On March 19th, a few groups here at Lenape high school performed at the Teen Arts Festival. I was a part of one of these groups, particularly the Lenape String ensemble. Before going to the Teen Arts Festival, I didn’t really know everything about it and the same went for some of my classmates. I think that for future students, It would be beneficial to discuss everything there is to know about the teen arts festival. Thus, I took it upon myself to ask one of our music teachers at Lenape, Mr. Waldron, about this festival and what it is like.
Q: What exactly is the Teen Arts Festival? What is the main purpose of it?
The Teen Arts Festival is a statewide activity where all the counties try to highlight the young musicians and artists throughout the state, displaying the great success, artistry, and skills that are out there from middle school all the way through high school. It includes stuff such as painting, sculpture, dance, theater, vocalists and instrumentalists. It’s a great activity that happens once a year and showcases again the vast majority of talent that is out there throughout all of our school systems. Wonderful. Yeah, the main purpose is exactly that, you know, to showcase all these young individuals who are working really hard doing some amazing things.
Q: Around how long has Lenape been participating in the Teen Arts Festival? How long have you been involved?
This has been around longer than I’ve been here, as I too participated in the Teen Arts Festival when I was in high school. When I came here as a teacher in 1997 we had the opportunity to be a part of it and I absolutely wanted my students to have that experience on multiple levels. So we’ve been participating in the Teen Arts Festival since as long as I’ve been here, which is 29 years and counting. We have brought all kings of groups, not just string ensembles. We brought an orchestra, jazz band, and soloists. The vocal side does the same thing, full ensemble, small ensembles. We have the opportunity to explore within our own entity, different ensembles, groups and individuals that we can highlight at the county level, which is great.
Q: What are performances like at the Teen Arts Festival?
Performances at the festival are very eclectic. You never know what is going to be coming out of all these different schools and all the different individuals. What are they studying? What are they looking to portray for their work? The art classes, they actually have a specific theme or idea that they do. Some do photography, some do painting, some do sculpture. They have a specific highlight that they’re working on that they can display their students’ works. For the instrumentalists and musicians, we try to choose music that can showcase our talents and hopefully choose something that is enjoyable for the students to perform, but even more importantly, something that is enjoyable for the audience. These performances are also critiqued, so we’re actually getting professional feedback on how we are performing, how we are doing at our grade level, and what we are actually achieving. In our case, it’s with the field of music.
Q: What makes Lenape’s performances and works of art stand out from other schools?
Well, we’re the best, of course. I jest! There’s so many great students out there doing some amazing things. The programs across the county, yet lone access the state, are just jawdropping. There’s so much talent out there it’s inspiring. It’s inspiring for myself as a teach seeing, all these young students with their ideas and what they’re able to achieve to want to continue to do even better and try to bring that to my students and try to raise them up to a level that allows them to achieve at a higher level than they thought they were capable of. Ultimately, what I’m trying to do as a teacher is to try to make opportunities for my students to go beyond what they feel they’re capable of doing. It’s to show that there is more inside of them if they just dig a little deeper. They can find some really truly inspirational opportunities to perform at hopefully the highest level at that point in time, because time is always moving so therefore next year the students who are in this year are going to be striving for an even higher goal as the new students come in and the seniors leave.
Q: What specific groups or clubs here at Lenape perform in this festival? Around how many students participated this year? How can one go about joining these groups?
Okay, so as I’ve mentioned, there’s a very wide range of activities that are involved. There’s art, there is theater, there’s dance, there’s music. So you have all the arts that there are, not just, instrumental or vocal, but the arts as a whole. There’s so many different levels and aspects where people can express their ideas and express their thoughts. And that’s what this whole Teen Arts activity is about. At Lenape, depending on the size of the groups that go, we had over 100 students there, representing Lenape High School. And the other schools are doing very similar things as well. So that’s a very large group of individuals who are immersed in the artist field in so many different ways. And it’s great to have that opportunity, as I said before, to be a part of that and being able to see what the other activities are, as well as seeing what the other schools are doing. How can one join and be a part of it? Join an art group. Join one of the art classes. Join a photography class. Join one of the choirs or one of the ensembles. You have the opportunity to be a part of that. There are many different activities that are beyond teen arts that can be outside of Lenape that can be pursued by an individual or group to perform. But teen arts in this case is specifically what we’re asking and talking about. It gives the students that opportunity to go out for a day and perform and get to experience as well what their counterparts, what their colleagues from the other schools are actually doing.
Q: What is the experience like on the day of the festival?
So the experience is you’re getting a wide range of emotions throughout the day. The anticipation of actually the day of, the anticipation of actually performing, The excitement, the nerves, you know, all that plays into account. And then you actually have the actual performance where you are giving of yourself to the music, in this case, that we are performing and to try to demonstrate what we’ve done in preparation to be the best that we can with what we are offering. And then you have the aftermath, which is when we are finished, the judge comes up and gives us feedback on what they said, good and bad. —this can be improved, this is actually done really well, you know, what they like and then again maybe what they feel could be better. Never really dislike, but this could be done better to achieve even higher. And that’s the actual performance side. After that, you get an opportunity to go out and listen and visually see the other ensembles, the other groups that are actually performing or displaying their art or their craft. And then other activities that are going on throughout the day, it creates a great atmosphere for the individuals. And it doesn’t just happen. There’s preparation involved. It goes all the way back to the conductor or the teacher who says, “We’re going to perform this piece of music. I think these selections are going to demonstrate who we are and what we can do well.” Or something we can aspire to, to achieve what we can do well. Not always what we do well, but what can we build upon? To make ourselves even better and to grow as an individual, as a student, as a musician, as an ensemble. So weeks and months lead up to the preparation of the actual Teen Arts Day, as I just described, with again the anticipation and the excitement, the performance, the release afterwards, you know, the relief that it’s now done, and hopefully a job well done.
