Savannah Music Festival’s Musical Explorers spurs curiosity in- and outside classrooms

Twelve-bar blues sauntered through the early morning of Thursday, Sept. 7.

Local guitar-picking legend Eric Culberson coaxed two new songs into existence at the Trinity United Methodist Church fellowship hall. One was about a shark ruining a beach day. Another song had a treadmill upending a trip to the gym. The songs were written with the help of roughly 50 songwriters that very morning. Culberson’s collaborators were Lowcountry schoolteachers. They created the songs during an exercise for the Savannah Music Festival’s (SMF) annual Musical Explorers Professional Development sessions.

According to SMF’s website, Musical Explorers connects K-2 elementary students to diverse musical communities. It was developed in partnership with Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute. The free program aims to build student’s basic music skills while they explore cultures and reflect on their own communities. Students also get to meet the professional musicians that, through the curriculum, guide students through the music lessons. The program reaches around 10,000 students each semester in coastal Georgia and South Carolina.

SMF Executive Director Gene Dobbs Bradford said, “We're not necessarily trying to produce musicians as much as good listeners who appreciate a wide variety of music because that's what the Savannah Music Festival is all about.”

Musical Explorers was a major element that attracted Braford to the executive director position more than a year ago. “It's a very comprehensive program. When I worked with symphony orchestras they would have a Youth Concert, but it would not be supported with the same level of curriculum materials as [Musical Explorers].”

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Curious about other cultures

Musical Explorers connects teachers and students to three genres of music each semester. This past spring, the program featured Vietnamese, Sicilian folk, and Haitian music styles. At the Professional Development sessions, teachers learned techniques for bringing blues, klezmer and musical theater stylings into their classrooms. The program assigns professional musicians to each genre. The musicians contribute performances and insights for the curriculum development. They also typically come together at the end of each semester to perform live for hundreds of students at Savannah’s Trustees Theater.

Shanna Lesniak, a professional teaching artist with Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute and SMF, has been with the program for nearly 15 years. “Savannah started with using only local artists,” she said. “But as the program has grown, Savannah also brings in Musical Explorers that have been with us in New York.”

Culberson is featured alongside fellow Georgia musician and klezmer specialist, Dan Horowitz (of the Athens band Five Eight) and New York based Janiah Burnett, who represents the musical theater component.

Lesniak shared that SMF is going to feature Colombian cumbia music with Gregorio Uribe in its spring semester next year. “Teachers have been asking for different genres of music and different musical traditions because they are curious like their students.”

First-grade teacher Asia Grant finds that music makes students more curious about other cultures. “[The program] is literally bringing the world of music to students.” She first encountered Musical Explorers when she attended a concert last year during her first year teaching with Savannah Chatham County Public Schools. “I just saw the joy that my kids were experiencing through this event that I had never heard of. They got me really excited.”

Jenny Woodruff, the senior director of community impact at SMF, acknowledged that most of the teachers come from SCCPSS. “The Board of Education is super supportive of this program not only in terms of like encouraging teachers, but also with its financial commitment.”

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Music as a tool for teaching

Lesniak said the program is featured in three cities: New York; Omaha, Nebraska; and Savannah. Omaha only has one semester each year; whereas, New York and Savannah have two. Lesniak said, “New York, we have 85% to almost 100% music teachers. So, their curriculum tends to be a little bit more music focused. Savannah differs in that most teachers tend to be classroom teachers seeking out innovative ways to engage students.”

While this was the first time attending the professional development sessions for Grant, teachers such as Merritt Groves have experienced the training before. She is a music teacher at Savannah Country Day. Her favorite type of music might be musical theater, but she’s also excited about klezmer. “SCD has a big Jewish population, and I think having representation for them is important.”

As a music teacher she sees the value of lessons built around music. She also offers ideas to her fellow classroom teachers on how to build off the Musical Explorers curriculum.

Thanks to Lesniak, Heike Currie (manager of Musical Explorers) and others, literacy and social studies opportunities have been built into the lesson plans. Many SCCPSS elementary school teachers might be wondering how to make the most of the new mandatory 120-minute reading blocks. They need look no further than Musical Explorers’ featured children’s books such as The Wedding that Saved a Town by Yale Stromor, B is for Broadway by John Robert Allman. Woodruff said that the lessons address, “the metacognition, the fluency aspect that is recommended in the literacy block.”

Currie, who has an extensive background in arts and music education, is committed to collaborating with teachers. “This year we're going to assess what the program actually teaches, and classroom teachers will be able to weigh in on different content areas.” That is where Erika Tate, of Bluknowledge (an external learning evaluator) comes in. Tate will conduct teacher surveys and review collaborative planning sessions as well as develop tools for SMF staff to document classroom observations.

Lesniak added a note that echoed Bradford’s sentiments. “It’s sometimes simply the fact that teachers find this work important. As Eric [Culberson] said today, it's magic to hear students singing music from traditions and cultures that maybe aren't celebrated as much as they should be.”

Joseph Schwartzburt is the education and workforce development reporter for Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at jschwartzburt@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: For savannah music festival musical explorers program, music is a teaching tool