For some five seasons, it has been my great pleasure to serve as an accompanist for school-based musicals in western Massachusetts. With the support of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the musicals that I accompany are also scripted by the young, elementary school-aged students themselves under the leadership of the musical director.
The plot for this year's musical had the children travel through time to meet leaders from other historical time periods - including Pythagoras, Jane Goodall and Squanto - to gain insight on how to tackle the environmental challenges of the present time.
From my end backstage, it was extra exciting because, in addition to my accompaniment, I had the chance to collaborate with the students on the material for the musical by contributing song melodies to the lyrics that they had written. Additionally, I added theatrical sound effects to the changing scenes for which I rotated between playing on the guitar, piano, keyboard/synthesizer, and drums.
It is a privilege to work with these students as artistic collaborators, and, every year, I always marvel at how they are able to memorize their lines and all of the movements and dances so well! They learn and grow so much as they work on the musical all school year and that's a wonderful result of their dedicated work in the arts.