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UPBEAT Presented by THE SMS 8th GradeFor this issue of the Upbeat, the eighth grade class became our school reporters. We have spent the year studying expository writing. This has allowed us to observe and describe the world around us for a variety of audiences. In this unit, students were given the chance to leave the classroom and talk to members of our community and to view a variety of SMS events. Each student wrote a profile and feature article, selections of which are included here. Please enjoy this snapshot of SMS was recorded by our own students.

UPBEAT Presented by THE SMS 8th GradeForeword by : Shannon Potts - Middle School Humanities Teacher

By Amy Zimmer and Nigel Chiwaya | October 5, 2015 7:34am

NEW YORK CITY — Fourth graders at elite gifted and talented programs in Manhattan outperformed students at more than 743 other elementary schools on state English and math exams, the results of this year’s tests show.

All five of the top scoring schools on the fourth grade English Language Arts exam were schools with gifted programs and four of the top five scorers on the math exam were, too.

The Upper West Side’s Special Music School, a program that accepts students based on auditions and has only 15 kids per grade, was the top school in the city, with 100 percent of its fourth grade class passing the English and math exams — the only school to have a 100 percent proficiency rate for both.

DNAinfo New York looked at performance for fourth grade test results, which often factor heavily into students’ middle school admissions. Other high achieving schools for both exams included the Anderson School, a G&T school on the Upper West Side that accepts kids from across the city, as well as other citywide G&T schools, NEST+M, on the Lower East Side and East Harlem’s TAG Young Scholars.

The Upper East Side’s P.S. 77 Lower Lab School, a gifted school for students in District 2, which includes TriBeCa, the Village and Chelsea, was also a top performer.

“Is it just about the admissions process that makes a good school?”

» See DNAinfo’s Map of Racial Segregation at the City’s Gifted and Talented Programs

» How One School Bucks the City’s Gifted and Talented Racial Segregation

Neighborhood schools that performed well on ELA exams included Greenwich Village’s P.S. 41, where 89 percent passed; Bath Beach’s P.S. 748, a neighborhood school with a gifted program attracting students from across Brooklyn’s District 20 where 86 percent passed; Park Slope’s P.S. 321 where 86 percent passed but there was also a large contingent of students who opted out; Gramercy’s P.S. 40 where 84 percent passed; and Windsor Terrace’s P.S. 154 where 83 percent passed.

For the math exams, high-performing neighborhood schools were the Upper West Side’s P.S. 199 where 93 percent passed; and Broad Channel’s P.S. 47, Bayside’s P.S. 203 and Midtown East’s P.S. 59, where roughly 92 percent passed.

Rosy Rosenkrantz, a Park Slope mom whose son Cerulean Ozarow competed and won on “Jeopardy!” kids week and graduated from the Upper West Side’s prestigious Anderson School in the spring, didn’t put much weight on the exams.

But he and his friends thought the school did too much test prep, she said.

“They said test prep was boring and a waste of time and energy,” Rosenkrantz said. “They would much rather learn than prep for tests.”

Many educators and parents have criticized the high stakes tests, sparking a small, but growing, opt-out movement.

Less than 2 percent of the city’s 400,000 third through eighth graders opted out of this year’s tests — with roughly 7,200 sitting out the math test and 5,400 refusing to take the English exam. A few schools like Central Park East 1 in East Harlem and the Brooklyn New School in Carroll Gardens — which are highly regarded by families and educators — saw the majority of their students opt out.

Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña expressed their lack of support of opting out and instead promoted the ways they’ve tried to take down the temperature of high-stakes testing, in hopes of quelling the movement.

They got rid of the school letter grades based on test scores and no longer use the scores as the sole basis to determine a student’s promotion to the next grade, for instance.

“The test gives us a piece of evidence,” de Blasio said previously. “The real work of moving the lives of children takes much, much more.”

The Upper West Side’s Special Music School was the top school in the city, with 100 percent of its fourth grade class passing the English and math exams — the only school to have a 100 percent proficiency rate for both.

The one outlier to crack the top five was Sunset Park’s P.S. 172.

This school — where nearly 90 percent of its students qualify for free lunch, more than a quarter are special needs students and English Language Learners and nearly 80 percent are Hispanic — saw 100 percent of its fourth graders pass the math exam, tying it with the elite Special Music School and Anderson.

Few education experts and parents were surprised that G&T programs performed well.

