Another Great Year For Cape Music.    April 15, 2010

The tempus, they say, sure does fugit.  I was thinking that on a recent Sunday when
driving to Cape for the last day of Jazz Cabaret.  As instrumental teacher at Cape,
eight Cabarets – and counting.  What got me thinking about that was that this marked
Terry White’s last Cabaret as middle school teacher here.  So many projects together,
and so much invested in the Cape program.  It was indeed the ending of one phase
and the beginning of another.

It was such a wonderful feeling to be on stage with all the Cape groups.  What we
 have in instrumental music in this community is SO special.  It is a result of great
students, parental and administrative support and an adjunct faculty that is
tremendously dedicated.  So often the day after rehearsal I’ll get an email or phone
call from Ralph Norris or one of the big band assistants saying,  “How about if we…”
They are constantly searching for ways to make the program better.  

We hadn’t even finished this past jazz season when Terry and I began digging into
next year’s jazz programs in earnest.  Why?  Because it is a labor of love.  We can
 report that the planning for the programs is 75% completed.  We have picked two
 jazz figures to honor – the first big band arranger Don Redman (Repertory Band)
and Boston’s legendary teacher/trumpeter Herb Pomeroy.

This year’s Cabaret was special, and may have been our best to date.  The kids were
very excited about it, and so were the teachers.  We had been preparing this material
intensely since October and the kids were anxious to share their efforts with the
community.  Friday’s audience was huge, and the kids rose to the occasion.  It was
some of the best playing they had done the whole year.

 This, after all the Cape bands had played so well at the state festival in South Portland
in March.  This capped a whirlwind month of Berklee Jazz Festival, district jazz and
Cabaret.  Evaluated music is a hoop through which we jump, but the real pleasure is in
performing.  Our local audience – relatives, friends and community members – is more
important to us than any three adjudicators.  Music isn’t about bowling trophies, although
we have had success in that field.  When is the last time you went to the art museum and
said, “I’ll give that Monet a 9.5.  That Picasso: no, no, no. 7.8”?  If we consider what we
do as art (it is!), then our perspective must be along those lines.  

Cabaret is the last jazz event of the year, but there is still plenty on tap for Cape music
this year. On May 12 there will be a band/choral concert at 7:30 in the auditorium.  Featured
will be the premiere of a piece for Wind Symphony and trombone, with Mark Manduca –
trombonist the with Portland Symphony Orchestra and director of bands at Old Orchard
Beach High School – as guest. Jenn Witherell-Stebbins, director of the Thornton Academy
Band (and mother of Wind Symphony clarinet player Michael Witherell), will also guest
conduct.  That concert will also feature the final conducting performance here of University
of New Hampshire student teacher Jon Ludwig and the debut of University of Southern
Maine student intern Laura Manduca. (Cousin of Mark.  The music world is a small one!)
We are fast approaching the end of another great year for Cape music.