East Islip Overcomes Challenges To Present Outdoor Concert Series

East Islip NY

04 June, 2021

9:35 PM

Description

Press release from East Islip School District: June 4, 2021 By spring 2021, the East Islip School District's music students and teachers hadcompleted half of a school year without an authentic performance experience and werelooking for hope. Guided by Robert Wottawa II, the district's director of art, ENL, music andworld languages, the administrators and music teachers discussed the idea of a safe,outdoor spring concert series, and made the necessary plans and adjustments in regard torepertoire and instruction. To compensate for the loss of sound at these outdoor events,SDE Productions assisted with the sound system to ensure attendees could hear every note.The concert series began on May 11 at John F. Kennedy Elementary School, withband and orchestra students performing in small groups on the blacktop while thecommunity listened on the field nearby. On May 13, the musicians of Ruth C. Kinney Elementary School took the "stage" ontheir own campus, divided into groups by instrumental section, allowing the attendingfamilies to hear the individual nuances of each instrument. At East Islip High School, challenges arose due to a busy schedule of athletics teams,construction and outside practices, but a May 12 concert by the school's band, orchestraand chorus students was successfully presented at the old football field behind thefieldhouse. This was followed by a final May 17 event at which the high school's honors-level ensembles had the chance to share their last performance with the community."Our families had tears in their eyes and expressed how happy they were to seetheir children perform," Wottawa said. "I could not be prouder of the dedication of ourteachers, custodians, buildings and grounds crew, security officers, and administrators –and the patience of our parents and students – as we navigated uncharted waters with anoutdoor concert series. We can count our blessings that our music program overcame eachchallenge with grace and perseverance." This press release was produced by the East Islip School District. The views expressed here are the author's own.