The VC Parks & Rec District will sponsor a free concert July 27, 6–9 p.m. at the community center with the band Rockola.
The concert is free to the public and appropriate for all ages. Bring your chairs, blankets and a picnic.
The concert will be held instead of the annual Arts & Music Festival that the district has promoted in the past, and which it had talked about having this fall.
Dressed in a wardrobe that would make Austin Powers jealous and armed with vintage guitars, keyboards and amplifiers, Rockola has been a San Diego favorite for well over a decade.
The band has a national following and boasts a massive fan base in San Francisco and Manhattan, winning them the official by-line as “America’s Classic Rock Experience.”
The band, touting four exceptionally talented lead vocalists, attributes its success to its distinctive harmonization. In addition to the mainstay rock instruments — guitar, keyboard and drums — Rockola works a dozen or so other instruments into the act, not the least of which is a 19-string Indian sitar.
Rockola has won five San Diego Music Awards. The band has performed in a CBS TV movie, a Bud Light commercial and four concerts with full symphony orchestras. Most recently, Rockola self-produced a performance of the Beatles’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band for the album’s 35th anniversary.
The concert is sponsored by the Valley Center Parks & Recreation District, Bill Horn & the County Board of Supervisors, Angelo Damante & Mercedes Benz of Escondido, and California Bank & Trust.
For information about the concert, call the parks district at 749-8852.
It may be hot, but in the pool at Adams Park, it’s COOL! The pool has programs all summer long and is open just for fun, too!
“Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music.”—Sergei Rachmaninov
People need music. From our earliest moments we tap rhythms and giggle at simple melodies.
Some studies purport to show that musicians make better scholars. There is anecdotal evidence to support this, although anecdotes are not science.
VC resident Diane Conaway provides one instance: “I have seen my son’s concentration improve and therefore his grades go up because of his involvement in music.”
Valley Center’s school district has a variety of programs to help flower this simple human need within us.
Just as people need music, so does music need people. In this community those people are the Valley Center Music Boosters.
The Roadrunner this week interviewed Mrs. Conaway, newly installed president of the Music Boosters, who gave us the latest about the club’s efforts.
The music program in the Valley Center-Pauma Unified School District includes:
• beginning bands, which are offered at the three elementary schools, and the middle school.
• jazz band, which is offered at the middle and high schools.
• marching band, offered at the high school.
• orchestra, offered at the lower schools.
• concert bands, offered at all of the schools.
• choir, offered at the high school and middle school.
• drumline, offered at the high school.
• color guard, to be offered at the high school starting this fall.
Last year there were 700 children in the combined music programs. Each year about 100 children are added to the program.
They are moving through the school system like a tidal wave, a tsunami, or a gopher being ingested by a king snake.
“They start at the elementary level and a very small percentage drops out each year,” says Mrs. Conaway. “So in a few years the high school program is going to grow exponentially.”
The teachers involved are Christopher Holliday at the elementary and high schools, Jeff Beck, at the middle and elementary schools, Rita Steele, orchestra, Laralee Beck with choir and Karl Rafto, drumline.
The Music Boosters organization consists of a board of directors. Officers are:
President - Diane Conaway
Treasurer - Anna Brinkley
Secretary - Sandy Smith
Vice President, High School Bands - Amber Bowen
Vice President, Orchestras - Rosa Gonzales and Susan Davis
Vice President, Choirs - Mary Gordon
Vice President, Upper/Middle Bands - Terry Rouette
Special Projects - Janet Bergquist.
The Music Boosters’ primary purpose is raising funds to support the band program. Many erroneously assume that’s all that they do. They also provide logistical and volunteer support.
“We have to raise money to cover what is not covered by the schools,” says Mrs. Conaway.
One example is busing to events. Certainly the district covers some costs, but the music programs have a higher than normal transportation costs.
The Boosters maintain a trailer to carry instruments to events and competitions. The trailer is shared among the groups. Sometimes it is driven to two competitions in one day, which can create logistical problems.
On one Saturday Drumline had a competition in Orange County, so all the drums went up there. Then the trailer had to get all the uniforms and jazz instruments for the high school and middle school jazz competitors in the afternoon back in San Diego County.
So having another trailer would be extremely helpful.
Besides transportation the biggest cost is for instruments and their repair.
“The school received a grant in the last couple of weeks that will be used for buying some new instruments, but we still have such a demand for instruments that we continually have to repair old ones,” says Mrs. Conaway.
