Judy writes:

Everyone who is connected to Charles Wright is aware of the tangible and intangible effects this school has on our lives. We each have a story or defining moment that has changed our life’s direction. Sometimes its effect is immediate, and other times it is the result of layers of experiences. Behind these moments are always elements of inspiration.

A moment I will always remember was in last year’s first grade class performance of the song “Walking in the Snow.” After the piano interlude, I looked up to see a little girl blinking. She said with wonder, “I have water in my eyes.” She was baffled as to why she had tears in her eyes but she was very aware of being deeply touched by the power of music. It is inspiring to be part of an artistic experience for such a young child.

While teaching my classes of young students I am very aware of the exciting learning opportunities they will have as they move through the Lower, Middle and Upper Schools. I see amazing potential, talent and energy, and I know these children will be inspired by the experiences they have and will have at Charles Wright.

Judy joined the Lower School faculty in 1975, teaching pre-kindergarten through 6th grade general music classes, conducting choirs and advising school musicals. In 1991, Judy founded the Tacoma Youth Chorus, a select, auditioned youth choir program. Well known through the Puget Sound area, TYC now serves over 240 musically gifted boys and girls, ages seven through eighteen.

Last May, Judy was invited to visit Japan where she instructed ten choirs and served as guest conducted for concert where all ten choirs sang together. Next summer, she will lead the TYC Chorale on a performance tour of Eastern Europe. Judy holds a bachelor of arts degree in music from the University of Oregon and a masters of arts in teaching music from Lewis and Clark University. She has furthered her conducting studies through master classes with Rodney Eichenberger and Henry Leck.

Judy is highly regarded as a guest conductor and as a workshop and choral clinician. She is a past-president of the Washington-American Choral Directors Association. She has conducted all-state honor choirs and festivals in Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Montana, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, Alaska and Tokyo. Judy was recently selected as the guest conductor for the 2008 Western American Choral Directors Association Junior High Honor Choir, a prestigious national recognition. Through Pavane Publishing and Colla Voce Publishing, she has published choral compositions and arrangements, and she has co-authored choral teaching texts. She also edits a choral series for Pavane Publishing.

Upper School Winter Concert
Thursday, December 6, 7:30pm
Middle School Commons

Middle School Winter Concert
Thursday, December 13, 7:30pm
Middle School Commons

Lower School Holiday Concert
Sunday, December 16, 2:00pm
Wight Gym

If all goes according to plan, this will be the second-to-last holiday concert series before the performing arts department moves into the new Language and Performing Arts Center. If you aren’t sure yet why these programs need a real performance space with good acoustics, you really need to come to one of these concerts. Bring a friend!

“As a composer/arranger, getting in front of live musicians is exteremly valuable in learning what really works aurally,” explained Mell. “Sometimes you have a great idea that works out perfectly on paper. But then in practice it does not turn out the way you thought. Working with live musicians teaches the students lessons that cannot be learned in any other way. That the musicians are their peers in the Charles Wright orchestra is even better.”

This is the first year composition has been offered at Charles Wright as part of the performing arts curriculum and it is also Mell’s first year teaching at Charles Wright. She holds a master’s degree in composition from Butler University and has been composing her own music since she was five years old. In addition to teaching composition, Mell directs the Middle and Upper School choral program.

“This lesson is a preparation for a larger project where students will be writing their own original pieces for the Charles Wright orchestra,” she explained. In addition to understanding the appropriate ranges, clefs and techniques appropriate for each stringed instrument, the students are learning about orchestration, developing an understanding of what is idiomatic for particular instruments. This understanding will enable them to make better use of each instrument’s strengths in the pieces they compose.

Mell’s students brought copies of each section’s part to the rehearsal. They pracised each part in sectionals, then rehearsed just the melody as it criss-crossed between sections, finally putting the entire piece together. As part of the composition class, they are learning to conduct, so successfully establishing a tempo, holding a conducting pattern, watching the score and listening for melodic and rhythmic accuracy were also goals of the exercise.

As one of the students joked, “I don’t want to tell you that how you play determines my grade, but how you play determines my grade.”

“I think it was very valuable for the orchestra students to see that orchestrating a tune as simple as Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star sounds like an easy task, but once they started playing the arrangements they realized that there is a lot more to writing music than they thought,” said Heidi Huckins, band and orchestra director.