The flutes were in the front row for the morning practice, ready to make music and school history, too.
The clarinets were next, followed by the saxophones, then the trombones and trumpets, sharing the fourth row, at the back of the classroom. The drums were tucked in the far corner.
The music teacher at Armand R. Dupont School, Mike Kenyon, stood in front, moving his baton up and down, side to side, trying to steady the unsure fingers of children, green as shamrocks, on the valves and keys.
A few honks and squeaks emerged, sure, but Kenyon has three months to prepare the first school band anyone can recall in the 65-year history of Armand Dupont.
So for our purposes, it’s the first-ever band, and that has the school tooting its own horn lately. The sound of wind instruments searching for peaceful coexistence filled the room before Kenyon said, “Do your best. I have confidence in you.”
He’s in his second year at Armand Dupont, fresh-faced and ready to make history. Or at least be a part of it.
And he’s serious about his role, laughing and joking and expressive early in the session, then, later, telling his students, “This is not the time to chat.”
It was the time to push forward with something new, start a new chapter. The backstory had come the day before in that same classroom. Kenyon’s classroom.
Seated were Kenyon, Dupont Principal Shannon Kruger, Superintendent Peter Warburton and Rick Katzenberg, who’s not local but whose impact on this new program was sweet music to the Allenstown school district.
Ginelle Czerula, the principal at Allenstown Elementary School, sat in. She had been part of the hiring process of Kenyon, and she was with us to learn and familiarize herself with a program she hopes to one day bring to the younger grades, K-4, at her school.
The band for grades 5-8 began with an alliance between Katzenberg, a community and educational leader from Amherst, and Warburton, the superintendent of three regional schools in the district, including Armand Dupont.
Katzenberg is 78, with a full head of white hair and a sense of humor, asking Kenyon, who had said he plays 32 instruments, if he could play all of them at the same time.
He and Warburton, both dedicated to education, worked together in the Amherst school district. A few years back, Warburton nominated his friend for a prestigious award honoring Katzenberg’s work with children in that region.
Katzenberg remembered. He thanked him over lunch.
“He mentioned that his school only had a minimal amount of funds in the school music budget,” Katzenberg said. “I pondered that maybe there were folks that had musical instruments, maybe with kids who left for college, or they had tried it and it didn’t take, like a bad vaccination.”
Katzenberg spread the word on Facebook. The response was music to his ears. “Very nice people,” he said, “who donate musical instruments on an as-needed basis.”
That saved money on rentals. Meanwhile, Warburton and Kruger worked behind the scene to secure a Title IV grant. A band was born. Or at least the materials to build one.
The first practice happened on Feb. 10. At the time, musical instruments were in short supply, but that all changed in a surreal scene on Feb. 17 in the Armand Dupont parking lot.
Warburton was there to help Katzenberg unload his donated haul of 32 wind instruments, causing the superintendent to wonder how Katzenberg managed to fit all those bulky black carrying cases into his compact car.
“The board and the budget committee here have really been supportive of us looking at a band,” Warburton said. “The kids are very excited.”
“It really is the community,” added Katzenberg. “I put the word out and I got messages back, and I didn’t have to pick up very many; they mostly delivered.”
The grant and donations sparked more hours for Kenyon, who said his band will be ready for its and the school’s first-ever concert, on May 27.
“An epic performance,” Kenyon said. “There’s going to be dance and glee and chorus and band.”
The band at Pembroke Academy performs at Armand Dupont at the end of each school year. That, Kruger said, has added to the overall momentum of something that’s now speeding forward, unstoppable and official.
“That performance gets our kids pretty excited about what possibilities they have outside of middle school,” Kruger said. “That kind of propelled us.”
Kenyon now gives lessons, broken into groups by instrument. Just like the four rows were arranged at practice this week. That’s where Kenyon will spend the next three months, working to bring separate sounds together into one piece of art.
Before rehearsal, Katzenberg opened homemade cards, written by band members, thanking him for all that brass and wood he had collected.
The students moved through their scales. Kenyon talked about staccato and harmony, about whole notes and half notes. Some kids had played a little, some not at all.
Chloe Elwell stood in the back corner with Oliver Mahoney, two 11-year-old drummers trying to establish a crisp foundation of rhythm.
“We’re the only ones who have done this,” said Chloe, obviously plugged into the historical aspect of the moment.
“I was thinking of doing the trombone,” Oliver said. “My second option was drums, and I just decided I want to do drums. It’s going to be a lot more fun, because I don’t have to blow.”
“No,” Chloe interjected, “it’s bang, bang, bang. That’s what we do.”
In a band.
A real school band.