Festival of Art and Music Begins

This morning, our two school orchestras kicked off the annual Winter Festival of Art and Music with a special morning concert for the Lower School.

Our youngest musicians, members of The First Orchestra, played for the first time this year in front of a live audience. The boys, from Grades 1 – 3 performed Ode to Joy, Danny Boy, and Saint David's Alma Mater. During the course of the performance, each of the boys stood to introduce a piece or share pertinent information about the orchestra's composition and layout, providing an important public speaking opportunity--a major curricular focus of the school's program.

A brief clip of their Ode to Joy performance is included.

The First Orchestra was followed by a riveting performance by the Saint David's Philharmonic Ensemble, which provided a preview of some of the pieces they will soon be playing on the stage at Carnegie Hall in a couple of weeks: Handel's Le Rejouissance, Vivaldi's Concerto for Four Violins, the Russian Sailors' Dance, and the Theme from Mission Impossible. Just fantastic to hear 11-14 year olds playing such complex pieces with such enthusiasm!

The Winter Festival is a special tradition at Saint David's, which celebrates our boys' creativity and the school's focus on the aesthetic as part of a balanced pedagogy.

During the next two weeks there will be many events showcasing our boys' work in the arts. Drop by and visit. Programs are available at Reception.

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OLIVER!

This morning our fifth graders continued a great year-end tradition at Saint David's, The Fifth Grade Musical. The boys performed Oliver! and they were fantastic, providing impressive performances and demonstrating great vocal ability. They have been mastering the dialogue and musical numbers for weeks, and clearly gave it their all. Congratulations to the cast on a job well done, and to their Producers/Teachers James Hubbard and Jamie MacNeille, Director Phyllis Clark, Musical Conductor Jeff Moore, and the Parent Committee of Cynthia Chapman, Susan Kissane, Tara Neumann, Joyce Restituto, and Ann Roberts. Musical theater is alive and well at Saint David's!

Fascinating Art Talk by Michelle Marder Kamhi at Grandparents Event

Yesterday evening, independent scholar and critic Michelle Marder Kamhi ( www.mmkamhi.com ), co-editor with husband Louis Torres of Aristos , an online review of arts; author of Who Says That's Art? A Commonsense View of the Visual Arts ; and grandmother of two Saint David's boys, gave a thought provoking talk on art for our grandparent community. An advocate of objective standards in arts scholarship and criticism, Ms. Kamhi focused her talk on the ways in which art critics such as Clement Greenberg promoted the shift from representational art to abstraction. Kamhi argues that the abstract and post-modern art prevalent today, which often requires explanation by docents in order to be understood, goes against art's purpose. Taking issue with Greenberg's contention that representation is an expendable convention of painting, she quoted the late art critic John Canaday: "Art is the tangible expression of the intangible values that men live by." ...

NE Patriot Tom Brady at Saint David’s

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