The Death of an Orchestra Program

I was in the audience for the final performance of the Apex Middle School Orchestra last night. The end of an era, really. My son, Steve, got his start in that orchestra. He was up on stage playing "The Last Waltz" concert where all alumna were asked to join in. I sat there listening to 6th, 7th and 8th graders playing their stringed instruments and realized how sad it was that many of them will never play again in a group. The orchestra program was elminated two weeks ago due to budget cuts in Wake County.


In a fit of pique and passion I wrote the following piece that was scheduled to run in the Raleigh News and Observer as a Point of View. At the very last minute I yanked it out of respect for Mike Bell, the orchestra's director. He simply didn't want to fight it anymore.

The Last Waltz

During hard times of economic woe and tough budgetary choices, it’s not surprising arts education in Wake County has fallen down the priority list and, in some instances, onto the cutting room floor.


The principal at Apex Middle School, Tim Locklair, recently made the jaw-dropping choice of permanently eliminating the school’s vibrant orchestra program in favor of funding other academic priorities. It is easy to gasp at his decision if you are an orchestra parent, yet reasonable people will understand core academics must come first. Budgeting is a triage exercise where program costs versus benefits are scrutinized. Arts education, however, is an easy target. As a parent whose child benefited greatly from arts programs in Wake County Public Schools, I want to give a personal voice to the impact of eliminating something as seemingly innocuous as a strings program at a middle school.


At Apex Middle School there are 50 strings students enrolled next year in three different orchestras under the direction of Mike Bell. My 19-year-old son was in that school’s orchestra from 2001-2003 when there were only 20 strings players squeakily playing songs that only a parent could love to hear. How things have changed! To reach critical-mass and become self-sustaining, programs like Apex’s require an ever-increasing influx of interested students and supportive parents. Like athletics, an arts program where individual practice, group rehearsal, deep commitment and aggressive coaching are required does not grow by accident. More than doubling in size in such a short time is testimony to Mr. Bell’s excellence as an educator that he was able to attract, nourish and grow it one student at a time with limited resources to get the program to the state where it is now.


Sadly though, with this recent decision, the burgeoning strings program with a bright future is no more. So what, you ask? It’s just orchestra kids. What will it matter? It certainly mattered to our family. By the time our son graduated from Cary High School last year he was recruited to play upright string bass at Michigan State University, Indiana University, Boston University, UNC Greensboro and East Carolina University with an eye-popping total scholarship amount of $171,000 in offer letters sitting on our dining room table. As parents, we were dumbfounded as we’d assumed scholarships that large come from athletic programs, not music programs. He just finished his freshman year at Indiana where his entire degree program will be tuition-free at the world-renowned Jacobs School of Music. The arts education Wake County Public Schools delivered changed our son’s life. Apex Middle School’s strings program gave him his start.


Unfortunately, this is not the story of just one school in Wake County. Arts education has been struggling silently for years. Salem Middle School came online in 2004 without an orchestra program. Other arts programs have also been short-changed. Many Wake County art teachers have resorted to art-on-a-cart for as long as I can remember. Arts and athletics are also the first to be held hostage when bond issues need a boost. Both are convenient trigger points to influence public opinion with threats of elimination.


The deafening silence of arts program deletion rolls through the system insidiously a year at a time. It is not hard to imagine Wake County high school orchestras next on the chopping block due to waning enrollments driven by fewer and fewer students being fed from the middle school level.


In a recent letter to parents announcing the decision regarding termination of the orchestra program, Mr. Bell wrote “Many of my former students are now in college or graduated and are still involved with music as a hobby, professional musician or music teacher. These are important people who will contribute as much to this world as any scientist, mathematician, businessman, politician or doctor … I hope that my students remember that Orchestra wasn’t just about playing music. It was also about learning to live life with the bar set high. I feel that my students got that, which brings me a lot of happiness since in the end that is what it is all about.”


Indeed.


The final concert of the Apex Middle School orchestra program, entitled “The Last Waltz,” will be held for free at Apex Middle School June 4th at 7:00 p.m. If you believe in arts education, please show your support by attending. All Apex Middle School orchestra alumni are invited to bring their instruments and play.