Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
                                           Public Information Office
                                           SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
                                           504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
                                           publicinfo@selu.edu
                                           www.selu.edu/NewsEvents
    Date: 5/27/97
      Contact:                           Christina Chapple  95A

Editors: Photos accompany release
AT SLU'S COMMUNITY MUSIC SCHOOL, LEARNING GOES ROUND AND ROUND
     HAMMOND -- From mid afternoon into the evening, the music goes round and round in
Southeastern Louisiana University's Ralph R. Pottle Music Building.
     So do the music makers -- dozens of youngsters from tots to teenager toting sheaves of
music and a variety of instruments from bass guitars to trombones. The students pair up with  
teachers and disappear into building's practice rooms, classrooms and auditoriums. The sounds of
a scale patiently repeated on a piano, hands rhythmically clapping out a steady beat; "When the
Saints Go Marching In" haltingly fingered on a trumpet filter out into the old building's long
halls and the newer annex's .
     "It's nice to see all the activity. It would be awfully quiet around here this time of day, if
not for this," said David Evenson, head of Southeastern's music department.
     "This" is Southeastern's Community Music School. Now in its second year, the school
offers private and group music lessons to children and adults, lessons taught by Southeastern
music majors and faculty members.
     Currently, under the tutelage of approximately 30 teachers, some 100 young people and a
dozen adults are studying piano, guitar, violin, cello, flute, percussion, bass, trumpet, French
horn, clarinet, saxophone, trombone and voice. They're also participating in professor Yakov
Voldman's Southeastern String Academy violin orchestra, studying music theory in the
electronic piano lab, taking triumphant bows during end-of-the-year recitals and testing their
skills against their peers in special auditions and competitions. 
     Twenty young singers blend their voices in Gina Anthon's Children's Choir and several
dozen adults have dusted off their old band instruments and, under the baton of Southeastern
director of bands Frank Dubuy, are getting back into the swing -- and fun -- of making music in a
new Regional Community Band. 
     Southeastern began the Community Music School for a number of reasons, said director
Thais Perkins, who earned her master's degree at Southeastern and a doctoral degree at Louisiana
State University and ran her own music school in Covington. CMS is an outreach service to the
community; it provides practical experience for music majors who may one day have their own
teaching studios; and it is a valuable recruiting tool. CMS hopes that some of today's students
will be tomorrow's Southeastern music majors.
     "We're growing our own now," smiles Evenson.
     Perkins said budding pianist make up about 30 percent of the school's student body, but
that programs in flute and guitar are coming on fast. Voldman's String Academy boasts
approximately 20 students. Perkins own sons, Aaron and Ian, are studying piano and percussion
at the school.
     "It's fun to live with a drum set in your house," laughed Perkins.
     Brenda Blanchard and Rebecca Gillan share a table in a Music Annex alcove while
waiting for their children to finish their lessons. Blanchard said CMS music lessons have been a
wonderful addition to her 13-year-old daughter Sandy's home schooling schedule. Sandy studies
flute with SLU faculty member Sara Beth Hanson, who performs with the Baton Rouge
Symphony Orchestra,  violin with Alexander Reshetnichenko and piano with Elizabeth Messina,
both graduate students. In addition to her school year studies, Sandy also had fun last year at the
String Academy summer camp.
     "This has been needed in the community for a long time," said Gillan, who teaches in St.
Tammany Parish's gifted program. Her daughter Amy studies violin with Jennifer Aiton, a senior
music education major from Hammond, while daughter Kelly studies piano with Jennifer Odom,
a junior voice major from Moselle, Miss.  "Here at Southeastern, the girls are exposed to
professional musicians and a professional atmosphere," Gillan said. "Plus they have the facilities
of the electronic piano lab, where they can compose their own pieces, and the theory class."
     CMS, she said, "has been a bargain!"
     CMS students can take 30-minute, 45-minute or one hour private lessons. Each semster,
the school gets underway one week after Southeastern's classes begin. The summer session,
Perkins said, will begin June 9.
     Students can also hone their music skills this summer at the Music Department's July 7-
18 Young Musicians and String Academy Camp, directed by music faculty members Jerry
Voorhees and Yakov Voldman. Older students can participate in a new High School Music
Camp, directed by Frank Dubuy. For more information, call Perkins at 549-5938 or contact
Voorhees, 549-5089; Dubuy, 549-2196, or Voldman, 549-2249.
                                    
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