District 6 Arts

I would like to initiate this Blog by featuring one of our star teachers, Ms. Margaret Asato, from Local District 6, Los Angeles Unified School District. I can only describe her Gage Middle School, Music Department, 7^th & 8th Grades, A/B Tracks, Spring Concert last night as a spectacular achievement. If I may speak for our District 6 Superintendent, Mr. Martin Galindo, it was truly an event “About our kids, all our kids.” By “All” I mean her Intermediate/Beginning String Orchestra (38 students), Advanced String Orchestra (41 students), Intermediate String Orchestra (14 students), Senior Band (42 students) and Beginning Winds (34 students) for a grand total of 169 students. Can you imagine 169 urban East Los Angeles (actually in the city of Huntington Park) middle school students all in one confined space for over one hour behaving almost perfectly?

If I may continue with numbers, her program included fifty selections, yes fifty. She showed no fear in showcasing her students in the formative stages of their developing musicianship. The key word in Local District 6 is “formative,” when we talk about assessments. First-year students performed items from the Yamaha Method Book I for winds, or Essential Elements Book I for strings. The Senior String Orchestra tackled the intricacies of the Capriccio Espagnol by Rimsky-Korsakoff, arranged by S. Dackow, an incredible technical achievement for a high school ensemble, let alone a middle school group.

I’m sure that the appreciative audience of parents that filled the Multi-Purpose Hall will long remember the outstanding and captivating performance by Pedro Lumbrano on violin. Ms Asato harbors a love-hate feeling about his energetic style of violin play. On the one hand, it electrifies his audience, on the other, his willful style has worn out the hairs of about seven bows this school year. Pedro is just one of the eleven string students from Gage Middle School who were accepted into the LAUSD Middle School Honors Orchestra this year and performed in the Kodak Theatre, Hollywood, California in May.

A final word about class management, at the end of the concert with parents and their children set to sprint out the door, it took just one firm order from Ms Asato, “All the chairs, stands, and instruments back to the music room,” and, followed by obligatory teen whining, all the chairs and instruments were dutifully removed by both parents and students. Just amazing, my hats off to you Margaret.