The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Cumberland School's brass rehearses for its nine-minute holiday performance.

Music Makers

Cumberland wets whistle for next show

By Katherine Petersen

Eighty-three fourth- and fifth-graders scrambled to their seats, hurrying to put their instruments together for a full-band practice. The after-school band at Cumberland Elementary, now in its fourth year, was getting ready for its first performance of the year.

Fourth-grader Alex Morris takes a bit longer than some of the others because he has a three-piece alto saxophone to assemble.

"And then I have to put my tongue on the reed for a minute before I can play," he said. Morris chose the saxophone partly because his cousin also plays one. He's in the intermediate class after a year of private lessons.

The band will perform a 15-minute concert in the school's multipurpose room Dec. 18 at 6:20 p.m. before the first-graders' annual singing and dancing program at 7 p.m.

The band nearly doubled in size from last year, said Dolly Lau, a parent who does much of the group's behind-the-scenes work. The students have 45-minute music lessons on Monday afternoons and one Friday a month with either Wally Johnson or Alice Davis instructing. Davis concentrates on flute while Johnson, a retired music teacher of 35 years, takes on everything else.

Musicians are split between beginner and intermediate classes, Johnson said.

"The kids are all eager to play, and they work pretty hard," he added. "You have to keep after some of them to practice. I enjoy what I'm doing a lot."

Playing music gives the kids self-respect and discipline, Johnson said.

"Research shows that learning music at an early age improves brain power," he added. "The kids also learn about teamwork and develop good social skills."

The Cumberland Parent Teachers' Association pays most of the music teachers' salaries, Lau said. Students have to provide their own instruments and pay $60 per year, she added.

Beginners who practice 200 minutes a month and intermediate players who practice between 300 and 400 minutes can win small prizes, Lau said. They can choose from slinkies, bean bag babies, necklaces, denim purses and key chains, she added.

Fourth-grader Paulina Bolinski, who plays the flute, has already won a prize this year. Even though she's practiced a lot, she's still got butterflies about the concert.

"I'm nervous, but being in band is so much fun. I like hearing all the flutes play together," she said.

Kate Verstegen, another fourth-grade flute player, said she had to move her mouth around a lot before she figured out how to blow into her flute, which used to belong to her mother.

"I picked the flute because my mom had one and thought it would be easier to play with braces than some of the other instruments," she said. "I don't have them yet, but I will soon."

Verstegen has accumulated one hour and 35 minutes so far this month and is going for her first prize.

Cumberland Elementary School is located at 824 Cumberland Drive near Hollenbeck and El Camino Real.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, December 17, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.