Pacific Mozart Ensemble

Two Worlds Harmony
By Josie Diaz

"Dear P.M.E.,
thank you for singing at Emerson school. I like singing too and talking. I am going to sing when I grow up.
Love, DeAzhane"

"Dear P.M.E.,
Thank you for coming to Emerson! We liked your music! We hoppe we can hear your music! My favorite one was Lord Remember Me !!!!!!! I like Freedom Train! Yor music made me criy becas my granfathr past away.
Love, Morgan"

"Dear Pacific Mozart,
thank you for singing to us. It made me feel like I am a good yung man.
Love, Dewayne"

In the past, PME performances have been lauded by noted music reviewers and well-known contemporary composers. But never have we received such love-filled and enthusiastic "reviews" like the ones above, which are just a sampling - with typical phonetic spellings and grammatical substitutions - of the letters written by the six- and seven-year old first graders at Emerson School in Berkeley after our recent performance there.

Last year, as the resident Reading Specialist at Emerson, I invited PME to sing there for students, teachers, and parents. We did this last April, performing a selection of classical (Mozart's "Ave Verum" and "Gloria" from the Mass in C) and popular ("Stand By Me" and "Seasons of Love") pieces. Dick engaged the children with his introductions to the numbers, and Doug wowed the audience and made them laugh with "Stand By Me". In the days after the performance, I got so many enthusiastic responses from parents and teachers as well as children - the most typical one was "I loved it, you've got to come back again!" - that I knew I had to bring PME back to Emerson this year. And after our moving Spirituals concerts in December, I knew that this was the time.

Despite their everyday responsibilities of work and family, 16 PME'ers were able to play hooky from their regular lives to come to Emerson on the morning of Tuesday, February 13. Lynne made a special trip down from Sonoma State to lead the singing. Around 10:00 they all crowded into my little room decorated with children's writing, vowel pattern charts, and vocabulary lists. At first I had the same unreal feeling I had felt last year, that my two worlds of Emerson and PME had somehow unnaturally, but beautifully, collided. Jim and Lynne went over the numbers with us and then, at 10:30, we went on stage. The entire school of about 275 students, Kindergarten through Fifth Grade, was sitting on the "cafetorium" floor, while teachers, assistants, office staff, volunteers, and a number of parents sat on benches around the room. There was an air of expectation as my great principal, Susan Hodge, quieted the children. Shawna Suzuki, a first grade teacher who has attended our concerts, gave us a short introduction, I said a few words about how happy we were to be back at Emerson, then Lynne began speaking about the historical context of the spirituals. Fortunately, the Emerson teachers are such excellent educators that all the children - even the five-year old Kindergarteners - were, to various extents, familiar with the historical and cultural contexts of slavery in America and the slaves' struggle for freedom. The children listened quietly as Lynne explained how thier struggle was expressed through this truly spiritual music and how many of the lyrics had hidden messages of escape routes and times on the Underground Railroad. When we rehearsed in my room, we reminded one another to "engage" the children, but once we began singing our first number, "Amazing Grace", we found the children's rapt attention and enthusiasm so rewarding that "engaging" them came naturally! I had been a little afraid that the children's attention would wane during our slow numbers, like "Steal Away" and "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen", but it never once wandered and the kids seemed to focus even more intently during the slow, lamenting songs. Before every piece Lynne told them a little more about the background of the song and their heads nodded in recognition of her topic. Rob in "Nobody Knows", Jeff in "Ain't That Good News", and Lynne in "Steal Away" all provided beautiful, emotional solos. We ended with "The Battle of Jericho" to thunderous applause. As I approached the microphone again to thank the PME'ers for being at Emerson, I found myself starting to become teary-eyed, and I stated that having my two favorite communities, PME and Emerson, come together again made this the perfect moment for me. Then I told the PME'rs, "And now Emerson has a surprise for you." One of the teachers stood up to lead the students in the famous "Emerson Claps", a succession of hand-motion cheers including the clam cheer, the fireworks cheer, the watermelon cheer, the snowball cheer, several others, and ending with a big "W - O - W - WOW!" Since it's impossible to truly describe these cheers in writing, I leave it to your imagination to picture them - or ask a PME'er who was there!