“Of course they have high test scores: they choose kids based on their ability to pass standardized tests,” said Amy Stuart Wells, professor of sociology and education at Teachers College.

“We should be worried if those schools didn’t have high test scores.”

The results highlight that when trying to close the achievement gap — in a school system where more than 50 percent of Asian and white students are proficient in English and math but fewer than 20 percent of black and Hispanic students are — it’s important to look at multiple measures beyond test scores, Wells said.

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See How Your Elementary School Ranks on State Tests

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20151005/upper-west-side/map-see-how-your-elementary-school-ranks-on-state-testsWelcome Back

- Black History Month -Some suggested listening and reading to celebrate notable African-American

composers and performers. Go to the library or buy some CDs and enjoy!

FEBRUARYNDI Photos Stephen Freidgood

LESSON ONSTOCKS

with Mr. Simeon

There was an unfamiliar man in room 605 on a February morning. If we were to glance through the window, we would have witnessed Mr. Simeone beginning a lesson on stocks for the eighth grade. Why Mr. Simeone, you might ask? Well, Mr. Simeone is Max, a student in the eighth grade’s, dad. And he is an expert on stocks.You see, one day, Mr. T woke up with the genius idea that he would invite Mr. Simeone, an investment manager, portfolio analyst, and the father of one of his students to help him teach the eighth grade unit on stocks. Mr. Simeone graciously agreed and planned a

fun-filled lesson for the eighth grade, including the opportunity to pretend to invest.On February 5th, 2015, this expert arrived at 10 o’clock am to an excited eighth grade class. He started the lesson by asking the eighth grade what they knew about stocks. After that, he explained what stocks are, and how they worked. After he had set the basic information, he explained how it related to math by writing on the board. He got the eighth graders involved with the lesson by asking them questions. He said that what the eighth grade was learning was very important in life. After the overall topics

were explained, he passed out papers filled with names of different stocks of big brands, including Apple, Tiffany & Co. and McDonald’s. Eighth graders chose stocks that interested them, including their knowledge of stocks to pick successful ones. “If you had a dollar today, you’d rather have it today than tomorrow,” said Mr. Simeone. After they had chosen, he shared his knowledge on how to pick successful companies to invest in. After all, it is his job.Next, Mr. Simeone invited his son, Max to come up and ask the class to pick a company. They chose

Tiffany & Co, and Max explained how to use a computer program that enabled them to invest in stocks with make-believe money. Then, Mr. Simeone took over and said whenever you’re analyzing, there are three things to keep in mind: “ask yourself, what happened, why, and is it good or bad.” It was a very successful lesson, with a lot of useful learning involved. In the words of Mr. Simeone, “Numbers are real. Numbers are true.”

Written by: By Amal Biskin and Nadira Novruzov

SMSUPBEATOCTOBER

New York City is perhaps one of the greatest places to study all types of music from classical to modern. There are no limits when it comes to music as long as you’re willing to put in all the hard work it takes. Hundreds of musicians come from all over the world to study, perform, or teach in New York City. Among the many classical musicians in New York City, there is one that especially stands out in our community.

As a young child in Houston, Texas, Julie Kurtzman played the piano –– as did the rest of her family. Her brother played the piano, her mother played the piano, and her father played the piano. Kurtzman believed that she lacked confidence when she was younger, so being another pianist among a family of pianists was certainly not ideal for her. Thus, her parents decided to have her try the violin at age seven to give her a chance for more individuality. There was an instant connection between her and the beautiful instrument. From then on, violin became an extremely important part of her life.

During Kurtzman’s years of training, she had a few teachers she learned from. They were Fredell Lack, Jascha Brodsky, and

Ronnie Patterson. Kurtzman was highly accomplished as a child. She performed most of the major violin concertos with orchestra by the time she was sixteen years old, and started performing at a very young age. Performing was always a pleasure to her when she was younger and she gained a lot of confidence through the violin. When asked about performing, Kurtzman said she really absolutely loved performing during her years as a child and teenager.

When she was eighteen, Kurtzman faced an unbelievable conflict. She developed a blood circulation problem called Ranar Syndrome, a nightmare for all musicians. Ranar Syndrome is a disease in which the blood flow to fingers and toes is interrupted due to spasms in blood vessels, causing those body parts to be cold all the time. This was an extremely difficult period of Kurtzman’s life. She was unable to vibrate whenever she played violin, and really began to lose motivation. She went to many doctors to try and fix it, but it stayed with her for quite a while. She struggled to play violin for a while. Thankfully, she got rid of her ranar syndrome eventually, and began to play violin like before.

