15 minute read
Gunn Arts
Music Program Supports a Well-Rounded Student Experience
Eujin Shin ’21 started playing violin when she was in second grade, but by the time she started middle school in her hometown in Michigan, she realized she would have to give up music if she wanted to concentrate on sports. One of her coaches told her she would have to make a choice, or would not make the cross country team.
All that changed when she arrived at The Frederick Gunn School, where Shin happily resumed playing violin and joined the String Ensemble, and helped to lead the Varsity Cross Country Team to a New England Championship win in 2019. In her senior year, she enrolled in the Advanced Level String Ensemble, was elected prefect, played JV Girls Basketball and Girls Varsity Lacrosse, and excelled academically.
“Ever since I was little, I wanted to have a wide range of hobbies,” Shin said, and being involved in the Music Program at The Frederick Gunn School influenced her habits in other areas, including sports and academics. “By taking music, I learned to be more consistent, because I knew that practicing for 30 minutes once a week is not going to get me anywhere. It’s not that you practice one day and then you’re done with it. You have to go back every day and be consistent.”
The schedule at The Frederick Gunn School also allows students to try new things, and develop new skills. “When I joined as a new junior last year, kids were playing hockey, singing, starring in the
– Ron Castonguay, Director of the Arts and Music Director
play. We’re all really lucky to have that opportunity to do different things, and do things that make us happy,” she said. “It really helps students, too. We’re all different people and we’re not supposed to grow up as one specific kind of person. We can be well-rounded, and I grew as a student through that.”
Similarly, Jonathan Nichele ’21 was able to balance playing drums in both the Jazz Band and Advanced Rock Band this year with being a prefect, playing Boys Varsity Lacrosse and excelling as a Dean’s List student. “My parents have always been big proponents of being a well-rounded student,” said Nichele, who grew up playing music and followed in the footsteps of his other brother, Sean, who also played drums and lacrosse.
Nichele, who has a commitment to play lacrosse in the fall at The University of Connecticut, where he plans to major in business and marketing. credited The Frederick Gunn School with helping him to improve as a musician and step outside of his comfort zone. Ron Castonguay, Director of the Arts and Music Director, recommended that he join Jazz Band, which he did. “It’s important to be well-rounded, but it’s important for the school you go to to support that,” Nichele said.
Castonguay said it’s not unusual for Frederick Gunn School music students to excel academically, play a sport, and take on a student leadership role. “In addition to helping students develop individual musicianship and mastery of their instrument, students in our program learn how to work together as part of a group, practice accountability and consistency, and nurture what I hope will be a lifelong love of music and performance,” Castonguay said. “Many of our music students are among our top scholars, and excel equally on stage, in the classroom, on the playing field, and as student leaders. I truly believe the skills and habits they learn as musicians are applicable to all facets of their lives.”
The door is really open
Ella McKhann ’21, who has been playing clarinet since fourth grade, said Castonguay encouraged her to try out for Advanced Jazz Band, and play a second instrument — the saxophone — which she taught herself to play before coming to The Frederick Gunn School.
“At my old school, I was only a clarinetist,” McKhann said. “But I had a conversation with Mr. C before the school year started and he said, ‘Whatever you want to do, we can make that happen.’” She even recorded a clarinet quintet of “Hallelujah,” arranged by Leonard Cohen, playing all five parts herself this year. “It was so much hard work but it’s such a pretty song, it made me really happy,” she said.
McKhann, who was also a prefect, captain of the Ski Team, and played lacrosse, said the door to the practice room or band room was always open to her if she wanted to practice during a free block or after a late ski practice. “When you have that much on your plate, it can be hard to fit in time for music. It’s very self-driven,” she said. “If you want to get better, you have to put in the time to get better. So having that space where the door is really open, that was helpful for me.” Asked why she chose to make music part of her student experience, she said: “I think that it’s really cool to learn an instrument and that people should learn at least the basics of an instrument. Being able to read music is like learning another language. Everyone should learn how to do it at some point in their life.”
Opposite page: Ron Castonguay, Director of the Arts and Music Director, teaching a String Ensemble class in the Thomas S. Perakos Arts and Community Center; At left: Aria Trotta ‘23 (foreground) plays violin at the conservatory level.
Putting the school on the map
Over the past two years, Castonguay has bolstered the school’s music program, which now includes String Ensemble, Vocal Ensemble, and Jazz and Wind Ensemble as well as a flurry of new curricular and cocurricular offerings. During Winterim (see story page 13) Castonguay co-taught with math teacher Kelsey Brush a popular “Open Mic Night” class, which culminated in the inaugural Gunn Grammy Awards. Aside from the fun vibe, students learned or improved their vocal skills in sight reading, tone quality, rhythm, and intonation, and each of them recorded an “album” of 12 songs over three weeks.
