THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 15, 1994 TAG: 9407130107
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
Which classical composer wrote music about trolls?
How many beats does a quarter note get?
Can you name five families of orchestra instruments?
If you can answer all three questions, without thinking too long, you might be able to keep up with the 80 kids at Monumental United Methodist Church's annual music camp.
For the 11th summer, the one-week music camp gave children, ages 6 to 12, a well-rounded glimpse into the world of serious music. Children came to the camp from all over Portsmouth - the suburbs and the inner city. Participants this year also included children from Parc Place, the HER (Health and Emergency Response) shelter, and the Wesley Center.
Deborah Carr, Monumental's director of music ministries, explained that the music camp is an outreach project, not a recruitment tool, of Monumental United Methodist Church. ``We are strictly music, no Bible studies or religious studies,'' she said. ``Kids have their own churches and their are enough vacation Bible schools around.''
To the best of Carr's knowledge, the camp is the only one of its kind in the Tidewater area.
Dressed in a beach-print T-shirt with a whistle around her neck, the energetic Carr has a camp counselor voice that carries easily over the chatter of 80 youngsters as she steps into her one-week gig as camp director.
With an enthusiasm that the kids pick up on right away, Carr and her 10 volunteer teachers launched into a week of music that many of the campers never before knew about.
The campers, divided by age and musical background, attended four classes each day studying basic music theory, getting acquainted with the whole range of orchestra instruments, learning to play together in a handbell or Orff instrument ensemble, and meeting five different classical composers.
``I am always amazed at how quickly and how much the kids want to learn,'' Carr said. ``They just soak up anything you give them.''
``The one lesson we have learned is that you can stuff a lot of information into kids - if you do it in a fun way,'' she said, adding that the three-hour camp sessions are packed with activity, leaving little time for boredom. ``We have no dead time. We don't feed the kids, and there is barely time for a potty break,'' Carr said.
Most of the campers seemed to agree about the fun part of the camp.
Michael Marshall, 11 and a rising seventh-grader at Hunt Mapp Middle School, was back for his second year. ``I like to learn about music, and I didn't have anything else to do,'' he said. ``I wish that they would do it two or three times a year, not just once.''
The highlight of each day was a trip back in time to visit when classical composers came to life in the person of five local musicians. The volunteer composers suffered gamely under hot and heavy powdered wigs, long frock coats, and pillow stuffed weskits as they impersonated Grieg, Haydn, Chopin, Beethoven and Bizet.
Lee Telply, an Old Dominion University professor of music who portrayed Haydn, smiled as he talked about the children's reaction to ``Papa'' Haydn and his music.
``They all wanted to know about Hayden's personal life much more than about his music,'' he said. ``They were more interested in whether I was married, did I have children, how old I was.''
The grand finale of the camp was a musical production presented to parents and guests on Saturday. ``The Phantom of the Music Room'' wove together classical themes from all the composers featured in this year's camp into a drama that gave all the campers a chance to perform.
Just in case you happen to run into a 7-year-old music camp graduate who wants to discuss music, remember it was Edvard Grieg who wrote music about trolls; in 4/4 time, a quarter note gets one beat; and the five families of orchestra instruments are strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion and keyboard instruments. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MARK MITCHELL
Larry Carr portrays composer Frederic Chopin at Monumental United
Methodist Church's music camp.
by CNB