Q: What kinds of pieces or performances did our groups here at Lenape do this year?
This year for the string ensemble specifically, I chose 3 songs for us to perform to show a wide variety of different styles, for the audience. We’re not just a one-trick pony, but we actually have different skills. So we did an English/Irish piece called Mock Morris that had a much more lighthearted tone. It’s just a lighthearted piece, which was cool. It had a melody that kept working its way through over and over again so the audience could pick up the melody and then listen to how we varied it. You know, through a theme and variation scenario as the piece went on. Then we played a Broadway musical piece from The Sound of Music called My Favorite Things. It’s a very widely known popular piece, and something that the audience can recognize. You know, most pieces today, people don’t recognize but I want to always choose something that people can recognize because it gives them a sense of comfort and they’re more attentive to what you’re doing because they know how the song goes. They want to see what you’re gonna do with it. And then the last piece that we did was a piece called Baltic Dance, which was a piece inspired by the Baltic states over in eastern York that gained independence as a country. There’s some historical background as well which works well for our students to have that experience and to get to see different opportunities out there to perform different composers, ideas, and thoughts to maybe learn a little something along the way, and again, grow as an individual. So many different groups out there, concert bands, jazz bands, string ensembles, vocal choirs, quartets, trios, soloists, and just so many different opportunities where our students can take a piece of music they’ve been working on and present it. So, again, a very eclectic mix of music, so it’s exciting.
Q: What challenges come with preparing students for such an event?
Challenge is a fine word. I see it as, what do I need to do to prepare my students for? Yeah, that is the challenge. You know, selecting a piece of music that is appropriate for the students, something that is not too easy for them, that they’re going to have it done and be bored to tears with it or something that is so difficult that they’re never going to be able to achieve it in the time frame that we have. So we have to kind of balance that scenario to find something that is attainable in the time frame and something that’s going to challenge us to grow and be ab;e to explore our ability to present the music in such a way, dynamically, articulation wise, balance, and blend work on our intonation, so many different things, technique wise as an ensemble, and as individuals, we can work on. So my real challenge is to find something that can touch on all those aspects and be able to try and meet the needs of every student in the ensemble through this group endeavor. And that’s, you know, that’s the biggest challenge. Then of course getting everyone you know to show up on time and be ready to go and practice outside of class to prepare themselves because success never happens without hard work. The students have definitely worked har to achieve the level of success that we did this year.
Q: What did you enjoy most about the festival this year?
I just enjoy seeing the emotions and the experience on the students’ faces. It’s not about the school, it is about the experience that the students can have. And again, my job, being that I’m here year after year after year, is to try to give them the best opportunities to have a positive experience, one that they enjoyed, not only the preparation for, but also seeing all that preparation, all that hard work, pay off when they’re actually doing their performance on stage and feeling good about themselves and being able to understand that there was a purpose. There was a goal that we were able to achieve. Maybe we don’t reach every single goal, but now the palate is wet from wanting to achieve more. To go back to the drawing board and then try to get even better and stronger for the next performance. That’s the ultimate goal. And that’s just the most exciting part of it. Music is constantly changing and evolving and there’s so much music to have so many different opportunities to explore and I want to try to give as much as I possibly can in the short window of time that I have with the students, albeit one year or 4 years and then hopefully beyond.
Q: From what you observed throughout the day? How well would you say our school did this year? What could be improved?
I thought we did very well. There’s a young group this year and overall that’s exciting because we have set the seeds and planted them for the future. The students have now experienced it, worked very hard and did very well. And afterwards, we talked about the positives and negatives, the things that went well and the things we know we can improve upon. The judges critiqued the same way. You did this well, so we could continually do more work on it to make it even stronger for the future. So without going into details inside the weeds, I just thought that overall that the students handled themselves very professionally. They looked good, they sounded well, whether it be a small ensemble, the soloist,or the large ensembles, from all the groups at Lenape. And then, of course, going and seeing the artwork and seeing the talent that all these students have put out, it’s just inspiring. And I just love that part of the day. We’re always finding a new stone to turn over to see what we can improve upon. And then the students also change. So therefore we need to see what needs they have in order to improve individuals. And that also directs what the teacher is going to do, because we see the needs of the students and thus, what can we do to set them up for success by choosing certain music, certain selections, and how can we handle it each year.
Q: Where was this festival held this year? Is it the same for every year?
It was held at RCBC. It wasn’t always there, but when Rowan came in and took over the community college for Burlington County, it shifted over to this venue. We’ve been here now for about 10 years. Prior to that, it was out in Pemberton which had a nice campus. We enjoyed that too, so it’s really the venue that makes a difference; it’s the experience of the festival itself. I think what we have is a fine facility and they run it very well. I do look forward to continuing going back to the festival.
Q: What advice would you give to students who would be interested in participating in the future?
If you currently play an instrument, or if you have in the past, if you like to sing, have skills in drawing, doing art or photography, dance, writing poetry, etc. If art is in your blood somewhere, then by all means, join an ensemble. Join a group, take a class, and then, put yourself out there to explore and you can build upon your talents. You can maybe do some really cool things like this and have these outside of school experiences that will give you memories to last you a lifetime.
Conclusion
After interviewing Mr. Waldron and reflecting upon my own experiences I have definitely reached a better understanding of the Teen Arts festival. For anyone interested, I would recommend reaching out and signing up for the various art related groups at our school.