The Winter Term brought four new co-curriculars in the visual and performing arts. Among them was an eight-part music program that focused on a different wind instrument each week. Castonguay’s decision to introduce students to the French horn, clarinet, flute, saxophone, trombone, trumpet, oboe and tuba was intentional. He hopes to be able to offer private music instruction in brass and wind instruments and percussion starting this fall. It’s all part of his vision to elevate The Frederick Gunn School Music Program “to a standard of excellence that puts our school on the map nationally.”
Castonguay’s goal is for students to perform in national music festivals, and at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, which are just 90 minutes from campus. He and his students are already making progress toward that goal. In 2021, tenor Drew Sutherland ’21 and alto Yolanda Wang ’21 were invited to perform in the National Association for Music Education’s (NafME) All-National Honors Choir, which represents the top vocalists in the country.
The experience was a high point for Wang, who had the opportunity to meet her favorite composer, Eric Whitacre, through her participation in the All-National Choir and conference, which was conducted online due to the pandemic. “The fact that he was just talking to 250 of us online in one room was just mind blowing to think about. You felt like he was just talking to you,” said Wang, who noted that Whitacre’s message was that it is never too late to start composing or learning about music theory. “He first started when he was 20. That was very inspiring. His music, when I’m listening to it with headphones or good speakers, it’s just an experience of music chills, as Mr. C says.”
Wang, who plans to double major in math and music this fall at Cornell University, or minor in music and learn more about music theory, credited Castonguay with encouraging her to audition for nationals, even though she only started singing two or three years ago. “He helped me choose the repertoire and build up my confidence. We also worked together on my diction and emotional delivery and the most important thing is the video quality,” she said, explaining that due to COVID protocols, all auditions were recorded and submitted digitally.
Wang was also one of five students in The Frederick Gunn School Music Program who were selected to the 2021 Northern Regional Music Festival. The others were cellist Sean Christiansen ’21, Sutherland, soprano Maggie Xiang ’21, and Dayne Bolding ’23, who was selected for cello and bass voice. Xiang, Wang, Sutherland
At right, Dayne Bolding ‘23 was selected to the Northern Regional Music Festival for cello and bass voice this year and performed at the All-State Music Festival. Opposite page: Eujin Shin ‘21, who played in the Advanced Level String Ensemble this year and was a prefect.
– Ella McKhann ’21
and Bolding were chosen to perform in the All-State Mixed Choir at the 2021 Connecticut All-State Music Festival.
Through their experiences, the students in the music program share a tight bond. “It’s like a smaller community inside a bigger community,” Wang said. “I have a connection with everyone in The Frederick Gunn School because we are all classmates, but in the music group, we have this extra, little community. We struggle to learn music together, we sing together, and we laugh together. We can empathize with each other.”
An energy that cannot be matched
Sutherland, who has been singing in church choirs since the age of 4, similarly spoke of the connections students in the music program share, especially when performing together. “I’ve always been a choral singer, so always in a group of people, and that’s my favorite part. Everybody in a room singing the same thing together with an energy that cannot be matched by anything in the world. I love it, being with people and just experiencing music together. I know it sounds kind of corny, but it’s completely true.”
When he arrived at The Frederick Gunn School as a sophomore, he said, “I did all the musical things I could. I joined the Troubadours [now Vocal Ensemble], joined the musical, took private lessons for a bit and continued studying on my own,” he said.
In his time at the school, Sutherland has also served as a Residential Advisor in the dorm, as a club leader for Free Thought Society, performed with the Highlander Ringers handbell choir and in the Winter Musical, joined Model UN, played Ultimate Frisbee, and served as co-editor of the student newspaper this year. He views music as a way to manage the stress that naturally comes with juggling such a busy schedule. “I personally view the arts as a stress reliever, rather than adding something on.”
Photo: Jim Cooper, SharpByCoop Photography This random pattern damascus knife crafted by Simon Rhodes ’22 was featured in “Blade” magazine in April.
Bladesmith Simon Rhodes ’22
In April, a 4.5-inch steel “damascus” knife crafted by Simon Rhodes ’22 was featured in “Blade” magazine, a long-running consumer magazine about knife collecting. It was quite an accomplishment for the junior, who outside of school teaches an introductory blacksmithing course to 12- to 16-year-olds in the summer, and has even taught knife-making classes for adults.