Some duplicates are needed . It is difficult for a child to transport an instrument like a tuba between home and school, particularly if the instrument is bigger than the child! So two instruments per pupil are sometimes maintained.
Conaway’s big goal this year is to, “improve our communications with our parents and the community. We want to get more parents involved. We are going to be forming a parent support group each year. You need more parents involved in the planning, organization and working on newsletters, working as volunteers at concerts, and helping to create programs.”
Less than 10%of the music parents participate. “If we had another ten percent of the parents involved that would be awesome,” says Mrs. Conaway.
The group could use a grant writer, someone with writing talents to be a publicist and someone with the talents to create a Web site.
In the fall they measure kids, especially new students, for their uniforms.
Choir has to have its dresses fitted and ready for the competition season.
They raise money through two big concerts: the Veterans Day concert Nov. 12 at the Maxine and the jazz concert held in the spring at the Maxine.
Last year each concert raised $5,000. In past years they served a dinner before these concerts. They will probably go back to that this year. That helps raise a little more.
Some parents have been critical of having to pay money to see their children perform. Mrs. Conaway answers that criticism this way: “There are a lot of opportunities for parents to see their kids play at events that are not fund-raisers. But these ARE fund-raisers.”
The Cookie Dough Sale, held in spring and fall, is their biggest fund-raiser. During this extended sale they sell, not only cookie dough, but frozen food products such as cakes and pies. This typically raises about $15,000.
The group also participates in the annual High School Foundation fund-raiser auction in the spring.
Almost all of the money goes to bus transportation, instrument repairs and purchases.
This article previously referred to studies (including one by the National Endowment for the Arts), that seem to indicate a correlation between music instruction and academic success.
If such a correlation exists, it may be in part because music students must work very hard to pursue their avocation.
“They have to keep their grades up to stay in the program,” notes Mrs. Conaway. “If their grades fall often they will be pulled from band.”
Many are in multiple programs, especially in high school. Many are in the marching band and jazz band and drumline at the same time.
Many play multiple instruments to meet those requirements.
Mrs. Conaway’s son plays bass guitar in jazz band; then he switches to a trombone to be in a marching band. Then many of the kids switch to percussion to be in drumline. They all have to practice at different times and have different competitions and festivals.
That’s why at the Western Days Parade you won’t see the jazz band at the same time as the marching band.
“We always enter the marching band in the parade because people like seeing marching bands whereas the middle school jazz band doesn’t march, so it rides on the big semi,” says Mrs. Conaway.
This year in the parade the orchestra played fiddles. They picked special music for the parade and wowed the crowds.
The time commitment IS rigorous.
Most band programs at the middle and high school are held before school. Students have to be at school an hour early to participate.
Jazz band class is held before school. Marching band is a class during school, but it also requires rehearsals in the evening.
A devoted musician in high school would spend an hour every morning, four hours on Monday nights, other rehearsals during the weeks. This adds up to 15-20 hours a week, plus performances and competitions. It approaches the time commitment involved in holding a part-time job.
Why do they do it?
“It’s personal satisfaction,” says Mrs. Conaway. “They get a group trophy that stays at the high school. Sometimes they get individual certificates for achievement in competitors, but mostly it’s the satisfaction of playing together as a group and sounding really good.”
The Music Boosters have been growing modestly, but they haven’t been able to keep up with the growth of the music program.
“We are formulating a three to five years plan to anticipate those needs. We are working with the teachers and the district so that we can supplement what the school does for the program.
“Most clubs operate outside of the schools, our music teachers are paid by the schools and we try to supplement what they do for the kids.”
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If you’d like to support the group, call Diane Conaway at 749-2888 or write to Valley Center Music Boosters, POB 841, Valley Center, CA 92082.
Fire Chief Kevin O’Leary investigates a car fire at noon time on July 10, near14558 Fruitvale Rd.The car was operated by the delivery man for Papa Bear’s Restaurant and was going to a customer’s home when smoke was seen coming from the engine. A leak of ignitable fluid onto the hot engine caused the fire. No one was injured and the fire did not spread.
“Gardening requires lots of water - most of it in the form of perspiration.” ~Lou Erickson. This worker keeps the blooms alive along Valley Center Road.
The Valley Roadrunner
P.O.B. 1529, Valley Center, CA 92082
Tel. 760.749.1112 Fax 760.749.1688
Website: www.valleycenter.com
Email: editor@valleycenter.com
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