During a rehearsal break, Edith Liben, Liza Bonomi, Aoife Schmitt enjoy their reunion. The friends had a contest to see who could hold a note the longest. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib
The season’s first rehearsal of the Downtown Alumni Band at P.S. 234 last month had a decidedly shaky start. But halfway through the evening, an air by 17th-century composer Henry Purcell finally became recognizable. And Matt Ragsdale, the school’s brass teacher and conductor, stopped to take note.
“This,” he said with obvious pleasure to his band of 13 middle school musicians, all P.S. 234 graduates, “is where the magic happens.”
Now in its fourth year, the Downtown Alumni Band was the brainchild of Ragsdale and Paul Vercesi, who have run the school’s PTA-funded music program since 2002. The band members had learned to play their instruments through the program.
“Many of our graduates wind up going to middle schools with limited or no music programs and they lose the opportunity to keep playing the instruments they played for two years here,” said Vercesi, who teaches woodwinds.
The teachers charge a small fee and students must bring their own instruments—hence a motley collection of the borrowed, inherited and brand-new, such as a cherished pocket trumpet and a bright blue trombone.
After some chitchat, the musicians took their places, and without preamble, Ragsdale launched them into the first measure of the Purcell air that he had arranged for them.
“Good sight-reading, everyone,” he told the group after the band’s enthusiastic if somewhat raucous start.
There followed some reminders of how to play G sharp on the trumpet and how far to push the trombone slide for an A sharp.
Vercesi darted back and forth, now picking up a clarinet, now a saxophone, now counting over students’ shoulders and pointing out the correct measure. There were false notes, missed beats and a much giggling. But soon the musicians got into their groove and were playing more or less together and in tune.
“Now we have something that approaches music,” Ragsdale said.
Many of the kids conceded that they had not practiced in a while.
“I was a bit rusty, because I haven’t played since before the summer, really,” said Liza Bonomi, a trumpeter, before executing a remarkably smooth number from “My Fair Lady.”
She then competed with two clarinetists to see who could hold a note the longest.
“When I left here I was sad to stop playing in a band,” said Aoife Schmitt, a clarinetist, and a 6th grader at Clinton School, which does not have a music program. “I don’t like playing alone.”
Some of the musicians, such as Louis Guilleman, a three-year band veteran and the sole flautist, must fit rehearsals into their busy schedules.
“On Mondays I have soccer practice,” explained Guilleman, an 8th grader at I.S. 289, “so then I have to rush back home, take a shower and then rush over here for the band.”
As the musicians packed up their instruments, Ragsdale gently offered one last piece of advice. “Practice a bit,” he told them. “I can show you how to play, but I can’t practice for you!”