Orchestrated...

I love how God orchestrates things in our lives, and I am in awe that sometimes I get to be an instrument in his hands.  I'm thinking of a day early last June when I "happened" to run into an acquaintance in Costco near the canned chicken or beans.  Gail's daughter Jamie was in our first VPA children's choir for one season in 2006.  She is a senior at SHS, and I've heard her accompany the SHS choir on the violin once or twice.  Gail and I exchanged the usual casual pleasantries, but instead of moving on with the shopping I made some comment about her daughter's violin playing and we began discussing the opportunities she has had to play or not to play in Sherwood.  I told her how over the past few years in forming the Voices for the Performing Arts foundation, that I had dreamed that one day we would have a string program available for students here.  She said that if Jamie could be involved helping teach beginners, she would love that, and she herself would volunteer in any way she could to help get something going.  She took my business card I think and said she would e-mail me with any suggestions on who could be a teacher.

A week or so passed, and she e-mailed to say that she had talked to her daughter's violin teacher, and she really didn't have any suggestions.  In the mean time someone suggested to me that Shelley Bigelow taught orchestra, and maybe she would be interested.  I know Shelley from our stake association, and she was also once my sister's roommate.  I mulled around the idea for awhile until one morning I felt a strong urge that I should call her.

I told Shelley about the VPA, our mission and goals, and how we would really like to start a beginning strings program in Sherwood. I was all enthusiastic, trying to sell my pitch, to which she just laughed and said it was funny I was calling that day.  She had just been given a pink slip saying that her position as orchestra teacher at the middle school was being cut for the next year.  After some discussion she said she was definitely interested in the possibilities, and we scheduled a time when we could get together and talk about how to start the program.

Over the course of the next several weeks, we continued to talk and plan.  She had built her program from nothing to 3 or 4 full classes with 70 kids or so, including all 4 orchestral instruments.  It was pretty impressive, and hard to believe that the program could be cut as it was self sustaining.  Well, as an aside, the parents prevailed at a school board meeting, and the program was reinstated before it was axed.

I found myself writing a employment contract so we could hire her, and discussing all the ins and outs with hiring her as employee or as a private contractor.  We sought legal council, and I submitted the contract for review. I was amazed at how the words, the formatting and overall understanding of what needed to be specified just flowed into my brain.  This type of work has never been appealing to me, or something that I wanted to become educated in, but when necessity calls, one has to step up.  The contract I wrote ended up being a very solid base for our lawyer to put in legal-eze and add clauses that were needful based on the issues that I outlined.  It was quite an amazing experience for me to go through, and I definitely felt the hand of the Lord guiding my thoughts.

I enlisted help from a new board member, Polly Doyel, with the new position of "program director".
She crafted a registration packet, and I assisted in getting that squared away, while also working on beginning of another middle school choir, and new registration and tuition payments for all the choirs.  It was a huge project, yet somehow I was able to keep all the balls in the air, and plan the actual teaching curriculum for the fall classes I was going to teach---but that's another story...

The strings program was advertized, registration packets put online on our brand new website (which was under development during this time as well), rehearsal space was arranged for, and we were thrilled to meet our projected class minimums for 3 classes.  We started 2 beginning classes the second week of September 2011.  We had some interest for non-beginners as well, and amazingly Shelley came up with a way to use everyone who wanted to play in an orchestra setting for our 3rd class.  We have elementary kids playing with middle school kids, and 3 high school kids assisting as student teachers for the 3 classes.

We continue to have people express interest in joining, and so far have been able to include about 30 kids in the program!  I sat in awe on December 10 as I listened to them play in their first recital.  They had learned an amazing amount of music.  They were enthusiastic and proud of what they had done.  Shelley has a wonderful rapport with the kids, and it is easy to see how she built up the program at her middle school.  The high school kids played a selection of trio music, and the younger kids were impressed and inspired with what might be.  I selected a song for the VPA Spirit of Christmas concert that really needed string in the accompaniment as well.  To my delight, all three high school students agreed to play. It was an arrangement using Pachelbel's Canon in D coupled with The First Noel.  They played it beautifully, and the choir sounded like angels.  I was so pleased, and gratified that they were able to play in that concert as well as the recital.  They actually played in the lobby prior to the concert as well.

Isn't it interesting how an idea can develop into something tangible and significant when it is supported by something bigger that you are.  When there seems to be a master design, and you just are in the right place at the right time, and you act on something that seems just like an ordinary urge, and then you just keep checking tasks off your list until you suddenly look up and see there is something significant in front of you.  You realize how your small efforts coupled with the right people, at the right time, with inspiration and the hand of God leading the way, make really wonderful things happen!

I loved playing the viola and cello as a child and youth.  It brought me a lot of satisfaction and joy.  It was easy to participate in, as it was part of my school day.  Those days are long gone, but the feelings are still there.  The understanding of how important music is, is even more apparent to me than ever.  I'm so grateful that I am able to be part of God's orchestrating and gift of music to about 30 kids and families in Sherwood.  It's the beginning of something marvelous, and who knows where it will go from here, and what those kids will do when THEY grow up.  I'm in awe.  How blessed I feel that I have been given the opportunity to be instrumental in starting this program up in Sherwood.