By: Wendy Silverberg
Back in November 2010, the Singapore Teachers Academy of the Arts
visited the Peabody School. They had come half way around the world to
attend music conferences and for a planned visit to the Kodály Music Institute at the New England Conservator of Music
in Boston, Massachusetts. Taking advantage of the session break at the
Institute, Mary Epstein and Jonathan Rapapport, co-directors of the
Kodály Music Institute, arranged for the women from the Singapore
Teachers Academy, to visit my class at the Andrew Peabody Elementary
School in Cambridge. In my program, children attend music four days each
week in classes that use the Kodály program with the junior
kindergarten through second grade students. We are now in our tenth year
of this intensive music program.
After observing my
classes, the Singapore representatives went home and initiated
negotiations that resulted in an invitation for me to visit them at
their school and work with a classroom of ten year old students. The
plan was to work with students for three days and then tape a lesson to
demonstrate to teachers in Singapore how Kodály can be used with the
children in their own classrooms.
I
was assigned to the Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary School, home to 2,000
students. Because land in Singapore is very limited, most buildings are
more tall than spread out, and this school was seven stories high. The
classroom I worked with had 41 students, 30 girls and 11 boys.
I
had sent along materials in advance so the children would be familiar
with the material I would cover. Still, meeting new students in another
country had me anxious. I knew what I wanted to do but had no idea how
children would react to a stranger from another land, race, and culture.
It only took five minutes for everyone to fall into a comfortable
rapport. Kids are kids, no matter where you are.
I
worked with the children for a total of three hours before the video
cameras started rolling. We sang, danced, and improvised and by the end
of the three days the children, who had never had any dance experience
were tearing up the floor and singing in rounds and reading music in two
parts.
Visiting
the Country of Singapore, which is also a State and City all rolled up
in one, was amazing. Until 1965, Singapore had been part of Malaysia and
has only been a Country for the past 46 years. During my visit, I got
to experience Singapore's Independence Day holiday. There were concerts,
parades, and festivities happening all over the Country.
The skyline can rival the most modern city in the world, most of
which has been built within the past 10 years. I was able to attend a
concert of the Singapore Symphony, as well as a concert of traditional
music. I ate the most interesting foods from Kimchi for breakfast to an
Indonesian buffet with foods that I would not even dare to try to spell.
It was a once in a life time experience. I met new students, made new
friends, and now have a connection to a culture and Country that was
simply charming.