The recently regrouped CHS Jazz Choir was set to compete at the Reno Jazz Festival this spring. From left, Josiah Lee, Hugo Taura and Brandon Moehlmann perform during the Feb. 1 Saucy Jazz fundraiser.
Switching to distance learning posed a challenge to Creswell’s school music program: how to meaningfully substitute virtual classes for the in-person practice necessary to become highly skilled bands and choirs.
And Creswell High singers and instrumentalists are skillful, winning and placing at prestigious festivals in the Northwest and Reno and performing at Disneyland.
This spring, concert and jazz bands “were on track to compete at the state level,” and music director Sandi Green has “no doubt both groups would have placed,” and believes “our jazz band would have won their division for the third year in a row.”
The “newly regrouped” jazz choir, she said, “was amazing and looking forward to their first festivals,” including Reno Jazz, while the choir anticipated singing with other Lane County choirs at Metro Choral Festival.
Gone too were spring concerts, talent shows, end-of-year ceremonies and traditions.
Seniors were hard-hit by losing their final competitive and performance season.
Senior jazz band trombonist Javier Fregoso said it was particularly disappointing “to not have those trips and events because we missed out on the more fun part of the year where we traveled and competed to show others what we had been working on.”
What especially stung was losing the chance to repeat as state champions.
“For the past two years we won first place, and I was hoping to compete for the state title with the jazz band once again this year,” Fregoso said. “I wish things could have been different, so that for my senior year we could try to win again.”
But having no option, Green sought virtual ways to keep kids motivated and playing. Then, student Gonzalo Cardenas posted “an outstanding video of himself playing six parts on trombone,” Green said. (See Creswell Schools Music Program’s Facebook.) “He truly inspired me; others followed, and it was amazing to hear them and watch them take on this new version of music learning.
“This was my favorite part of the whole thing; hearing the kids play and seeing them invested in playing was profound for me.”
Green also expanded her American music history unit beyond ’20s, ’30s and ’40s jazz and swing to include the 1950s end of the jazz age and explosion of early rock ’n’ roll – Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Richard, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis – and how rock ’n’ roll helped break down racial barriers in the ’50s.
“I’ve wanted for several years to go a bit further and teach the music history of the ’50s, but we never seem to have enough time,” Green said.
Now, she did. And when Little Richard died May 9, students had just listened to his recordings.
“Their reflections on his passing showed a true appreciation of this American music legend and how he helped shape American history,” she said. “American music history mirrors the history of our country in so many ways, and that material turned out to be relevant to the national conversation.”
But while grateful for these silver-lining “wins” – “parts of this grand experiment that I will keep and make use of in the future,” Green said that “distance learning absolutely pales in comparison to being live with students.”
That was apparent in students’ recording (once 20 could gather) of “The Star-Spangled Banner” for the 2020 graduation video.
“So many people have commented that this recording gave them goosebumps, and that is very real. Every one of us felt what we had lost and felt the power of being able to be together in that moment,” Green said. “Those students played their hearts out, and you can hear it in the recording. There is no way distance learning can ever replace that.”
Despite lingering uncertainties, “this experience has made me more certain than ever that music in Creswell will continue to grow and thrive in spite of the obstacles we face,” Green said, “and that we will come out on the other side of this better for it, and more grateful for the time we have together in the future.”
