It sounded like an enormous symphony tuning up – sort of. This symphony was made of children, all handling their instruments for the very first time.
There were deep bleats from a tuba.
Random keys of a piano.
Voices carried up and down scales.
A trombone.
A guitar.
Every percussion instrument imaginable rattled, shook and thumped.
It was Instrument Discovery Day – presented by Fort Lewis College, Katzin Music & Studios and Music in the Mountains Goes to School – where about 100 children from kindergarten through around sixth grade got a chance to play instruments of every shape and size.
Recital rooms in Jones Hall at FLC were filled as parents stood by adoringly, and teachers introduced children to making music.
Cassie Robel, education manager of Music in the Mountains, a nonprofit group that promotes music and music education, said it gives children a chance to learn about themselves through instruments they connect with.
“They’re able to get their hands on them and try themselves,” Robel said.
She said music provides something vital that many children may need.
“Music fosters this thing for our kids that they can hold onto,” she said. “It’s something they can use to grow for the rest of their lives.”
Robel said studies have shown children who learn to play instruments perform better academically, have higher graduation rates and improved self-discipline. She also said it helps students with special needs.
Throughout the hallways, the sounds echoed. Children rotated in and out of rooms. Signs reading “clarinet,” “flute” or “French horn” – more than 12 different instruments in all – hung by doors.
Ruth Katzin, owner of Katzin Music & Studios, said she has been orchestrating events like this for years but, by teaming up with FLC and Music in the Mountains, found a way to make it grow.
“I wanted it to be fantastic, and it has been,” she said. “Music education is my mantra. I don’t care whether you’re little or older. Music is good for the soul. You may be playing it out, but you’re feeling it internally.”
Tara Safran was watching two of her daughters Emily, 11, and Savanna, 9, experiment with the cello. She said it provided a different kind of outlet than team sports.
“This is more of an inner sport,” she said. “It grounds them.”
Robel said the event supplements Durango School District 9-R.
“We’re facilitating external programs for 9-R,” she said. “Things the district may not be able to afford, we raise the funds.”
Katharine Reed teaches band, jazz and orchestra at Durango High School. She said, simply, music changes lives.
“For me, it saved me,” she said. “It helped guide me through life. It’s a fabulous thing for students to have, to keep them centered.”
Outside recital rooms, parents peeked in quietly. Now and then, magic would happen – the hint of a tune, a perfect note or sometimes just a sound – but a chord struck between child, parent, student and teacher.
“I like to see how the parents respond,” Katzin said. “The child is exuberant, totally focused, and when something happens, they’re just so happy. Then, you watch the parents, and it’s absolutely gorgeous.”
bmathis@durangoherald.com