We are pleased to offer free music lessons. They consist of supervised practice sessions, 1-6 days per week.
Through vigorous, thorough, and professional training, our students achieve a level of proficiency in the space of just 6 months, what would normally require 2 years to master elsewhere.
ECIAS is pleased to announce that it is offering tutoring in all subjects throughout the summer months. Our students are testing at, or above, their grade level, without exception!
For example, a single mom's child was testing at a second-grade level, and was considered to be a candidate for special ed. This child had been told that he was "learning-disabled."
In just nine months, this same child tested at his true fifth-grade level! In fact, he tied for the highest grade for a recent school project!
We tutor daily in the following areas:
• Reading (Daily reading required)
• Math
• Science
In short, any subject in which the child needs to improve.
ECIAS is seeking tutors, volunteers, space, and/or funding to extend our programs into the 2007-2008 school year. This an URGENT need, as we have lost our donated practice space. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
July 2006: The first two weeks we held an intensive two-week introduction to strings camp, aimed mainly at students who had studied other instruments and were ready to transfer their skills to the violin family. The students came every day at 8 a.m. and wore their arms out over the course of the days as they developed the new muscles and skills they would need to play. The third week the Singing River Youth Orchestra had its very first rehearsal and organizational meeting. Many of them had gotten their start at the Strings Camp.
August 2006: The Singing River Youth Orchestra had its debut concert with sixteen students. We combined it with a recital of piano and harpsichord students, some of whom are also strings students in the orchestra.
September 2006: We re-created a Board of Directors for ECIAS and had our first meeting. Jeremy Eisler of Ocean Springs graciously agreed to serve as our volunteer legal counsel. The Singing River Youth Orchestra resumed rehearsals with the addition of a few woodwinds and a few more strings students. Emerald Coast Concerts hosted its first event, a concert featuring Mobile Symphony Concertmaster Enen Yu on violin and pianist Ping Lin, a professor of piano at the Xinghai Conservatory of Music in China.
October 2006: The Board of Directors had its second meeting and learned that the corporation was still valid with the state of Mississippi. We sponsored the First Annual Singing River Jazz Festival with guest artists from Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Singing River Youth Orchestra got a new rehearsal home at the Eastlawn United Methodist Church in Pascagoula.
November 2006: Emerald Coast Concerts sponsored the Horizon String Quartet! We held our first Baroque and Before Event with a Harpsichord Workshop led by Dr. Adam Decker of Early Keyboards of Atlanta. Our Board continued meeting and working... and growing, as more wonderful and hard-working people agreed to help our agency. Mr. Jim Yancy of The Jackson County Services Coalition attended our meeting and was full of great ideas and guidance. The Singing River Youth Orchestra worked hard to prepare for the Christmas Concert.
December 2006: The Honorable Jess Dickinson, Supreme Court Justice for the State of Mississippi, joined our orchestra for their Christmas Concert, and played his Hammered Dulcimer in a concerto version of the Ode to Joy! The American Legion Post 160 of Pascagoula presented five of our students with scholarships: $2000!!.... and an anonymous donor presented three of our younger students each with a $50 scholarship, so eight of the nineteen members of the Singing River Youth Orchestra were awarded scholarships. We made the first contacts with people to help us organize the Emerald Coast Chess Club. It should be in operation by mid April of 2007! The Board of Directors worked hard on ideas for making the Singing River Strings Festival a reality.
January 2007: We started our website. We filled out the Board of Directors. We have nine members, plus our volunteer attorney, and a volunteer staff. Mr. Shane Scara, internal communications editor at the Northrup Grumman Shipyard, agreed to become our public relations director. Emerald Coast Concerts sponsored a violin concert featuring Micheal Brook and Joel Martinez, both first violins with the Gulf Coast Symphony, both 19 years old, and both violin majors at LSU. The Singing River Youth Orchestra sponsored the artists in a master class that morning, and six aspiring violinists played for it.
