While some school districts cut back on their music programs because of budget woes, the Weehawken school district has done the exact opposite, actually increasing its music program this year to include full-time music teachers in each of the township’s two elementary schools.
Long-time music instructor Piero Romano, who used to bounce back and forth from Roosevelt and Webster Schools, working with the children in both, has now been permanently assigned to Webster School, to work with the students from Early Childhood Pre-Kindergarten through second grade.
Suzanne Levine has been assigned as the full-time music teacher at Roosevelt School, working with grades three through six.
Together, the two teachers are providing sweet sounds for holiday well-wishers, getting everyone in Weehawken into a festive holiday mood.
Romano is hard at work with the students at Webster School. The school’s holiday concert will take place Tuesday at 8:45 a.m., with everyone participating, but the highlight is the new second grade choir.
“It’s been very exciting,” Romano said. “We have five new Pre-K classes (Weehawken instituted full-day Early Childhood classes for its 4-year-old students for the first time last September) and they all get the special treatment. Being in one school has enabled me to concentrate more and do more things.”
Romano said that he attended a workshop over the summer taught by University of Hartford professor of music education Dr. John Feierabend, whose innovative studies have determined that an early basis in music transcends to better grades in other classes later on.
“I didn’t know how important it was to work with the younger ones,” Romano said. “But in the afternoons, we had auditions and pulled about five to seven youngsters out of each class and give them private lessons in the hope of forming a choir. They did such a good job that we have 30 members in each of the first and second grade choirs.”
Special grants
Also part of the program was the inclusion of teachers Vince and Karen Ector, who came to Webster School as part of the Arts Horizon program that the district has been able to participate in since the 9/11 tragedy. The district received special grants from the 9/11 Fund in order to take the children’s minds off the tragedy, and some of that funding went to hire the Arts Horizon program from New York.
Vince Ector, an accomplished drummer who has performed with Grover Washington, Jr. and the late Ray Charles over the years, taught the children proper percussion. Some of the students will accompany the choir in their performance.
Romano thanked the help of the second grade class, namely teachers Sandra Petrullo, Lourdes Artiles, Christy Dermody, Kelly Gonzalez and Margaret Kelly, in getting ready for the concert.
“They organized the whole thing,” Romano said. “They’ve been great with me.”
Some of the songs that the students will perform include “Feliz Navidad,” complete with special percussion rhythms, as well as “Beneath the Christmas Tree,” made famous by Judy Collins, and “The Christmas Song,” made famous by the late Nat King Cole.
Plus, the concert will conclude with a holiday sing-along, with all the standard Christmas songs being featured.
Not to be outdone, the Roosevelt School Christmas Concert will take place on Thursday at 9 and 10 a.m. in the school’s auditorium, under the instruction of new teacher Levine.
The newly formed Bell Choir will make its debut that day and the school chorus, which has already performed at the township’s tree lighting ceremony and for the senior citizens at the Nutritional Center and 525 Gregory Ave., will also perform.