The music department and music students of The Charles Finney School have made some very impressive accomplishments this year:
April 2008 - Each year, students across Monroe County and New York State participate in the Monroe County School Music Association (MCSMA) and New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA) solo festivals, where they are required to perform required scales, a solo of their choice, and sight read music they have never before seen. Their performances are evaluated and scored by a professional music educator. Based on these scores, each student may qualify to play in festival ensembles at the All-county, Area All-state, or New York State Conference levels.
Based on her high NYSSMA Solo Fest scores, Finney 11th grader, Elisha Henry was chosen to play alto saxophone in the New York State Conference All-State Concert Band. Earlier this fall, she was chosen to play with the Area All-state Concert Band, making her the only Finney student to ever make Conference All-state, which includes students chosen from all across New York State.
Seventh-graders Brooke Nance, French horn and Matt Parris, percussion; and Ninth-grader Daniel Hasman, trumpet, were all chosen to play in the Junior High Area All-state Orchestra in November, which consists of a full orchestra of approximately 100 students. Brooke was also principal horn in the Junior High All-county Orchestra, this past March.
MCSMA also features All-County Choirs at their festivals, which are chosen by teacher recommendation from participating schools. Finney recommended and sent the following students: Fifth-graders, Mackenzie Campbell, Maggie Strout, and Jacob Thide. Seventh-grade students, Stephanie Belmont Michaela Stewart; and Eighth-grader, Beth Fenton; and Tenth-grader, Steve Hazekamp; and Eleventh-grader, Amy Krug. This was a wonderful opportunity for these students to sing in choirs of between 160-200 students in their age groups who were all hand-picked by music teachers at their respective schools.
Finney hosted the High School Instrumental Solo Fest for MCSMA, this past January, which included over 600 high school musicians performing for the judges. Performing in the High School All-county Orchestra were Finney high school students, Ninth-grader Marisa Ambalavanar, violin; and Eleventh-grader Sarah Walters, violin. Additionally, Elisha Henry was chosen to play in the High School All-County Band.
Steve Hazekamp was chosen to sing at the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra’s Holiday Festival High School Choir, with approximately 200 students for the eight RPO Holiday Pops concerts last December, under RPO Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik. I n that same concert, Brooke Nance, along with her parents, Shannon Nance-RPO Assistant Concertmaster, and Wes Nance-Finney Music Director and RPO 2nd Trumpet; was featured as soloist with the orchestra on an arrangement of “O Come O Come Emmanuel”, arranged by Wes Nance, specifically for that set of concerts. Brooke played beautifully for over 15,000 people at those concerts, and the arrangement was a great success.
Finney also has several students playing in high-level area ensembles. Daniel Hasman played trumpet in the Hochstein Junior Wind Symphony this spring. Brooke Nance, the youngest member of the Hochstein Youth Symphony Orchestra (HYSO), will be touring Italy and Switzerland with the group next year. Brooke is also a scholarship winner at Hochstein and will be performing with several of the brass students from HYSO on an RPO Orkidstra concert in April.
Thanks to a generous grant from the Commission Project, Finney has a composer-in-residence this semester—Chris Van Hof. Chris is a Master’s student in trombone at the Eastman School of Music and is an excellent composer and arranger. He is also a program announcer at WXXI (FM 91.5) and can be heard on the radio many afternoons. We have commissioned pieces from him for both the Middle School Band and the High School Studio Orchestra. These pieces are being written especially for Finney and are being tailored to fit each of our ensembles perfectly, which will premiere at the Finney Spring Concert on May 27!
Our 6th and 7th grade middle-school students will be participating in Express!—an Arts in Education program designed for the ELA Poetry Track this April. The project will include students writing original poetry, such as the Psalms and finding unique ways to express prose with music and performance. Kyle and Beth Bultman, Eastman School of Music alumni, are will be our visiting artists and are collaborating with our Middle School ELA teacher, Maran Kunkel. This program is being funded by a private grant, in combination with a grant from the Arts and Cultural Council of Greater Rochester.
On the strings side, our four Finney string quartet (FSQ) members, Ninth-grade violinist Marisa Ambalavanar and Eleventh-grade violist, Sarah Walters; Twelfth-grade cellist Abby McClements and Twelfth-grade violist Sarah McClements had their first public performance at the Finney Christmas Concert in December. They are receiving weekly coaching from Wheaton College graduate Heather Herford and earlier this year attended RPO rehearsals and concerts and met the RPO concertmaster, Juliana Athayde, who will also be coaching them later in the semester. The program is being funded by a generous grant from the Amateur Chamber Music Players Foundation in New York City.
Another unique side of Finney music is that the elementary, middle, and high schools each produce a full scale musical each year. In December, elementary school grades 3-5 performed the Christmas musical “No Wonder!” under the direction of Ron and Valery Sykes and Rachel Weisenreder. In February, the middle school performed “Seussical the Musical”, also under the direction of Ron and Valery Sykes, with full orchestral accompaniment. The high school musical, “Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat” was performed in April, under the direction of Jill Herman, with full orchestra under the direction of Finney Music Director Wes Nance. All three musicals performed to full houses and critical acclaim!
Finney offers a comprehensive K-12 music program, instrumental music starting in 4th grade—string string instruments can start earlier—and an a la carte in-school lesson program for all band instruments and Suzuki strings. For contemporary music there is a high school worship music elective. General music is offered in K-8, with Music Appreciation and Music Theory available at the high school level. All curriculum and the entire K-12 program are designed and overseen by Music Director Wes Nance, (ESM ’90 and ’92, RPO ’86-present) and implemented by the music teaching staff, Penny Kunkel (K-3), Ron Sykes (3-8, MS choir, Elem. choir, Elem. and MS musicals), Denis Johnson (HS worship, HS choir) and Mercy Dawson (instrumental 4-12, instrumental lessons, HS Music Appreciation). Chris Van Hof (ESM MM ’08) teaches low brass and is our composer-in-residence, and Heather Herford (Wheaton College ’07) teaches Suzuki violin and coaches the Finney String Quartet.
