NORTHAMPTON — The Northampton Community Music Center is once again inviting incoming middle school students to its “Instrument Petting Zoo” and Open House on Tuesday, Aug. 26 from 3:30-5:30 p.m.
The Instrument Petting Zoo is an opportunity for incoming middle schoolers to visit the Northampton Community Music Center and get a firsthand look at potential options for them as they gear up to join school band this fall. Students interested in woodwind or brass instruments can see Community Music Center faculty demonstrate the instruments and can still try out strings and percussion instruments.
Web, Media and Marketing Coordinator for Northampton Community Music Center Indë Francis told Reminder Publishing that this is the second year of partnership between the center and JFK Middle School, and the school’s band director, Shelby Serio, will also be in attendance at the event.
“It’s to invite the incoming students and showcase how musical instruments work, hear or play it, and choose their own instrument to play in the band,” said Francis.
Francis added the event has helped with recruitment and retainment of students in school bands, as the opportunity to learn more about and try out an instrument helps students find what works best for them in a more efficient manner.
“Giving kids the opportunity to come and try and learn instruments before committing to them — so to speak — or committing to the band, it’s just really eye opening for them,” said Francis. “With kids, and really with any age, the more you’re exposed to a certain kind of work, the easier it is to imagine yourself doing it. It opens up their capacity for self-expression and collaboration.”
The event also serves as an open house to the center and all ages are invited to come visit and learn more about the programs offered. Refreshments will be served and Northampton Community Music Center faculty will be on hand, along with musical instruments of all varieties for participants to hold and learn about.
“Folks will be allowed to come in, wander through all the studios, chat with our faculty and staff and just get to know more about the resources and the programs that we offer here,” said Francis. “A lot of folks don’t realize that this resource is available to them and that they have access to this recording studio in the basement and the many, many instruments that we have just in the building that people can use during their lessons. There’s just a lot of resources materially that we have in our space that we want the community to be aware of so they can make the space more alive.”
Director of Northampton Community Music Center’s New Horizons Band Nancy Janoson encourages retired and/or senior adults with little-to-no formal music education to come pick a concert band instrument and learn to play ensemble music with their peers.
“Part of my personal mission with NCMC as media marketing coordinator is to extend our reach beyond youth and into really people of all ages. I’m really happy to have this event as part of this open house,” added Francis.
Parents are also invited to bring their young children, up to the age of 5, to participate in Music Together. It focuses on fostering a long-lasting love and appreciation of music making in one’s earliest years of life, that can serve in all aspects of their education and development through childhood.
Francis said a bigger crowd is to be expected this year and that he hopes word can continue to spread amongst families and the youth in the city about what the center has to musically offer the community.
“I went to the Northampton public schools for high school, and at that time, I didn’t know about NCMC, and it’s the sort of thing that I really wish I had known about. I wish back then there had been more community involvement with the public schools and NCMC because I was getting started as a musician doing a capella and chamber choir, but I didn’t know I had a space to practice and a space to learn instruments right across town,” said Francis. “So, having these community partnerships is really important to our mission to offer music events and education to anybody of all abilities and ages, but also to the community itself.”
To learn more about the Northampton Community Music Center and more of its program offerings and events, visit ncmc.net.
