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| "I didn't even know my ES Teacher could play the violin!" |
Music played an elemental role in the Grade 12 Graduation ceremony last Saturday, with a solo piano performance of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by Jean Ai-Heng, Class of 2008 saludatorian, and orchestral music performed by a wide variety of WAB musicians. The make-up of this year's graduation orchestra, conducted by MSHS Music Teacher Mark Armstrong, truly reflects the talent and diversity of WAB's faculty, staff and students. The main body of the orchestra was comprised of the MS & HS String Ensemble, which has expanded this year by almost half to include many budding and exemplary young musicians. Faculty musicians included two of WAB's traditional Chinese music teachers, MSHS Music Teachers, as well as Grade 3 teacher Lori Rung on violin, and HS IT teacher and double bassist Greg Sumi (Greg also regularly conducts the MSHS string ensemble).
The inclusion of non-music teachers in campus bands and orchestras is nothing new at WAB: a longtime Properties worker frequently plays the erhu with WAB's Chinese Ensemble; KG Teacher Dylan Meikle plays trumpet with WAB's Jazz Band; ECC Teacher Rosalie Uebergang is the star piano accompianst at ECC sing-a-longs; Grade 4 Teacher Phil Cowell teaches multiplication tables with the aid of guitar frets; Grade 5 Teacher Dean Harris inspires WAB's youngest rock musicians to practice their instruments; and HS Assistant Principal David Wood is known to strum a mean guitar, among many others. At WAB Idol 2008, WAB's new incoming Director, Robert Landau, demonstrated his own love and talent for music by joining WAB faculty for a rocking version of "Ride Sally Ride." And this list doesn't even include HuHuMaMa, a jazzy-bluesy-folksy quartet combining the cross-school talents of ES Performing Arts Teacher Craig Chambers, MSHS Music Teacher Mark Armstrong, and MSHS Drama Teachers Geoffrey Duffield and Julie Ladner (what a voice!). Neither does it even include all of WAB's multi-talented music and performing arts teachers, who regularly perform with professional-quality choruses, orchestras and other musical groups in venues around Beijing, and beyond.