Crotales.
They sound delicious don’t they? At this time of year they go nicely with a little cranberry sauce, or maybe some hot chocolate.
I’ve been thinking about crotales a lot this past week as the notices for the tree lighting on the mall float by me on social media. As always, when the Downtown Brunswick Association lights the tree on the mall the Brunswick High choir and assorted guests will be there to sing Christmas Carols and other seasonal songs. They’ll sing from 4:00 to 5:00 when the tree is lit.
Among the guests will be my daughter, now a college freshman. Brunswick High’s choir director, Ashley Albert, always reaches out to alumni to invite them back for these big events. It lends a sense of community and helps the kids reconnect.
My daughter is fortunate, she has been able to continue her musical pursuits in college as member of the college’s auditioned choir.
Thing is she feels that the auditioned choirs at Brunswick High are better than her college choir. More rigorous rehearsals, more demanding, better results. Her college is no slouch either. It is old, it is on a hill overlooking its New England town, with an ancient stone chapel that dominates the landscape. Its theatre, in the moderne style, and designed by the same architects that built the empire state building, opened in 1939.
So Brunswick High’s music program is just really, really good.
In part because they have talented and dedicated teachers and continuity of programming from elementary school right up through the high school, in part because the teachers get great support from the school administration, and in part because of the excellent work of the Brunswick Music Boosters.
But also because of the crotales.
Not really a tasty snack, but a percussion instrument, the high school’s crotales were purchased with a grant from the Brunswick Community Education Foundation back in BCEF’s inaugural grant year, 2015. Maybe you’ve seen something from BCEF in the mail. They’re getting geared up for their fifth season of reviewing grant requests from Brunswick Teachers. Give the BCEF website a read, come out to the tree-lighting Saturday, and keep the Brunswick music department and BCEF in your mind over the giving season.
The band will perform their winter concert on Thursday, December 6th at 7:00, the Choruses will sing Wednesday, December 19th at 7:00, both at Crooker Theater.
—Benet Pols
