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Students across St. Vrain arrive at school early to strengthen their music skills, stay after the last bell is rung to practice for upcoming concerts, and rehearse marching band drills outside on dark, cool mornings to ensure their sets are just right ahead of the big home game. With commitment and passion, our students infuse music into our communities and develop lifelong skills in collaboration, discipline, and creativity along the way.
Aligning the PK-12 Music Journey
Year six at an elementary school is a big year for an educator. For Kris Emanuel, Music Teacher at Indian Peaks Elementary, he has now been with his fifth grade students every year of their elementary school experience. “There is a synergy and connection you achieve within a building when you have been there for a while,” said Emanuel. “You are able to celebrate the big growth moments because you see where students started.”
Emanuel’s roots in St. Vrain have spread throughout the district as well. He participated in the district’s partnership program with the University of Colorado Denver’s Educational Leadership and Administration cohort, which expanded his viewpoint of program implementation options. Learning that Sunset Middle School and Niwot High School, two of Indian Peaks's feeder schools, both had Mariachi programs, he decided to introduce a similar program. “We are always talking about aligning the PK-12 journey for students, so having a foundational Mariachi program at our school made sense.”
The school’s program focuses on fourth and fifth-grade students who arrive ahead of the school day once a week to practice. The program's first year culminated in a collaborative concert with students at Sunset. Emanuel noted how fun it was to see the older peers mentoring the elementary students about the various instruments and their uses. “They wouldn’t get that connection if we didn’t think beyond what we do in our building, but think about ourselves in context of this whole journey that we’re on together.”
Emanuel is continuing to enhance the music journey for his students by starting a third-grade guitar club where students are able to strengthen their skills so they are prepared for Mariachi Club come January. Learning to play the guitar is a big draw for budding student musicians. Fourth-grade student Alexa Rodriguez joined Mariachi so she could learn to play the string instrument. “I like the guitar a lot,” said Alexa. “I really love music and it’s fun to be a part of Mariachi.”
Creating a Music Community
For Abby Martinez, Choir Teacher at Erie Middle School, her commitment to music education expands beyond the classroom and into the community. She has been with the school's choir program since her first year of teaching. “I feel like I really grew up at this school,” said Martinez. Now in her 13th year at Erie Middle, she has seen both the school’s music program and the community flourish. While it started as a very small program, the choir now consistently places among the top three middle schools in the state for sending the most students to All-State Choir.
Martinez refers to her music sections as a “Choir Family” and a “Choir Home.” Her participation numbers per grade-level grow each year, usually starting around 100 in sixth grade and increasing up to 160 students by eighth grade. Currently, over 47% of students at Erie Middle participate in year-long choir. “I welcome students to join as eighth-graders because I’d rather they find a love for singing later than not at all, and we are still able to provide a high level of musicianship.”
The choir program at Erie Middle constantly strives for musical excellence, but its greater purpose is to develop students into caring and impactful members of society. The strong participation numbers are a testament to the positive culture at the school. Martinez believes music and the connection created in the school’s ensembles help students grow into kind, curious, and empathetic contributors. She develops these traits by incorporating many social-emotional opportunities into her classroom, including mindfulness practices, intentional celebrations of each other’s successes, meaningful traditions, and service to the school and larger Erie community.
Music education provides the opportunity for students to be a part of something greater than themselves. Most recently, choir students engaged in a fundraising effort to help build an accessible park for their neighbors in Erie. “My favorite part about being in Erie Middle’s Choir Family is the fact that I have a sense of something bigger. I’m a part of something that helps out so many people and makes them feel loved and supported,” said Tayler Studebaker, eighth-grade student. “The connection that choir offers is really great to help us more fluidly build bonds with people, both inside and outside our school.”
100 Years of Music History
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Longmont High School band program. “It’s been incredible to be teaching in a school with a history like ours,” said David Merrill, Director of Bands at Longmont High, who has led the program for 22 years. “I have yearbook pictures going back to 1922 and it is so gratifying to see how this program has evolved over the years, how many students it’s impacted, and how it’s been such a part of the community here in Longmont.”
As an exhibition-style marching band, Longmont High students deliver community performances, including at parades, home football games, and St. Vrain Valley Schools’ Band Night, a districtwide event where band students from area high schools come together to perform. Because marching band is a class, more students can participate in both marching band and sports or other co-curricular activities.
Even still, student leaders take it upon themselves to organize opportunities for marching band students to meet outside of school hours. They can be heard fine-tuning a program after school in the band room, holding evening practices ahead of important performances, and convening during the week leading up to the new school year for band camp to prepare for the new season.
The school’s drumline program is a competitive branch of the marching band, and a highly successful one, at that. The group has won 10 state championships and ranked as national finalists seven times. The student musicians dedicate a large amount of time to prepare for competitions and travel around the state and nationally to compete. Longmont High’s drumline was invited, along with local artists, to perform at Red Rocks Amphitheatre’s 80th Anniversary Show in April 2021, an event that was livestreamed across the country.
“It was absolutely magical,” junior Simon Von Hatten said of his experience performing at the famous venue. “It’s always been a dream of mine to perform on such an incredible stage, and I know the whole drumline group felt it was surreal to be invited to play there.” Simon has been playing drums since he was three-years old and now plays the snare drum for the school’s marching band and drumline program. He also leads the battery instruments in the marching band, reminding his fellow musicians about rehearsals and conducting warmups. Simon attributes the incredible community of teachers, staff, students, and parents to what makes participation in the program so meaningful.
Whether for competition or enjoyment, music is an essential part of the PK-12 learning experience. “We all need the opportunity to create something beautiful,” said Merrill. “Working hard, but working on something beautiful, that is creative and fills your soul, is an important part of a student’s day.”
