Deana W. Saunders
Choral Director
Madison Middle School
4630 Madison Ave.
Trumbull, CT 06611
203.452.4499
Choral Director, Soloist, Private Vocal Instructor
Ms. Saunders has a love of singing that has only grown since childhood.
Deeply involved in choruses and private voice, as well as musical theatre,
she continued her studies into college where she studied Classical Voice and
Music Education at Western CT State University and then Choral Conducting at
the University of Hartford, Hartt School of Music.
Embracing all that a career in music has to offer, Ms. Saunders has directed
musical theatre productions, directed children’s choirs in public school
settings as well as at churches. She has served as a church cantor on a
consistent basis for over 14 years, currently serves at Our Lady of
Assumption in Woodbridge, CT while continuing to sing for special masses and
wedding ceremonies throughout the state.
Starting in 2001, she has held the position of director of the Oronoque
Village Voices, a community choir made up of 65 members of residents of
Oronoque Village in Stratford, CT. The group
Since 1998, Ms. Saunders has been the director of choral music at
Madison Middle School in Trumbull, CT. During her time there the program has
grown into a viable music offering for the students, while serving as an
anticipated concert experience for the community. Her research and
implementation of a gender based program for young adolescent changing
voices has aided in the success of the program and the comfort level of the
students. Her choirs at the school now number 6, totaling 400 students,
including the grade 6, 7, and 8th grade mixed Choruses, the 7th and 8th
grade Treble Choirs and the 7th and 8th grade Boyschoir, of which she is
most
proud. While some middle schools in the state are having difficulty
recruiting boys, Ms. Saunders’ Boyschoir numbers over 100.
Since 1999 Ms. Saunders has also served in state music association positions
including Repertoire and Standards Chair for MS/Jr.H. Choirs for the CT
chapter or the American Choral Director’s Association and for the past 5
years, the Western Region Music Festival Chorus Chair for the CT Music
Educators Association. On the high school level, Ms. Saunders has also been
a CMEA ALL-State Adjudicator for Voice since 1995.
A strong dedication to community service, Ms. Saunders also leads her student
groups to choose a project each year. Recently, her groups have raised money
for the CT Food Bank and Project Read.
Deana W. Saunders
Personal Statement
written January 2006
I have chosen to teach my curriculum to prepare students for
further study while also teaching those who may find themselves in their
last
music education experience. My goal is to teach those who sit before me
concepts and appreciation of music, making them more well rounded citizens.
I
choose to teach with the hope that whether they continue to study choral
music in school formally, at their place of worship, as a hobby, or decide
to
pursue something else entirely, that music will enrich their lives in a
different way having studied in my classroom. Teaching choral music in
middle
school is not always about perfecting the notes on the page, often it is
about the process of attempting, the challenge of trying, the unified vision
of a group. And most often, the constant that remains, is the connection
that
music creates between people.
I have the privilege to be allowed to meet my student’s needs
through my training, the support of my administration and the efforts of
those who have been inspiring to me. I have taken portions of each teacher
who has touched my life, teachers of all kinds whose classroom are not
necessarily in a school building, and molded my style, personality, skills
and technique to develop an environment that opens the very personal world
of
self-created vocal music to others. I am so grateful that my love of music
translates into a joyful classroom where inhibitions are left in the hall.
That my ability to pace a rehearsal means that the hours of work pass
without
feeling as if it were a painful process, and I am most grateful that in
doing
this work, I help to bring to life the connections made through music for
both students and community. Together we have felt the emotion of the civil
war through an interdisciplinary unit with Social Studies and Language Arts,
expressed love and pride in our country through a Gershwin Review and began
to understand the world outside the U.S. with our studies of cultural
selections in foreign languages. In countless other opportunities have I
seen their eyes light up with new knowledge and feelings and pride. These
moments of connection are what make this profession so very rewarding.
I have the benefit of not only teaching the young students in
the
middle school, but also the “young at heart” of the Oronoque Village Voices,
a choir of 65 residents in a retirement community in Stratford, CT. I have
challenged this group to learn some new tricks and increase the quality of
their repertoire. In doing so, they have mastered many skills and are
performing two concerts a year to sold out audiences, not to mention being
extremely proud of themselves.
