We traveled last night from the North Hills to far off Mt. Lebanon (had to cross two rivers, two bridges and go through a tunnel - huge undertaking for the average Pittsburgher) to attend the Percussion Concert given by the Mt. Lebanon High School Percussion Ensemble. I first became aware of this organization a few years back when Ashley Hansen, daughter of my friend and co-worker Roger Hansen, entered Mt. Lebanon High School and became a member of the Percussion Ensemble. Over the years, I had seen videos of Ashley and the Mt. Lebo Drumline performing at football games, and last night we saw the whole troop perform their signature school concert.
Having attended musicals and orchestra performances at North Allegheny over the years, I can tell you that there are few things that give me a better feeling about kids and life in general than watching such talented young kids perform in a musical setting. The MLHS Percussion group certainly upheld that tradition last night by giving an absolutely fantastic performance. The energy, the talent, the tremendous sound that was produced by these kids last night was both highly entertaining and inspiring for the two and one-half hours that they were on stage.
The highlights for me personally were the opening performance by the Famed Blue Devil Drumline and the "African Ensemble" that featured not only the music, but some really neat choreography by the musicians themselves. Naturally, Ashley performed in both of these segments, so perhaps my opinion is not entirely objective. The "Drum Set Ensemble" featuring five young men banging away on five separate drum kits was also really good.
And perhaps even more impressive that the performance itself was seeing the kids in the lobby after the show, congratulating them, and being greeted with such polite and enthusiastic responses. A real credit to the School District, the kids themselves, and their families.
It is a wonderful thing to see a school district give such strong support to "The Arts" as Mt. Lebanon obviously does, as does our own school district, North Allegheny. Yet the District's Percussion Director (who looks remarkably like the actor Harry "Col. Potter" Morgan) mentioned that only 25% of the Mt. Lebanon arts funding comes from the District. The rest comes from fundraising efforts by the kids themselves, their families, and concerned members of the community. That's kind of a sad statistic (just curious, but I wonder what the corresponding percentage is for the football team), and I wonder if that is the same for other school districts, such as our own North Allegheny.
It reminded me of the scene in the movie "Mr. Holland's Opus" when Richard Dreyfuss is being told he is being let go because the District is eliminating the music program. When told by the administration that it was a choice between the arts and "reading and writing", Mr. Holland (Dreyfuss) replies "Keep cutting the Arts from the curriculum, and pretty soon the kids won't have anything to read and write about."
So, I will take this moment to urge you to support the kids in your own school districts, wherever you might be, who work so hard and with the dedication of the Mt. Lebanon kids we watched last night.
And I will close with one final CONGRATULATIONS to all of the Mt. Lebo percussionists, especially to Ashley Hansen!
