Students get a Handel on the classics

LYNN – Ford Elementary School students had one foot in the present and one in the past when George Frideric Handel stopped by with members of the Handel and Haydn Society Monday.”This is the first time many of these kids have seen anything like this,” said Ford School Principal Claire Crane. “They don’t get exposed to a lot of music like this.”The Handel and Haydn Society is dedicated to performing baroque and classical music to as wide and diverse an audience as possible. The nearly hour-long program “What’s an Oratoria?” will be presented to all Lynn public elementary and middle schools, according to Linda Drugan from the fine arts department. “They have already been to the high schools,” she said. “They did a vocal masters class with the high school seniors who were auditioning for all-state.”Pianist Julia Carey, along with soprano Sonja Tengblad, alto Carrie Cheron, tenor Christian Figueroa and bass Rashawn Campbell made the event an interactive one, even getting to help sing a modern day oratorio.Tengblad explained that an oratorio is when musicians sing on stage without costumes or elaborate scenery, instead they tell a story with only the music and the motion behind it.The quartet performed together to start, but Figueroa excused himself almost immediately begging off due to a toothache. Ironically, Handel himself was transported on stage several minutes later.”I don’t know how I got here,” he said. “I was sipping a cup of tea in 1755 and there was a bright flash of light.”Handel helped the others explain exactly what an oratorio is, how they are sung and introduced the kids to a number of classical composers such as Bach, Mendelssohn and Orff, as well as modern oratorio composers like Paul McCartney and humorists PDQ Bach.The musicians each sang various pieces while the students guessed which emotion, or, in one case, what kind of animal the composer was portraying with their music.Fifth-graders Victoria Guerrero and Caitlyn Phay each said they had never heard music like the classically trained singers performed. Both also said they loved it.Guerrero and Phay were chosen to participate in the program when they read a poem that had been written as an oratorio for John F. Kennedy.”I liked the piano player,” said Guerrero, referring to Julia Carey who accompanied the singers. “They all sang really well and they do know a lot.”Guerrero said she likes to sing but usually listens to rock ?n’ roll or hip-hop.Phay said she likes rap but was impressed with Handel and Haydn.”It was really different,” she said.Fine Arts Director Joseph Picano credited Drugan for “working feverishly” to bring the society to each of the schools.”Usually we do two or three,” he said. “But this year Linda said she thought she could get them into a few more schools. She got them into every school.”Which means that over the next few months, students in each of the Lynn Public Schools will get a chance to meet George Frideric Handel, hear parts of his world famous “Hallelujah Chorus” and help sing a piece from the Liverpool Oratorio, McCartney’s first foray into classical music.”I couldn’t have pulled this off without her working on it,” Picano said. “I mean that.”