Grant is music to the ears of Deer Park School District

Shown in the photo Deer Park Director of Fine and Performing Arts Dr. Jeff Dailey is pictured with Education Director of the Roundabout Theatre Company Margaret Salvante-McCann.

The Deer Park School District's Music Department has secured a $25,000 grant from The New York State Music Fund to create a musical theatre program for students at Robert Frost Middle School and Deer Park High School. The program will be created in collaboration with the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York City, which is the largest non-profit theatre in New York. Deer Park is the only school district in Suffolk County to have been awarded this grant.

The NY State Music Fund grant will be used to develop a curriculum for teaching students the art of digital music composition and its application to theatre. Following a staff development component that will involve music instruction and regular instruction staff, students and Deer Park teachers at both the middle school and high school will work with professionals from the Roundabout Theatre Company on creating two key musical projects.

"This grant will enable our students to learn about two rapidly changing art forms- digital music composition and musical theatre," stated Dr. Jeff S. Dailey, director of fine and performing arts for the Deer Park Schools, who wrote the grant application with Margaret Salvante-McCann, the education director at the Roundabout Theatre.

Seventh graders enrolled in general music classes at Frost Middle School will work with two teaching artists- one a composer, the other a dramatist- on creating digital compositions to learn how to turn literature into music, focusing on the works of the great poet, Robert Frost. Students will create a music CD containing songs they have composed using digital technology. This entails translating the stanzas of Frost's finest works into lyrics and writing music to appropriately amplify the theme of each poem. Students will have to present and ex- plain their work to their teachers and the artists. They will also take a trip into New York City and attend a performance of the Roundabout Theatre's production of 110 in the Shade.

Students in the musical theatre workshop and the recording technology classes at Deer Park High School will also have the opportunity to see Roundabout's rendition of 110 in the Shade as well as the group's production of The Apple Tree. Under the grant, these students will collaborate on writing and performing their own "concept musical" using digital recording techniques. They will be assisted by members of the Roundabout Theatre's education department and by the music director for 110 in the Shade. Students will digitally compose the music for the musical, which they will also perform before their teachers and the artists.

"Having a program like this not only cultivates creativity in our young people, it inspires expression and provides a forum for them to demonstrate their talents and take pride in their results," said Superintendent of Schools Elizabeth Marino. "The diligence demonstrated by our Music Department to secure this exclusive grant reinforces the District's dedication and commitment to the performing arts."

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