The auditorium at Suffern High School was packed with parents and students and even contingents from a competing North Rockland High School cast. This spring’s musical was West Side Story, and it showcased Suffern’s musical talent in a multi-colored display to nearly sold out perfomances.
After lovelorn Tony is carried off stage during the ghostly funeral finale, while Maria tells off all the hot heads, the crowd stood and gave a nice thunderous approval for a great run of performances.
But then just as everything settled down, audience members making eye contact with friends and neighbors or headed for the exits, Musical and Technical Director Daniel McCarter had one last treat to share. The student pit orchestra broke out into a rousing reprise of “Mambo!”, one of the musical’s show pieces. And they killed it.
“I’m very proud of these kids,” McCarter said after the performance, surrounded by students clearly pleased with their performance. “They did such a great job. It’s such a hard show and they were just wonderful.” Then in typical fashion, he stepped back and explained that the show’s success was a collaborative effort.
“I have a lot of help,” he said. “You’ve got to acknowledge the Director Kathy Muenz and Allison Meyer, the vocal coach. And Rich Murray, the set director.”
McCarter, a Sloatsburg resident, is finishing his 14th year at Suffern, where he is chair of the school’s music department and teaches Symphony Orchestra, AP Music and University Music Theory. McCarter is also Auditorium Director, an Extra Duty paid responsibility, directs the Chamber Orchestra and acts as Technical Director for the Fall Play, working with the student tech crews that handles lighting, sound and rigging. McCarter has a Master of Music in Education from Ithaca College.
The whole scene sort of summed up McCarter, who’s mop of untamed brown hair and understated manner bely an inner energy that continually fires up his students. And Suffern students love their music — and their music teachers.
In a late March Ramapo Central Board of Education special budget workshop, the halls and meeting room were filled with people, many who spoke in support of personnel and programs that are on the firing line to meet a big district budget gap. But perhaps the most moving testimony came from Suffern High School music students themselves, who stepped up to the podium and breathlessly declared that music made life not only interesting but worthwhile. Students acknowledged McCarter, as well as their other music teachers, as prime influences in their lives, teaching them self discipline, creativity and perseverance.
One student said, “Mr. Schwartz and Mr. McCarter, they’re not just our teachers, they’re our friends.” Randal Schwartz is director of Concert Band and the Suffern Marching Band, which draws from both Suffern High School and Suffern Middle School.
The Halftimers, a coalition of parents with students involved in music programs either through band or orchestra, called on the district to reconsider any cuts in the music program because of the guiding force it plays in student life.
“The music program is the face of the district,” said Nancy Diamond, a Halftimer, as she read from a letter. “When the Ice Hockey team won the state championship, it was the Marching Band that led them on their victory parade down Lafayette Avenue.”
A trumpet-playing student at the high school stepped up and told the board she was thinking of becoming a music therapist because “I know how important music is to a young person.” Another took to the podium and in a passionate, shaky voice declared, “The arts are the heart and soul of the school. I would not be the person I am without the music program.”
The bopping mambo itself, played joyously by the pit orchestra after the end of each West Side Story performance, stage already empty and auditorium clearing out, was a kind of conclusive, wordless testimony to the school’s outstanding music programs. Music ignites something in students. They listen to it, read it, play it, and sing and dance to it.
After the mambo beats ended, Mr. McCarter turned to the emptying hall and bowed to the remaining appreciative audience members, who stood smiling back. The orchestra students stepped up and gathered around him, clapping for him, for themselves, all looking at each other, practically laughing, exhilarated at another job well done.
But there’s really no respite for the engaged. Next up, Wednesday and Thursday, April 17 and 18, are the school’s Band Bonanza and String Extravaganza, which will again showcase the school’s musical students. Practice makes perfect perhaps, but playing is the thing.