In present time, Julie Kurtzman is a fantastic violin teacher who graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music. She teaches in multiple organizations such as Special Music School, Lucy Moses School, and the 92nd Y Recanati Kaplan Scholarship Program. She enjoys her job very much. Of course there are some hardships for her as a teacher, like when students don’t practice or get nervous before important concerts/auditions. Other than that, she believes being a violin teacher is her greatest musical accomplishment.

Many students who want to be musicians feel insecure about whether they’re making the right decision or not. Deciding to pursue music as a career is a serious and troubling thing. From the start, Julie Kurtzman knew she wanted to play violin. Even so, it hasn’t been easy for her. A word of advice she gave to aspiring musicians was, “Make sure that you love it more than anything else in the world and that’s the only thing you feel you can do in your life. If you have that, the determination, a good teacher, and the discipline to practice, those are all the components you need.”

Profile Article: Julie KurtzmanBy Reba Lee

Tiffany Tsui, a violinist in third grade, loves Special Music School. She says that she loves it because she likes her friends and she “loves learning about interesting subjects from Miss Robin.” Her violin teacher is Viktor Basis and she likes him because he is picky and gives her good techniques. Her favorite subject is reading and her favorite genre is fiction—she is reading the “Paddington Bear” series. She loves jump roping with the girls in her grade because she thinks it’s fun. Her favorite school activity is knitting with Ms. Robin.

She started playing the violin when she was three years old. Her mom chose the violin for her because she didn’t want to carry around another cello (her brother Connor in 7th grade plays the cello). She also plays piano. She practices for at least one hour with the violin at night and she practices the piano for 20-30 minutes.

Outside school, Tiffany likes to dance. She does ballet at the School of American Ballet and she goes to Shuffles Tap to learn tap dancing. She has friends outside of school from her church and from SAB. She only plays with her outside school friends sometimes because she doesn’t have the time to often. She mostly plays with her school friends.

Tiffany’s Interview ProfileBy Herbie Waters

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By Luna Gonzalez

Alex Adou is a loving fifth grader who can always make a person laugh. This has been a busy year for Alex.

He has recently been accepted to the celebration team in NDI and has also switched instruments. He now plays percussion instead of piano. Alex told me about his reason for switching. He said, “I think I felt that percussion came naturally to me, and that piano wasn’t really my thing when my parents put me on it. I felt that it would be fun, and it would be better to practice.” I later asked him what it was like to switch instruments he described it as being challenging and fun.

Special Music School has many amazing opportunities for young children and Alex was among them. In fourth grade Alex was given a spot on the SWAT in NDI he kept up with his great attitude and dancing and he got accepted to the celebration team. I asked him how he felt and if he had expected to be offered a spot. He said, “I think I would have gotten in. Yeah I felt really proud and really good.” Alex has found a new hobby while going to NDI every Saturday. He has made new friends of all ages. It may even be that dancing wins over soccer.

Alex is now looking forward to go to the SMS middle school, “because not many other schools have what we have here with the type of talent that stirs in this school. The teachers here are amazing and I felt that this school was really really good. It would be a shame if someone left SMS because it has everything here.”

I asked him what his reaction is when he says that he’s from SMS he gave me

a brilliant answer. “I feel really really good that I tell them that I can play music, I can dance, and I can sing. I think that it gives you more of a sense that you are special and that you feel that you have talent and makes you feel better of your self.”

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WISDOM PERSONIFIEDby Julia Kingston

When I was in 4th grade, my teacher gave me a handmade collage with this quote on it; “do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson. This very quote exactly defines our beloved fourth grade teacher, Pat. Everyone who goes, or has gone, to SMS knows Pat. But there is truly so much more behind her sly winks or a benevolent smiles.

Pat has been teaching at SMS for twelve years, and has been in the profession for over 20. She taught nursery school first, and then moved on to Kindergarten and 2nd grade before she set-tled in 4th grade. In spite of her longevity, she continues to grow as a teacher. She states that she frequently goes to younger teachers for ad-vice and help. “I look to them because I’m old and I want to continue to grow as a teacher and change as a teacher...I want to stay fresh I don’t want to be one of those old bittys who is kind of done…”

In her time at SMS, she has seen SMS become a very strong school, both academically and mu-sically. 6th grade math is now being taught to her 4th graders. Ms. Smith has too, changed the school immensely, providing the teachers with an enormous amount of staff development.

