Opera Together

Fourth Graders Perform

La Bohème with San Francisco Opera Singers

On Nov. 3, melodies from the opera La Bohème could be heard reverberating through the Hillsborough mansion ballroom, as fourth graders took the stage alongside four San Francisco Opera singers and an accompanist for an abridged performance of Puccini’s most famous work for a packed audience of lower school students, faculty, and fourth grade parents.

This performance was a showcase of one of the central themes of the lower school music program: the voice and body as musical instruments.

“Students often don’t realize how much capacity our voices have for music making,” said lower school music teacher Gemma Arguelles. “Watching an opera helps convey the power of the voice, as students begin to understand that opera is storytelling with music.”

And for fourth graders, they weren’t just watching the opera, they took part in the performance. Fourteen students volunteered to be on-stage performers and the rest of the grade joined in as the chorus.

This lower school tradition is part of the SF Opera’s Opera Together program, in which our Nueva fourth grade students rehearse twice a week for more than a month before they are joined on performance day by professional opera performers.

Chorus is an integral part of the fourth-grade music curriculum, and one class per week is dedicated just to this specialty. The other sessions are focused on reading music and playing instruments. Music reading is scaffolded, so students begin in the first grade and each year the students’ skills become advanced. Students also play Orff instruments and by the end of fourth grade, they will have made their own musical arrangements that involve both playing music and singing at the same time.

It was clear that the performance helped to get students excited about singing.

“Kindergarteners in the front were responding to specific lyrics, and at the end of the performance I heard a second grader exclaim, ‘That was a fast way to die!’” Gemma shared.

“My hope is for students to realize how beautiful and expressive singing can be if they put their spirit and all into it,” Gemma added. “And singing in an ensemble like our chorus allows students to do this together. It’s one of the few class programs that challenge students to go at the same pace as their peers—everyone has to go at the same tempo. My hope is for them to build a love for making music together.”

— Rachel Freeman

Consider reading Design for Belonging by Susie Wise, a beautifully illustrated and written book about creating spaces that matter. Belonging doesn’t happen naturally, and we can intentionally use design for inclusion. Think about moments when you felt a sense of belonging: What feelings did you have, and what elements were in your surroundings? On the flip side, what conditions were in place when you felt othered? Examine how space, roles, events, rituals, grouping, and communication all play a role in building communities. Learn how to notice design elements that include or exclude, and practice small habits for the long community win.

ELIZABETH HOANG Lower School Assistant Division Head

I am reading at the moment

How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question by Michael Schur, the creator of the award-winning television series The Good Place. It is a very funny—and also thoughtful— guide to moral philosophy. This choice was inspired by the current eighth graders’ interest in ethics! Schur explores philosophy and philosophers over the last three millennia in order to answer the question how can we be good—or perhaps rather how can we make good choices?

It explores philosophical concepts or qualities like ubuntu, deontology, existentialism, utilitarianism, and more—so it may make you more fun at parties! I also would highly recommend the audio version, which is narrated by lots of actors from The Good Place.

JUDITH WORRALL Middle School Writing Teacher

I recommend Ireland by Frank Delaney. Delaney combines his Irish gift of gab and love of Irish history in this fictional tale about the dying breed of wandering storytellers in Ireland. While the reader may initially feel on the fringes of the group listening to one of the tales, by the novel’s end, Delaney has brought you into the inner circle, sharing Ireland’s cultured but troubled past and how it resonates with the present day. If you are one for oral tales around a campfire, with a pint, or with friends, this is a novel for you.

KEVIN DINEEN Upper School Master Scheduling and Academic Data Coordinator