because it offers her a safe space to practice music.

Robert Oakley, a Music Haven alum who joined in 2014 and graduated last year, said that he likes coming back because it reminds him how much progress he made as part of the program.

"If you want to join the program, be prepared to have fun,” he said. “But also, stay dedicated."

Music Haven is on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The group performs in January at its annual at their Martin Luther King, Jr. Day concert with St. Luke’s Steel Band.