Music Overview
Music classes are elective and meet five days per week. Three full-time music teachers (one choral, two instrumental) and many part-time music coaches supervise the music department.
Music at Paul Revere Middle School has enjoyed a strong tradition of successful performances from the opening of the school in 1955. The first principal of the school was herself a musician, and ensured that Revere would have a full music program, music rehearsal rooms and an appropriate performance space in the auditorium.
The methods of the music department represent best practices in education by providing meaningful experiences for all of Revere's students, either through direct participation in the music program or by being an audience and seeing their classmates or other performers on stage.
Students involved in the instrumental music program have free access to school instruments and may check these instruments out for home use and practice. Professional musicians from the community work with smaller groups in the instrumental classes to provide them with smaller class size experience as well as more individualized work specific to their instrument. The string program benefits from three coaches: bass, cello and violin/viola. The band program has a coach for each major instrument section: woodwind, brass and percussion. The choir works with a professional choreographer and accompanist when performances approach. Each of these professionals is paid for out of a budget provided to our department by the school's parent support group, PRIDE.
Students involved in the instrumental music program have free access to school instruments and may check these instruments out for home use and practice. Professional musicians from the community work with smaller groups in the instrumental classes to provide them with smaller class size experience as well as more individualized work specific to their instrument. The string program benefits from three coaches: bass, cello and violin/viola. The band program has a coach for each major instrument section: woodwind, brass and percussion. The choir works with a professional choreographer and accompanist when performances approach. Each of these professionals is paid for out of a budget provided to our department by the school's parent support group, PRIDE.
Articulation across grade levels is evident as students move from the lower level performing groups into the higher level groups. Sixth graders entering Revere can join a beginning group for new music students, or a group of more experienced sixth grade students who have had music in elementary school programs. More advanced sixth graders have the chance to audition into special groups that meet during lunch or longer homeroom days, and in these classes they perform with seventh and eighth graders who also auditioned. In this way we provide opportunities for students of all three grade levels to meet each other and work together at their individual levels.
Sixth grade students who enter the music program at the beginning level will automatically be moved to the next level in seventh grade, and the advanced level in eighth grade. In this way, they move together from year to year and have a chance to form strong social relationships with each other and with their teachers, as well as progressing technically with their music skills. More advanced sixth grade students will sometimes move from the beginning level group in their first year right up to the advanced group in their second year.
We hold two school concerts each year, one in December before the Winter break and the other in late May. Ensembles also perform during school for the student body each semester.
The bands, orchestras and choirs at Revere have all participated in district music festivals as well as festivals hosted by organizations outside the district. At each performance our groups have traditionally earned high rankings, representing themselves and the school in a very positive light.