PME's appearance at Emerson was one of several performances at Bay Area schools as we expand our educational outreach program. Last fall Lisa hosted us at the Waldorf elementary and high schools in San Francisco, and we hope to sing this spring at the Ecole Bilingue in Berkeley. Another project I would like to launch would be a collaboration with Berkeley High's music department, perhaps sponsoring some music students to come to our rehearsals and concerts as well as singing at Berkeley High. It's evident how much students of all ages can understand and appreciate our music. And singing to kids is so much fun! Here's how another Emerson first-grader, with typical first-grade mid-year spelling, expressed it:

"Dear P.M.E.,
Thank you for coming to Emerson. I love the music. It soed [sounded] beautiful you gis [guys] work very hard. Evin Ms. Diaz. [!] Ms. Diaz grop [group] soed great to me. I love Ms. Diaz grop. It's good that Ms. Diaz has that good grop because they soud rilly REALLY REALLY great.
Love, Shirley"

Josie Diaz

Technorati : Berkeley, Berkeley High, Ecole Bilingue de Berkeley, Emerson School, Pacific Mozart Ensemble, Waldorf Elementary

PME just had another truly "feel-good" experience last Friday, March 30th, nineteen of us took the morning off work to present our "Story of Freedom" Spirituals concert to another local school, the Ecole Bilingue de Berkeley. We sang to 225 students in the second through fifth grades plus a number of faculty and staff, and one Mid-Kindergarten class, since one of them, 4 year old Camille, is the daughter of PME member Christine Grisot d'Allancé, and she wanted to see her mom sing. Our son Alex Stenzel (2nd grade) was really looking forward to this concert too, as he is already a great fan of this music from listening to our CD over and over again.

As usual, Music Director Lynne gave wonderful, short, interesting educational intros to each of the songs, occasionally asking questions of the children, who always responded enthusiatically. One of the best reactions (and a great serendipity!) was when she asked if anyone was familar with the Underground Railroad. A number of students all over raised hands, but the entire back section of the audience almost whooped and raised hands en masse--we learned afterwards that they had just finished an entire multi-week course of study about the Civil War, slavery, the Underground Railroad! Was our timing perfect, or what? And the teacher of that 3rd grade class was Mary Havemann, who taught both of Kathie Longinotti's children way back in the early days of EB; she and Kathie had a nice homecoming, not having seen each other for awhile. Another great reaction was when Lynne announced the last song we would do, "Battle of Jericho." This was already an obvious favorite with a number of kids in the audience, as more cheers accompanied raised fists going "Yes!" (Alex and his buddy Dao were among the loudest cheering!)

The PME & EB connections go back to the beginning of time: PME's founder and Artistic Director Dick Grant along with his wife Gretchen were among the five founding families of EB in 1977, their kids Phyllis and Ben were some of the very first-ever EB students, Mindy & Jeremy Longinotti joining them soon after. Gretchen of course has sung with PME since the beginning (1980), & Ben for many years too [he is on leave right now, teaching music in the south bay--hey Ben, maybe we should bring the show down to you now!] And Phyllis Grant & Matthew Ross's little daughter Isabel Ross will be joining EB's Pre-Kindergarten in fall of 2007, along with Bryan & Kymie Matheson's son Kames. Maybe some day they will sing in PME too, along with Don Kelly & Susan Getman's Devon (EB 8th grade) and Jordan (2006 alumnus). Dick and Gretchen, you started some great organizations.....!

One thing for sure is, it's always a delight to sing and perform for school children--they opened their faces, hearts and minds to the stories behind the songs that Lynne told them: that "Amazing Grace" was written by a former slave ship owner who renounced his connection to the slave trade--and that "Steal Away" was the secret signal via song that one would be escaping that night on the Underground Railroad. Later that day when I picked Alex up after school, several adults and kids too, came up to me and said how much they really really liked the concert. I know it was our pleasure too, we had all gotten a real high again, from the experience of reaching so many children at once, with these powerfully moving songs.

Amelie Mel de Fontenay & John Stenzel

Technorati : Ecole Bilingue, Story of Freedom, Underground Railroad