Cross Blogging

Westlake Christian Academy Spring Concert

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— Lennie @ 7:35 pm

My family attended the spring concert at Westlake Christian Academy on Thursday evening. The Intermediate and Concert bands performed along with the Rave (choral ensemble).

The Intermediate Band was composed of 4th - 6th graders with the majority in their second year of band. The students worked very hard this year and were playing difficult pieces. The students played very well. Of course, you can call me biased, since I had a child participating. When I watched Karen Kurtz, Westlake’s Band Director, she was having fun. From knowing her, this is an indication that the kids were hitting their notes well.

The concert band also played very well. They have grown significantly and have a very rich sound. They will be even better next year since there was only 1 graduating senior. In fact the woodwind section is made up entirely of Jr. High students.

The Rave was much improved over last year. They still have some room to grow however. The choral program was just begun in 2004, so it is still relatively new. I still remember the first concert I heard in their first year. They had a couple of girls who were very good. You could not even hear the guys at all. This year, you could hear both making the sound much fuller with the harmonies.

There were several statistics about the music program I would like to point out:

Band
- 60+ students in 3 bands, up from 8 in initial year of 2000
- All but 7 Concert band students are homeschoolers
Choral Ensemble
- 32 choral members, up from 7 (4 Sr. High, 3 Jr. High) in 2004
- Entire senior class in the choral ensemble

If you are looking for a private school with a divers student body and a great band program, WCA should be one of your first stops. They are a small school of about 175 students in K - 12. They have plans for growth now that they have a permanent home in Grayslake.

If you are a local homeschooler and are looking for a great music program, you should contact WCA. The program is fantastic. Mrs. Kurtz pushes the students to excel. The kids have to practice. I know this first hand. I actually practiced with my child every day for the first year. I can no longer keep up since I don’t practice everyday this year.

At contest this spring, Mrs. Kurtz’s told me that if all the students are getting 1’s, either the judge is too easy or the music is too easy. Mrs. Kurtz pushes her students to learn and improve. In fact, the horn duet that my child played amazed the judge. They missed a perfect score by 1 point. The judge was very surprised that both of them were only second year students.

Read on if you want to see what type of music the band plays.

The concert bland played a Mozart piece, Ave Verum Corpus Motette which was arrange by Barbara Buehlman. Barbara Buehlman was an inspiration for Mrs. Kurtz. Barbara was one of the first female band directors and probably the first Nationally recognized. She actually taught here locally in Round Lake.

Barbara Buehlman received Northwestern Universityâ€™s Bachelor of Music Education degree in 1959 and Masters degree in 1960. Upon graduation from Northwestern, she began teaching in the Round Lake, Illinois schools. Under her direction, Round Lake School Bands received national recognition with first division ratings in District, State and National competitions, and through numerous performances at conventions and clinics. She served the Round Lake School District as Director of Bands and Coordinator of Fine Arts until June 1983.

I bet there are very few of you today that even knew about Barbara Buehlman or that Round Lake Schools Music used to be Nationally recognized.

The final number concert band number was The Light Eternal by James Swearingen. This is a song that was based on the hymn God of Our Fathers and narrates the story of the heroism of 4 chaplains during World War II. Below is a brief excerpts from the story of the sinking of the USAT Dorchester.

In the early morning of February 3, 1943, a German U-Boat attacked the USAT Dorchester. The first hit threw men from their cots. A second torpedo followed and instantly killed 100 men. Darkness swallowed the soldiers and fear set in. Amidst the terror and chaos were four voices of encouragement, hope, and strength. The four chaplains on board all had put aside their own fears and worries in an effort to comfort others.
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Amid the horror, the Chaplains miraculously made their way to the slippery decks of the Dorchester. Empty lifeboats floated away before they could be filled. Full lifeboats capsized in panic. The Chaplains began passing out life jackets to the remaining soldiers, but there still were not enough.
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The Chaplains, sacrificing their own lives, removed their life jackets and placed them on soldiers around them. Nothing more could be done. The Four Chaplains, braced against the rails of the sinking Dorchester, prayed, sang, and gave strength to those that remained around them. They all had different faiths, but prayed to the same God. Those twenty-seven minutes that followed the first torpedo seemed to last a lifetime as the soldiers awaited their deaths. The Chaplains turned the helpless into the hopeful, the frightened into the strong.

Of the 920 men who boarded the U.S.A.T Dorchester on January 23rd, only 230 were rescued from the icy waters. Along with the Four Chaplains, 668 men went down with the Dorchester that day. Of the chaplainsâ€™ heroism, one survivor said, â€œIt was the finest thing I have ever seen, or hope to see this side of heaven.â€

They played several other songs listed below, but I thought the 2 above were the best examples of how Mrs. Kurtz and Westlake run their band program.