IUP professor serves as guest instructor for Upper St. Clair band
Harry Funk/The Almanac
Jason Worzbyt displays a considerable amount of expressiveness while leading a Fort Couch Middle School Band rehearsal.
Harry Funk/The Almanac
John Seybert, performing arts curriculum leader for Upper St. Clair School District, speaks with percussionist Charlie Lawrence.
Harry Funk/The Almanac
From left are Patrick Wherry, Frances Funaro and Gabe Pacella on trumpet.
Harry Funk/The Almanac
On trombone, from left, are Noah Wagner, Ethan Jooste, Peer Khan, Brian McFerran and Jacob Geis.
Harry Funk/The Almanac
John Scherer, trumpet, and Linnea Wheeler, percussion
Harry Funk/The Almanac
Clarinetists, from left, are Natalie Cowles, Susan Liu, Kayla Livingston and Mahir Parmar.
Harry Funk/The Almanac
Jason Worzbyt works with Fort Couch Middle School musicians, including tuba player Colby Bernard.
Bringing out the best in musicians can involve getting them to use their imaginations.
Harry Funk/The Almanac
Harry Funk/The Almanac
Fort Couch Middle School student Ben Wasson is a bassoonist, as is Jason Worzbyt.
“Let’s say that you were in your backyard and accidentally tripped over a hornet’s nest,” Jason Worzbyt suggested to woodwind players in the Fort Couch Middle School Band. “The hornets came out and they’re flying after you. What would that sound like?”
The instrumentalists proceeded to execute a flawless trill, rapidly alternating between two notes.
“Sounds like some of you have experience with that,” Worzbyt cracked, to a room full of chuckles.
As associate director of bands and professor of bassoon at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Worzbyt regularly works with students at an advanced level of musicianship. He enjoys mixing it up a bit, though.
The Upper St. Clair Performing Arts Department will host the USC Jazz Festival, for musicians in seventh through 12th grades, on April 8.
Jazz ensembles from Fort Couch Middle School and the Upper St. Clair High School will work with guest performer and clinician Jim Snidero throughout the day.
Snidero, an alto saxophonist, arranger, author and educator with more than 35 years of music experience and accolades, serves as an adjunct faculty member at The New School in New York and New Jersey City University. In addition, he has been a visiting professor at Indiana and Princeton universities.
Under Snidero’s direction, jazz students will perform a concert at 7 p.m. in the high school theatre. Snidero will also perform as a guest soloist with each ensemble. The concert is free and open to the public.
For more information, contact John Seybert, performing arts curriculum leader, at jseybert@uscsd.k12.pa.us.
“I’m very passionate about middle school music education, if for no other reason, this is when a lot of the kids are making up their minds whether they want to go into high school or even continue beyond that,” he said during his March 15 visit to Fort Couch as guest instructor.
John Seybert, performing arts curriculum leader for Upper St. Clair School District, often arranges similar teaching opportunities for the benefit of students.
“We want to enhance their music education, and I think it’s great to have a collaborative effort with a variety of people,” he said. “It’s great to have someone from the college level, like Jason, who takes an active interest in what we’re doing. I think that’s so important today. It really helps the entire process of education for all of us.”
He also invited Worzbyt, whom he’d met through a mutual affiliation with Seton Hill University, to visit Fort Couch in the fall.
“I think it helps them to recognize the bigger pictures for bands,” Seybert explained. “Up to this point, the band is a smaller thing. Many of them will leave going, wow! I can do this in other places. It’s more than just a school function, and it’s something they can do the rest of their lives.”
That’s an important consideration for Worzbyt.
By Harry Funk
Staff writer
hfunk@thealmanac.net
By Harry Funk/Staff writer/hfunk@thealmanac.net
Rachel Thomas on baritone horn
“Kids, if they’re not exposed to and develop this passion for music, then the art form is going to die out,” he said, referencing some educational institutions choosing to eliminate music programs in cost-cutting measures. “We’re all in this together. We have to support one another.”
And he’s glad to support a program like Upper St. Clair’s.
“John’s work here is just tremendous. They’re organized,” he said about the students. They’re incredibly well-taught. There’s a really good spirit of collaboration between the students and the teacher.”
The rapport between Worzbyt and the Fort Couch students resonated with good spirit, as well.
“You guys know that movie ‘Back to the Future’? OK, you’ve got to put 1.21 gigawatts into that trill,” he told the woodwind players at one point, referencing the amount of electricity it takes to power the flux capacitor in Doc Brown’s DeLorean.
Harry Funk/The Almanac.
Harry Funk/The Almanac.
Tuba player Colby Bernard takes notes during Jason Worzbyt’s instruction.
At another point, a musician asked a question about playing quarter notes, to which Worzbyt replied:
“Anyone here a fan of oatmeal? Even if you don’t like it, you’ve seen a bowl of oatmeal. That’s a pretty dense food. Those sounds should be as dense as oatmeal, like the type you put your spoon in and it sticks up.”
And helping the youngsters feel at ease, Worzbyt took a few jabs at himself.
“I’m the tallest one in my family,” the somewhat-challenged-in-stature professor said. “We were blessed with a lot of things, but height was not one of them.”