“She challenges us to be our best,” Pat added. There are ups and downs to these new ways. Pat says that being a teacher these days is like being under a microscope, but you “go with the flow” as she puts it. The best part of SMS (in Pat’s eyes) is the students. “It’s all about the students,” Pat smiles. Pat hopes that each student leaves 4th grade with a love of learning, so we continue to learn as we grow old.

If there is anything that Pat is particularly pas-sionate about, it would be reading. The 4th grade class sits down every day for a read aloud. Pat chooses the most charming books, books that her former students (myself included) will go on to love and cherish forever. Some of these include The Great Gilly Hopkins and Walk Two Moons. “They’re are as good as the first time I read them,” Pat gushes. Pat hopes that every child who passes through her classroom will leave with a love of reading.

Pat also has very strong beliefs in helping oth-ers. Every year the 4th grade has the incredible opportunity to immerse themselves in a Social Action curriculum. Pat’s goal in doing this is “…to get children interested in lives beyond their own.” Pat’s ingenious ideas to present impor-tant subjects in a completely engaging way is truly extraordinary.

What about Pat herself, you may ask? Pat has two children, Justin and Miranda. She has a beauti-ful granddaughter named Vega and a clumsy, lovable bulldog named Norton, their “special needs” dog. “He has to grow on you, he’s a little in your face,” Pat laughs. Norton loves watching sports and has a very strange but beloved rela-tionship with the television. Pat’s family is very much a part of her class. “I think it’s important for children...I always feel that there’s a lot of joy in every family but there are...little cracks..no family is perfect...it’s important for children to understand that my family has problems just like every other family...you’ll get through it...they’re all unique,” Pat smiled. In her free time, Pat loves to read and do crafts. She proudly showed me a beautiful and intricate design, all done by her.

Pat is truly an extraordinary woman. Those who have been in her class mark 4th grade as a mile-stone in their SMS experience, and those who have not been in her class look forward to it for years to come.

On Friday, February 13th, the kindergarteners and first graders presented at the Town Hall Meeting on what they learned about “Community Helpers”. The Town Hall Meeting took place at the mezzanine.

The kindergarten and first graders first explained why Community Helpers were important for communities. Community Helpers are important for communities be-cause they help keep everything in order. Then, they ex-plained why community helpers were important in the SMS community. The Kindergarteners and first graders gave examples of community helpers in our school. They told us that the custodians help keep our school clean, the security guard keeps the students safe from danger outside, and the principle, Katie Smith, helps make sure that everything in the school in correct and in order here in SMS. They finished their presentation with a song and a dance about Community Helpers.

The Kindergarteners and first graders said that they started this project by first writing community jobs, and then working from there. Roen, a student in the kindergarten, said that they had been learning about community helpers before they started preparing for the Town Hall. Kindergarteners used HEART to make this Town Hall possible too. They used Accountability to make sure that they remembered all of their lines. Audrey said, “We took our lines home to practice and memorize them.” They also used Teamwork. Juliet said that they had prepared for this Town Hall for four weeks, but they had learned about “Community Help-ers” before then.

We also asked them what their favorite part of the Town Hall. “I liked singing the song,” Roen said. “I liked to sing, too,” Audrey replied. “Looking at the audience was exciting!”, Julian told us. They also explained why Community Helpers are important in general.

Overall, the kindergarten and first graders had a good presentation and had fun performing and presenting in front of the whole school. They also learned a lot of things about community helpers that they can use in the future. Audrey reminded us,“Community Helpers are important because they have a special job.”

Most people think that teachers have

a boring life. Teach, grade, sleep,

teach, and grade. Actually, that is not

at all true, and a 9th and 10th grade

teacher’s life can easily prove that. Noah Gordon,

The ELA SMS High School teacher does more than

just teach vocabulary and writing skills, he has a life

just like all of us!

When Mr. Gordon started college, he studied

computers, not ELA.

“When I first started to study in college, I started

studying computers, and I was really interested in

computers, and I studied computers for 2 years. I

felt like I understood how computers work.”

“But then, after a while I spent so much time on a

computer screen, like watching a screen, typing

and writing computer code, that I felt like I was

losing something really important about myself,

and I was losing something about other people. So, I

decided to study english, poetry and books because

I thought it could help me understand other people.”

Like most people, if you really like computers, you

must like video games. This goes for Mr. Gordon,

when he was younger.