SINGING RIVER YOUTH ORCHESTRA:
Event is a chance for interaction
By VIVIAN AUSTIN | Jan 14, 2007 |
PASCAGOULA -Violinists Michael Brook and Joel Martinez will offer a strings instrument master class and concert this month for students and residents who enjoy the sounds of good music.
The class will be held at 10 a.m. Jan. 20 at Sacred Heart Church in Pascagoula. The concert will begin at 3 p.m. the same day at Sacred Heart.
A reception for the musicians will follow the hour-long concert.
"A master class gives students a chance to perform and then learn from the 'masters' giving the class," said Shane Scara, public relations director for the Singing River Youth Orchestra. "The artists demonstrate ways that the performances can be improved, while pointing out those areas in which the students have already achieved good skills.
"It makes for an enjoyable performance and a chance for interaction with the artists for both the students who are performing and the audience."
Martinez and Brook, both 19, are students at Louisiana State University and extraordinary performers on the violin, said Scara.
Students do not have to play the violin to attend and enjoy the class, but those interested in participating should have their private or school music strings teacher call Claudia Hawkins, youth orchestra director, at 235-0400.
For more information about tickets or the Singing River Youth Orchestra, contact any member or call 235-0400.
Copyright © 2003-2006 Knight Ridder. All rights reserved.
Youth Orchestra wants percussion, brass sections
By VIVIAN AUSTIN | Dec 10, 2006 | 490 words, 0 images
Conner Read had played piano, but never tried the viola until joining the Singing River Youth Orchestra.
"I like how we work together and how Mrs. (Claudia) Hawkins teaches new things," said Read, 13.
He is one of 19 elementary, middle, and high school students who are part of a new youth orchestra organized in August. Members range in age from 5 to 18 years old. College students and adult volunteers serve as coaches.
Collin Webster, 17, a Mobile high school student likes to use his music constructively. He plays piano mostly as a soloist. "This is a new experience for me."
Violinists Trey Dubose and Jackie Lyons, college students, are volunteer coaches.
Ellen Carter, orchestra president and a retired Navy musician, said, "We are trying to make it local and make it for all the cities.
"These kids are playing music that second- and third-year students would play. They are pulling it together."
She said the Singing River Youth Orchestra performed as a string quartet in November at Eastlawn United Methodist Church. The group's board of directors has provided most of the funds to bring in artists for performances scheduled in early 2007. Realtors provided $2,000 in instruments. Most of the children lost their instruments during Katrina.
Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Jess Dickinson will perform with the orchestra during its debut this month. He plays the numbered dulcimer.
Director Claudia Hawkins and Carter put the group together in July.
"The long-term goal is to have a full orchestra with brass and percussion," said Hawkins. "We have to get the strings going first. They are the heart of an orchestra."
Pascagoula residents Rian Black, 7, and her brother, Reid, 10, are among the members who attend schools in Mobile, or play with other youth orchestras. She has played cello and piano about 10 months. Reid, a four-year violinist, belongs to the Mobile Symphony Youth Orchestra.
"I'm tickled that we have a group like that here in Pascagoula," said their mother, Dori Black, who is Hawkins' daughter. "When you have a child that has an interest like violin, it's important they get together with other children."
If you go
What: Singing River Youth Orchestra debut concert
When: 10 a.m. Dec. 16, 2006
Where: Eastlawn United Methodist Church, Ingalls Avenue, Pascagoula
Details: An oboe concert will be held at 2 p.m., Feb. 8, at First Baptist Church in Pascagoula, and a violin master class at 10 a.m., Jan. 20, at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. Auditions for the master class begin in January.
Organizers are accepting students 7 to 18 years old; needed immediately are woodwind instrument students. Practice is held 2 p.m. each Sunday at Eastlawn.
Contact: Claudia Hawkins at 235-0400.
Copyright © 2003-2006 Knight Ridder. All rights reserved.
