SLE students sing in the season

SEELEY LAKE - Seeley Lake Elementary students spread Christmas cheer at their Winter Program on Friday, Dec. 11 inside the school's gym.

K-12 Music Teacher Janet Morgenstern led the entire program including directing the band that incorporated Seeley-Swan High School students.

Morgenstern said she was working under several limitations while leading the school's performances for the first time since joining the school in September. Under normal circumstances she would prefer to make larger choirs to create a larger overall sound by combining kindergarten, first and second grade in one group and third, fourth, fifth and sixth in another.

"The problem is because of coronavirus restrictions, I can't put classes together," she said. "That's the first restriction I had to work around. Second one is they need to be socially distant and masked. And the rule is that you have to mask when not able to distance, so that's why the kids have to sing with masks on. I don't have a choice about that. Their nose and their mouth have to be covered."

To work around this, kids were able to temporarily remove their masks when taking their bows so parents can take pictures. On the plus side Morgenstern said micing the students while they wore masks was not as bad as anticipated.

In between sets throughout the day, audience members were asked to sanitize their seats. The school originally intended to use a fogger machine that would sanitize the space, but it would have left a "vinegar" smell that would have carried over into every subsequent performance.

The biggest challenge she faced however was trying to accommodate the band with COVID regulations. Group practices had to be divided by instrument.

"You can't effectively mask an instrument," she said. "Brass instruments are pretty easy to mask, but woodwinds are not. We tried several different tactics and none of them worked. ... When we practice, we can only practice a small group at a time. So they almost never get to play together."

In addition she had to meld players of all ability levels.

"We had kids who were pretty near ready for high school level music mixed with kids who could barely play the first three notes on their instrument," she said. "So really, really wide ability levels, but they have been improving a great deal."

According to Morgenstern, many of the high school students were beginners on their instrument due to previously not having a teacher. Therefore, they were not required to play this first semester because of limited practice time. There were three previous players, however, who volunteered to play in the show.

Rehearsals began in October where high school students practiced for half an hour twice a week. The band began practicing for the show in late September. Morgenstern said if the band plays their "hard song," "Early English Christmas," well enough, then she will dye her hair purple. Following the performance, she said she looks forward to the color change.

This school year Morgenstern did not have room in the schedule to teach fifth and sixth grade band, but she does intend to teach it in the spring. She appreciates Alpine Artisans, Inc. awarding the school music program a $500 grant to go towards instrument repairs. She said without it, they would not be able to have band in the spring.

"Where we're starting this year is just the beginning," she said. "Both the students and I have ... big dreams for what we want to do in future years when we don't have so many restrictions."

Performances were live streamed and can be rewatched on Seeley Lake Elementary's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Seeley-Lake-Elementary-School-100533998006205