The Bernards High school music department has faced many challenges in the past few years. Both the choir and band saw a decline in participation and skill during the pandemic, which is still heavily affecting the program today. In addition to the pandemic, the band program has been impacted by unstable leadership at the beginning of the 2022 school year. This year began under the leadership of band director Mx. Lemley who quickly resigned, which left the instrumental band with a flow of substitute teachers for six weeks. Unfortunately, that ordeal caused both a spike in student withdrawal, and left students with limited time to prepare for the winter concert.
Despite these tribulations, many efforts have been and are being made to motivate new musicians to join, and previous participants to re-join the program. To begin with, new band director, Mr. Taesler, worked quickly, and dedicated time outside of class to some of his groups to put on a winter concert despite the short notice. This not only aided in getting students back on track, but also provided an opportunity for old participants or future participants to see the groups and be inspired to join.
Administration has also reinstated musical performances at the middle schools on December 22, 2022, in hopes of inspiring future generations to stick with, or pick up new musical hobbies. Furthermore administrators added an in-school performance for the entirety of the highschool on December 23, 2022. While the middle school performances were something that had occurred in pre-covid years, the in-school performance was an entirely new initiative, and another opportunity for music to spread in the high school community.
Student responses to the performances were overwhelmingly positive. Maeve Macdonald ‘25, a viewer nof the in-school BHS performance, said that “[she] thought all of the groups performances were really impressive, and would be more likely to join one of the programs after watching them perform.”
Joe Sorge, a viewer of the BMS performance commented that “[He] thinks really enjoyed the assembly, and didn’t realize how talented all of the BHS musicians were.” He also added that “[He] is hoping to be a madrigal, and seeing them perform made [him] even more excited to join the group.”
These performances are a testament to the resilience of the program despite all of its recent trials. They prove all the more how crucial it is to support BHS music, and how successful the program could become with the help of re-growth. Growth of the music program is crucial for its success. In order to maintain full time music educators, and provide more opportunities there must be enough students to justify the usage of those resources. The larger the program gets the more successful and well supported it can become. More talented participants, and better educators are the recipe for high achievement, and these re-growth efforts are steps in the right direction.
