The article “Violin students show their musical stuff” reported by Joe McGonegal was published by the newspaper “Wicked Local: Roslindale Transcript” on Wednesday, May 2, 2007. It reported a concert of SIB which Gwynne Morgan, of the Friends of the Library’s Board of Directors, recruited director of SIB Mr. Donald Becker for part of the library’s West Roxbury Reads “March” program.
In the concert, Mr. Becker was the conductor for 16 violin students of SIB, performing selected pieces from the Ken Burns “Civil War” documentary as well as a few other traditional favorites like the first movement of Vivaldi’s “Concerto in A Minor” and “Double Concerto for Two Violins”. As noted, the audience was immediately transfixed by 16 violins, in unison, striking the fierce notes of Vivaldi’s masterpiece in the beginning.
As students got to the highlight of the concert, Jay Unger’s “Ashoken Farwell” from the “Civil War” soundtrack, one could tell that they had not only heard the piece plenty of times on their practice CDs, but they had also practiced it together as a group quite a bit, too. As Mr. Becker said to the reporter, “our students get experience practicing with us and also practicing along with CDs that we send home with them.” In fact, three of the adults in the auditorium on Saturday were parents of students who got the pride not only of seeing their children perform, but also of performing with them.
The report concluded that studying with SIB has not only exposed students to some great music, but to some lifelong skills as well.