THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 9, 1996 TAG: 9606070217
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JANELLE LA BOUVE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 127 lines
Alice R. Glasco kept the beat on the double bass as the Western Branch Middle School orchestra rehearsed ``The Pink Panther Theme'' in preparation for its final concert of the school year.
Nearby, Martin D. Glasco readied 56 fifth-graders for the year-end performance of the Western Branch Intermediate School Orchestra.
The two public school music teachers have been married since 1988.
Between them, they teach 404 young musicians in Western Branch schools. All of her classes are at Western Branch Middle School. His are at Western Branch High, E.W. Chittum Elementary and Western Branch Intermediate.
``We'll warm up with the D major scale,'' he told the class. ``Four on each note.''
The room, filled to capacity, was quiet as students held their instruments in the ready position. When he waved his baton, their bows moved methodically up the scale.
``Bring your instruments up here if they are severely, profoundly out of tune,'' Martin Glasco said after the scale practice. About 10 students responded.
``Ladies and gentlemen,'' he said several times during the class, in an effort to stifle minor spring-fever eruptions.
``OK. Slide to the edge of your seat. Be careful,'' he urged. ``Look sharp. Instruments up.''
He went to the piano and played an introduction.
The sounds of plunk, plunk, plunk filled the room as students hastily set aside bows on their music stands. Through 16 measures, strings were plucked with fingers.
``Freeze,'' Martin Glasco said. ``Remember. What we're going for is professional perfection. No high-fives here.''
After he played a piece through on the violin, Glasco asked, ``What am I doing?''
``Stopping,'' they chimed in.
``What would make the piece sound better?''
``Hold the note!'' a girl answered.
``Yes, and lead into the next tone,'' the maestro responded.
As they moved through a fast-paced piece, the children plucked the strings of their instruments, spoke lines in unison and stood to twist and wag their bottoms.
When the music stopped, he praised their performance.
``You did the transitions well,'' he said. ``The opening was quite nice. Everybody held together.''
He encouraged them to talk about ways in which the performance might be improved.
``Orchestra is fun,'' fifth-grader Quentin Forbes said during a lull in the class. ``I like the music and this instrument I'm playing. Some people say the viola is the most famous instrument.''
To recruit orchestra students and reinforce his students' positive decision, he always demonstrates a string instrument early in the year.
``Few can resist that,'' he said. ``I play for them and have fifth-graders play for fourth-graders.''
Along with the musical instruction, Glasco instructs his students on the importance of showing respect. He addresses them as ``ladies and gentlemen.''
``The only way to get a student's respect is to respect them,'' he said. ``We don't ask them to do anything unimportant or that we have not done.''
He gives credit to the city's elementary music teachers that students are musically literate when they come to his classes. He must teach them to apply written music to their chosen instrument.
``I teach music like it's a language,'' he said. ``We read it, write and speak it.''
Alice Glasco wants her students to understand the importance of discipline in their lives, both as musicians and as citizens.
``I'm a stickler for deadlines and making them accountable,'' she said.
``Alice is involved with the structure, and I have to get them to the level so they can be musical,'' Martin Glasco said. ``Some respond to my approach; others will blossom under her approach.''
``I want them to enjoy music,'' Alice Glasco said. ``I'm not interested in all of them becoming child prodigies. Later in life, I want them to enjoy going to concerts and appreciating different kinds of music. I want them to have an outlet. Music is a release.''
Both said they concentrate on making music important to students.
``One of our big advantages, since we're married, is that we can involve all these groups together,'' he said. ``I start them. Then she teaches them. Then I get them back.
``So we know all the students and their parents,'' he said. ``Sometimes there are two or three children from the same family. The strength of the program is in involving all the students.''
Just before the end of the term, the fifth-grade orchestra students receive evaluations.
``Then when those report cards come out, we're pretty busy around here,'' Alice Glasco said. ``We giggled last weekend because during an exam, someone asked, `Does spelling count?' ''
Martin and Alice Glasco met in the city's School Administration Building.
``I walked in and Martin was sitting in a high-backed chair,'' she said. ``For me, it was love at first sight. It was kind of strange because we were up for the same job.''
As it turned out, both were hired.
She's a cellist and bassist. His instruments are the violin and viola.
``Between us, we do them all,'' he said. ``I do the upper strings, she does the lower.''
``People are surprised at how much time we spend together,'' he said. ``Since we got married, we've only been apart about five times overnight. We have a unique insight and understanding for what the other person is doing professionally.''
The couple has one child, 4-year-old Morgan.
They agree that the reward of the profession they share is in seeing students mature as musicians and as people.
``Without a doubt, watching the kids grow musically is most satisfying,'' Martin Glasco said. ``I get to see them the first time they take their instrument out of the case and I've gotten to see several of them chose music as a career. It's neat.''
Raymond Neal has been in classes taught by one or the other of the Glascos for the past five years. The Western Branch High School senior plans to attend a music school in Connecticut in the fall and plans a career as a musician and music teacher.
``The music has challenged me,'' he said. ``Mr. Glasco, especially, has taught me to surmount the challenge of the music. They both encouraged me to seek out new standards.'' ILLUSTRATION: Martin D. Glasco is in charge of the Western Branch
Intermediate School Orchestra.
Photos by GARY C. KNAPP
A violinist at Western Branch High School practices during an
orchestra class conducted by Martin D. Glasco.
Alice R. Glasco teaches and directs the Western Branch Middle School
orchestra. by CNB