AFTER A YEAR OF GIVING his time, knowledge and music, Pacific Symphony oboist Ted Sugata received a big thank you from students at Sts. Simon & Jude Catholic School.
STS. SIMON & JUDE CATHOLIC SCHOOL’S THIRD GRADERS PERFORMED A BODY PERCUSSION ROUTINE TO LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN’S SYMPHONY NO. 5 AT A BRAVO ASSEMBLY. PHOTO COURTESY OF STS. SIMON & JUDE CATHOLIC SCHOOL
The Huntington Beach campus hosted its Bravo Assembly on May 5, which was the students’ penultimate experience in their season as a Pacific Symphony Class Act school. Throughout the year, the students have learned about classical music and Ludwig van Beethoven, all based on the theme of “Revolutionary.”
“Today is a special day as we share what we have learned and discovered about the incredible composer Ludwig van Beethoven,” said the school’s vice principal Erin Watson during the Bravo Assembly.
Class Act, part of the Pacific Symphony’s Education and Community Engagement Department, is an elementary partnership program that increases awareness, education and involvement in classical music. Some of the Sts. Simon & Jude children also got to visit the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa for a youth concert with the Pacific Symphony.
Sts. Simon & Jude was one of 13 schools in Orange County to be chosen to participate in the program this school year, thanks to Watson, who knew about Class Act from her previous school.
“When I came here, we had a wonderful music teacher, but we didn’t have exposure to the classical symphony,” she said.
At the Bravo Assembly, each grade shared works of art, academic study and even did a performance piece to showcase what they had learned about Beethoven and classical music. They also thanked Sugata.
“That was an incredible presentation, and I want to say I’m deeply honored to be your first Class Act musician, and to see all the creativity today onstage. I was very impressed,” said Sugata.
The assembly began with the transitional kindergarten students sharing how they learned about high and low notes. Then they made cards with music stickers and buttons on them, and finger-painted music notes.
“Thank you for teaching us about Beethoven,” one TK student said to Sugata.
Other grades wrote about and drew how Beethoven’s music made them feel. Some created a paper quilt with their imaginings while hearing Beethoven’s “Pastoral” symphony. Another grade made a timeline of Beethoven’s life and counted time signatures — a musical term for how beats are divided and measured.
The third-grade students lined up black folding chairs in front of their classmates and performed a body percussion performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5.
For his year of instruction, Sugata began with a lesson for each grade on Beethoven. A woodwind quintet came to the parish one night in January for the Class Act Family Night. Along with Sugata’s oboe, there was a flute, clarinet, bassoon and French horn.
The Class Act program was a great learning experience overall, said eighth-grader Katie Nguyen. The 13-year-old said she enjoyed interacting with the
musicians, learning more about music and about history.
“It helped me appreciate classical music more and understand the beauty and depth of it,” Nguyen said.
Her classmate James Moretti, who plays the saxophone, said he knew a bit about Beethoven but grew in his respect for him. The German composer famously became deaf by the end of his life but continued to write masterpieces anyway.
“It made me appreciate it so much more, because I learned all about the struggles he had to go through to write his music,” said Moretti, 14.