“When I was about 12 and beyond, I used to play

a lot of computer games. I loved screens, I loved

programming and making my own games and things

like that. I remember spending so many hours

playing computer games.”

Believe it or not, Mr. Gordon plays music like

the rest of us at SMS… he sings and plays guitar,

although he is quite humble about it.

“So, I used to think that I did play music, but that was

before I came to SMS. I play guitar, and I sing, and

I’m learning to play piano a little bit. But then I saw

my students play music. What I do isn’t music, what I

do is I make sound, but I really enjoy it a lot.”

“When I grew up, my dad used to play music to me

when I was a little kid. He would play guitar and

sing folk songs and things like that. Every year at

Thanksgiving we would all play instruments and we

all sang and play music together.”

Mr. Gordon doesn’t practice as much as people who

are students at SMS, “but more often I find myself

inspired in a moment, to write a song or to play

music to help me relax. But I don’t practice the way

my students practice. I don’t play an instrument for

the same reasons as students play instruments.”

Some of Mr. Gordon’s hobbies are,”... playing music,

and writing songs and things like that. I really love

to read and learn, I just applied to continue studying

for a PhD, I haven’t been accepted though. So I

continue studying, and I really like to walk in the

city, go to a museums, spend time in coffee shops,

essentially in conversation with people. I really love

to play Chess, and I learned Spanish a couple of

years ago so I’ve really worked on my Spanish. One

of the things I love to do is take my favorite poems

and quotes and ideas from people and translate

them. I’ve been recently translating a lecture from

SART and a poem that was very late in the life of

Charles Bukowski, and then I’m writing my own

poetry in Spanish, just for practice.”

Mr. Gordon has a good sense of humor, attempting

to tell people that he wasn’t born on earth.

I’ll give you a cool answer. I come from distant

galaxies, far, far … Oh. I can’t say that? OK. I’ll give

you a good answer. I grew up in Massachusetts,

outside of Boston, but then I moved to Vermont for

College and I stayed there for 8 years. I like to think

that I’m from Vermont because people there are so

friendly, so lovely, and so nice”.

Mr. Gordon went to a normal, regular Elementary-

High School, but he did not enjoy it that much. Then

he went to the University of Vermont, and he learnt

a few things, but the most important thing was that

he learned that he loved english and that he loved

thinking.

“I left behind computers, but when I got to my

Masters degree at Columbia, that’s where I fell

in love with teaching. I got my teaching degree at

Teachers’ College, Columbia University.”

Teaching students is fun for Mr. Gordon, because

he learns things from his students as well. “I really

like stuff like this Interview. I really enjoy my

relationship with students, because I find that what

my students think is so interesting to me, and so

we’re both chasing after learning something new;

wisdom.

Noah GordonTEACHER PROFILE

BY Connor Tsui

Lena-Marie DeMayo Stoger & Rachel Joo

Kindergarten and First Grade Town Hall

Community Helpers

In March, the 8th grade did a Town Hall on the book To Kill a Mockingbird by

Harper Lee, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. They wrote and performed monologues, so each student was assigned a character from the book. In their presentation, they acted out their characters in a speech-like manner.

The 8th graders had been working on their Town Hall since the end of February. An 8th grader said, “The most challenging part of it was finding more about the characters with only a little information provided. However challenging it was, though, there were moments they enjoyed.

“The emotion while we were reading it for the audience.” One of the 8th graders said.

While Special Music School watched, the 8th grade did an excellent job in playing their characters, even if they didn’t like them. A 8th grader said that it wasn’t too hard to act out their characters.

“ We were able to make a connection with our characters. I got inspired because I thought the character would be moving to the audience.” One of the 8th graders says.

The 8th graders say that they learned how to write a story with such little information. They say that if they were to do it again, they would want to choose different characters.

I remember some 8th graders who looked a lot like their characters. Some of them weren’t even dressed up. It was the acting and the emotion that made the audience forget about the fact that they were just pretending. It brought the audience to a new world in just a few hours.

Behind the Monologue

Maya Sheehy and Giorgio Poma

Jenny UNDERCOFLER ProfileBy Amal Biskin

In a world of professional musicians, it can be hard to feel needed. Pianist, conductor, and contemporary music enthusiast, Jenny Undercofler knows a little something about that. While studying piano at

Juilliard, she remembers, “...I found that I didn’t feel very useful, so when composers started asking me to play their pieces, then I felt useful…” This just goes to show the power that playing music by living composers holds. This understanding became the basis for a musical life for Jenny Undercofler.