Rhodes has been making knives since the age of 11, when he took his first blacksmithing class at The Good Forge at Brookfield Craft Center, which was founded in 1952 and is recognized as one of the finest schools for creative study in America. Soon after, he began participating in “open studio” nights every Friday at the center, where he met bladesmith Matthew Parkinson. He began an apprenticeship and has continued to work at Parkinson’s forge in Wolcott, Connecticut, as well as his own forge at home. Although he has kept all of the first knives he made, he has sold all of the ones he has crafted in the past two to three years, including the hunting knife featured in “Blade,” which a reader purchased.
“A big part of it is the challenge. There are a lot of aspects to the forging and finishing of knives. It’s very physical,” said Rhodes, who is an avid hiker and rock climber (indoor and outdoor) and has participated in late fall and mid-winter hiking trips in the White Mountains with the Outdoor Stewardship co-curricular program on campus. “The steel you are forging and the forge are between 1,800 and 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. In the summer, when we have two forges running in there, it gets very hot. You definitely
have to wear safety glasses. I wear hearing protection,” but due to the nature of the work, no gloves, he said, explaining that he holds the hot metal with tongs in one hand, and a hammer in the other. “It’s two or three times heavier than a claw hammer,” he said. It took about a week to completely finish the damascus knife, which had a handle made of walnut with brass fittings and a blade made of 1084 carbon and 15N20 nickel-alloy steels. Rhodes made the handle using a band saw and shaped it using an electric grinder, finishing it by hand. “That’s very little of the time of the handle-making. Most of the time is refinishing it with hand files and sandpaper,” he said. The steel you are While he does not plan to make forging and the forge bladesmithing a career, he is intent on are between 1,800 and 2,000 degrees continuing to refine his craft. “There are a lot of knifemakers who do sell knives and continue to make knives part time,” said Fahrenheit.” Rhodes, who is thinking about studying – Simon Rhodes ‘22 engineering or design in college. “I’m pretty open right now.”
Art as Sanctuary
Arriving on campus as a sophomore, Ally Gerry ’21 gravitated towards the art studio on campus, even though art classes were not part of her academic day.
“Ally wasn’t in a class when she first came into the studio,” recalled Visual Arts Chair Andrew Richards P’20 ’23, who nonetheless gave Gerry space to work independently during her free time. “I certainly saw that she had a lot of skill and loved to be in the studio working.”
She spent nearly a year working on a single painting. “It started out as a bouquet of flowers. Then figures came into it, and it just kept going and going,” Gerry recalled. “I’m stubborn. I have to try things out and I have to fail in order to get it.”
She said she learned a lot from Richards, and when she finally enrolled in an art class — as a junior— the only one that fit her schedule was AP Studio Art. For most students, AP Studio Art is the last art class, not the first they take at The Frederick Gunn School. A full-year course, it requires a scope of work equivalent to that of an introductory college course in studio art. Students take this course to prepare their portfolios for submission to art schools and to the College Board AP Studio Art Exam.
Last summer, Gerry took classes in life drawing and photography at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) and she enrolled in AP Studio Art again this year. This fall, she continued working on a portfolio, which helped her secure acceptance to Northeastern University this fall.
As the art room served as a sanctuary, angelic figures found their way into a series of her paintings. She draws inspiration from the Renaissance, incorporating angels, sculptures, and sometimes even skeletons into her paintings. “I love historical pieces. I love historical fiction. History is my favorite non-art class. We had learned about Renaissance art but I love the colors and contrast, the lights and darks, the beautiful shading,” she said.
Through trial and error, and a bit of frustration, she has seen her work turn in new and unexpected directions, not unlike her journey as an artist, which has been one of self-determination and discovery. For example, when she painted a version of “Mona Lisa,” she was unhappy with the mouth, and put a piece of duct tape over it. The tape became intriguing, as if begging the question: If the Mona Lisa is known for her smile and you take it away, what is she? The painting now hangs in her parent’s home in Florida, and has inspired a series of interfamily art thefts, disappearing each time her grandfather visits, she said.
Although she has not set her sights on a career as an artist, and said she would be happy if she ended up with a collection of paintings in her attic to show her grandchildren someday, Gerry is clearly not done creating yet. “I’m obviously going to see how far this takes me,” she said.
Ally Gerry ’21 Gerry’s painting, modeled after a Renaissance sculpture of the Virgin Mary, was featured in “Art in the Virtual Park,” a digital exhibit sponsored by the Judy Black Memorial Park and Gardens in June 2020.
“Ouch,” acrylic on canvas, was featured in the Washington Art Association’s inaugural High School Expo in April.