The spring and winter concerts of my school and community chorus
coincide and in an effort to create and promote the strong connections that
music can develop, I often teach both groups a song separately and then
perform it together for my school concert. As the older choir members are
invited to the risers to join the students, they just beam. The students
welcome them with handshakes and hugs. The audience is warmed to see the
generations come together. And as they join in song, the beautiful sound
becomes a lasting memory for all. Seeing twelve-year-old boys and 70ish year
old men singing In the Still of the Night with motions is quite a sight. Our
song this winter was a moving and emotional song to which there was not a
dry
eye in the room. I adore my students, young and old, and to see them grow in
love and respect for each other while making music is a realization of a
dream for me.
With the field of vocal music so varied and a love of it so
strong, my days are filled with singing. Private lessons, community choir,
church choir, school choruses, summer programs, church cantoring, weddings,
caroling for the elderly; the list is endless. I would not have it any other
way. I believe that the gift of music is meant to be shared.
Why I Teach Music
WHY MUSIC?
I. Music is a Science. It is exact, specific, and it demands exact
acoustics.
A conductor's full score is a chart, a graph which indicates frequencies,
intensities, volume changes, melody, and harmony all at once and with the
most exact control of time.
II. Music is Mathematical. It is rhythmically based on the subdivisions of
time into fractions which must be done instantaneously, not worked out on
paper.
III. Music is a Foreign Language. Most of the terms are in Italian, German,
or French; and the notation is certainly not English - but a highly
developed
kind of shorthand that used symbols to represent ideas. The semantics of
music is the most complete and universal language.
IV. Music is History. Music usually reflects the environment and times of its
creation, often even the country and/or racial feeling.
V. Music is Physical Education. It requires fantastic coordination of
fingers,
hands, arms, lip, cheek, and facial muscles in addition to extraordinary
control of the diaphragmatic, back, stomach, and chest muscles, which
respond
instantly to the sound the ear hears and the mind interprets.
VI. Music Develops Insight and Demands Research.
VII. Music is all these things, but most of all, Music is Art.
It allows a human being to take all these, dry technically boring, (but
difficult) techniques and use them to create emotion. That is one thing
science cannot duplicate; humanism, feeling, emotion, call it what you will.
That is why we teach music:
Not because we expect you to major in music
Not because we expect you to play or sing all your life...
But so you will be human
So you will recognize beauty
So you will be closer to an infinite beyond this world
So you will have something to cling to
So you will have more love, more compassion, more gentleness, more good - in
short, more Life.
PREPARATION FOR LIFE
We all want our children to experience a healthy, happy and prosperous life
and to enjoy themselves in the process. There are certain mental tools which
aid in this goal, and music is crucial in honing these tools:
Creativity.
Music opens horizons of the mind and supports wonderment, imagination,
appreciation, and sensitivity. Creativity is the source of possibility and
is
a mental muscle that must be trained and exercised often.
Communication.
Music is a language beyond words. Music can only be explained with music
because of its various styles, textures, tempos, and dynamics. Music truly
stirs the soul of people. No words or visual display can come close to the
emotional impact of music.
Critical Assessment.
Music is one of the key areas where an individual can develop a consistency
between intellectual and emotional understanding. Here is the chance to
bridge the cognitive and affective data of life, which many feel is the
recipe of genius. We can create formulas instead of just solutions, and we
can be pro-active rather than re-active. We can open the mind and avoid
tunnel vision - and in doing so, come up with discerning opinions which
develop quality character.
Commitment.
It is almost impossible to be "partially committed" to music. One may quit
on
a test, refuse to turn in an assignment, or just not be aware of what is
going on in a lecture class, but the participation level in music requires a
focus of attention unlike most subjects in school. Music causes one to learn
persistence and the value of "not giving up," even when there is the
temptation to throw in the towel. Many have pointed to "stay power" as one
of
the greatest personal attributes in our society. Welcome to one of the key
benefits of the study of music.
Excerpts from "The Value of Music"
by Tim Lautzenheiser
http://www.tmea.org/027_Magazine/Special_Edition/valueofmusic_r.htm