Now, you might be wondering, where did Jenny begin her musical career? Well, it started with her parents. “My dad did what, essentially kind of what I do. He ran a couple of different arts high schools in the course of my growing up but he was a horn player originally and when I was really little he still taught horn and my mom was a violin teacher…” She moved in the middle of high school and ended up graduating from the first class of the arts high school that her father started.

From there, Jenny proceeded to Juilliard to major in piano and later on received her doctorate from Eastman Music School. Throughout all of this, Jenny

continued to play pieces by fellow students and met some colorful characters. She remembers, “I had a friend who wanted me to play a set of piano pieces that were about girls that he had had crushes on, and each piece had a fanciful name, like Unicorn in the Valley or Frost on a Winter Morning, but they’d each be for a girl, and he

fell in love with such regularity that I’d be lying in bed at night in my dorm room and I’d hear music coming from underneath the door because he would have had a crush on somebody new, and written another piece about her already, so eventually he had like 21 pieces, and I said, ‘This has to stop! No more crushes, no more pieces!’ ”

But playing contemporary music written by her colleagues was not only useful for providing entertaining stories to tell. It gave Jenny a sense of meaning, a feeling of being useful. And she wanted a way to pass this feeling on to other young musicians.

Later on, Jenny was working as the music director for the Special Music School. She still wanted to find a way to be useful, and to find a way to contribute the SMS community. She also wanted to find a way to help kids in SMS who, like her in college, were not feeling very useful. All of this led up to the start of Face the Music. She remembers, “...I thought that that was something useful that I could contribute to the Special Music School community, but also it kind of quickly became kids who weren’t feeling so useful at SMS and this gave them an outlet for expressing themselves and feeling a little more

valued than maybe they did in other settings…”

Of course, not everyone was on board with the idea from the start. Jenny says that it has been a very gradual process which illustrates the struggle with promoting contemporary music

and with people agreeing to teach it to kids at such a young age.

All in all, Jenny found a way to put her creativity, and love of music into helping young musicians find a passion the same way that she did during her own study of music.

“NOW, YOU MIGHT BE WONDERING, WHERE DID JENNY BEGIN HER MUSICAL CAREER? WELL, IT STARTED WITH HER PARENTS. ”

By Willow Bennison

Nick Tucker Profile

Everyone knows Nick Tucker. He makes sure we all get to our lessons, he runs admissions and tries to make SMS a better place. But what

not everyone knows is that scheduling and scheming in the music office is not the only side of Nick.

Nick Tucker grew up in Arkansas and he discovered his passion for music in seventh grade. While I was sitting in Nick’s office he told me, “I decided that I wanted to play the bassoon in seventh grade, because I got first chair in my school band. My section was placed in the center of the orchestra so no one could see me. A visiting college band came and played and I saw that you could see the bassoon from everywhere you stand because they’re so tall.”

Throughout Nick’s life he has had to support his own music entirely. He has had to find his three teachers, get to and from lessons in far away places and find his own way to make it as a bassoonist.

Nick’s musical ability blossomed as he grew in age. Finally, after he graduated with his BA from the University of Arkansas, he decided that it was time to reach out to some main conservatories in New York City. I asked Nick how he came to the Manhattan School of Music he said, “I had played two of my worst auditions in my life at Juilliard and Mannes and the day I had my audition for the Manhattan School of Music I was sick so I had to drag myself to the audition and I just wanted to get it over with. But when I went into that room I played one of the best auditions I had ever played.”

Nick has been working at SMS for two years now helping out wherever he can, gaining influence from people he looks up to such as Sandra Noreen and Jenny Undercofler. In my interview with Nick he told me that by working at SMS has really impacted him as a person giving him new goals too live up to. He also shared that he is at a crossroads in his career. He has to look into his future and see if he wants to continue to follow his trade

of playing concert bassoonist or to work a more stable life of being a teacher or mentor for musical gifted children.

No matter which path Nick finally decides upon, it will certainly be about music and that, in itself will be fulfilling. As Nick told me, “music isn’t easy and its not something that always makes the most sense but its kind of this constant struggle to better yourself and reach this ideal state ware you can create something beautiful.”

Profile

EMILY JOHNBy Marie Brogdon

Emily John is a known member of the SMS community. Parents and elemen-tary school students have seen her at con-certs, and those in the older grades have done chorus and Music History classes with her.

Anyone who’s met Emily John can testify about her bubbly, bouncy personal-ity that makes her fun to be around. But how many people know about her life outside of SMS, and her deep passion for music?

Emily is from a small suburb in Buffalo, New York. She was influenced by music from a young age, as her parents were both musicians. When she was little, Emily juggled the piano and violin, until she de-cided on the harp at age eight, which she continues to play today.

Not only did Emily have musical parents, but she had musical friends: she went to school with Jenny Undercofler, who is now the music director of SMS.

As Emily John grew up, she also developed a passion and talent for sing-ing. Nowadays, Emily John is an active part of choirs and orchestras outside of our SMS community.

It’s not surprising that Emily said yes to the position of choral teacher at SMS, as can be seen through her love of voice, nor

that she accepted teaching music history. Emily John is known to always have unique pieces for the fifth grade, middle school girls, and middle school boys chorus, as well as beautiful works by a variety of composers for the students in her Music History Class to learn from and enjoy.

Although Emily accepted the teaching positions, she still has a hectic ca-reer outside of school: she plays the harp, sings, conducts, and teaches at Queen’s col-lege. However, it’s clear that even though Emily has a busy life, she still enjoys teach-ing and think’s it’s worth the work. “I don’t think of teaching as a job. Teaching and music aren’t separate for me, I just want to share the gift of music.” Emily John thinks that all of her students are exceptional, and loves working with them.

In her spare time, Emily loves reading and composing. She also enjoys playing “semi” good piano duets with her husband, who also shares her passion of music. Emily is devoted to making the world a better place through music, expression, and kindness. “I would say I try to be loving. I try to do some random acts of kindness and that kind of stuff—but in general I try to just give a lot of love.”

Ice Skating AftermathBy Olivier Elkan and Dylan Bedford

On February 25, 2015, the SMS community went ice skating. We were all excited, some students even brought their own skates. As soon as we finished lunch, we started walking to Central Park. Traveling in groups by grade, we

finally reached the ice skating rink. We were given wristbands to signal whether we had or did not have our own boots. Once we got our skating boots, we quickly changed into them.

It was surprisingly warm for February, especially with the winter we had. Many students had to take off their jackets to skate. Most of the skaters on the ice were from our school, and there were very few people whom we didn’t know.

We all had a jolly good time with our friends, chatting and running on the ice. Some students had more experience than others. You could hear students asking each other, “Are you okay?” Many middle schoolers were helping elementary students to get up after falling. We were like big brothers and sisters to the young kids.

The one and half hour passed so quickly, suddenly our skating party was over. We were a little disappointed. We wished that that we could continue for another hour on the ice.

Even though we all felt that the skating time was too short, we still had a great time. For the whole walk back to school you could hear students laughing and remembering the great time they had on the ice.

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Dr. Robinson McClellan By Misha Swersey

Dr. Robinson McClellan is known throughout the Special Music School for teaching composition. He teaches a lot of classes and students in the school. Many of us know him because of the class he offers on Wednesday evenings called ComposerCraft in which kids from 6-8th grade study composition. However, he also teaches a class called Comp Forum, a graded class taught in the SMS High School for those students who have chosen composition for their major.

Comp Forum is held every Tuesday from 12:45 - 2:45. There are five students in the 9th grade, and six students in the 10th grade taking composition. Projects worked on by the students are performed. Last fall, the 9th grade began their year by learning the “basic aspects of composition” as McClellan recalls. These aspects included repetition

and variation, form, and how to emphasize things. Currently, the 9th grade students are focusing on vocal music and development of a theme.

When I visited their class they were working on a vocal project for mezzo-soprano, which as ultimately performed by a professional singer in April. The names of the 9th graders taking the class include Calie Brooks, Carol Sifuentes, Elijah Valongo, Jean Carlos Garcia, and Elliott Bluestein. All five of them had chosen composition as their major. Dr. McClellan and the class use a notation software called “Noteflight” to work on their projects.

The class offers a wide variety of musical education and talent. Kids who take composition with Dr. McClellan are very lucky to have such a teacher like him.

Profile CongratulationsOn behalf of the entire SMS community,

I would like to congratulate Seth Baer, Dean of Music (HS), on the birth of his baby daughter.

Welcome Sophie!Mazel Tov Seth!

SMS Halloween

PartyFriday 10/30 from 6-9

in the MLK Cafeteria