March is officially designated by the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) as Music In Our Schools Month. NAfME has challenged educational organizations to share how “Music Connects” them to their students and communities. In this month’s #HOTSpeaks, we’re sharing how the HOT Education team connects us to communities throughout the state.
Last week, Waikele Elementary School sixth graders performed an opera they created through a HOT School Residency Program. Residency programs are the most immersive program that HOT Education offers. The program brings HOT’s education staff into a school to lead students and teachers through the process of producing and performing an opera. In Waikele Elementary’s case, the students produced the opera from scratch.
“The students create the script, the students create the props, the students create the costumes, and we work directly with the artists in residency through Hawaii Opera Theatre to create the music,” Waikele Principal Sheldon Oshio said. Waikele Elementary School has partnered with HOT for 12 years, and Sheldon has been Principal for seven of those years.
Each year’s production is different. This year, the school integrated the students’ history lessons with the opera. With the title The Keepers, the original opera takes the students on a journey from the Great Wall of China to meetings with various key historical figures, such as Confucius and Socrates, to learn more about different civilizations.
Waikele Elementary School second and third grade students performed “The Keepers” on March 16, 2018, culminating their HOT Education Residency Program.
Sheldon said the teachers have noticed a greater interest in regular curriculum studies when the students are engaged through the opera production. He also noticed that the music education program could improve performance and achievement in core academic activities for nontraditional students, such as those with learning disabilities. But most of all, the school makes the choice to bring the program back year after year, Sheldon said, because it brings the school or grade level together.
“Through the program, the students gain a strong sense of teamwork and collaboration,” he said. “All of the students’ voices are all being heard. Everyone is on an equal playing field in putting this production together.”
In past years the school has created various operas with different curricular concepts. A couple years ago, they wrote a D.A.R.E. opera along with the Honolulu Police Department to help teach decision-making and drug resistance. And before that, the school wrote an opera that HOT has adapted and taken on for this year’s annual Opera Express touring show, which is performed at schools throughout the state.
“We feel that it was very complimentary to the students and the grade level for Hawaii Opera Theatre to come back and ask to use the production No More Mr. Bad Wolf for the road show,” Sheldon said. “That was really touching for the kids and the staff.”
Participants in HOT’s Residency Programs also have the opportunity to experience a backstage tour and a professional grand opera at the Neal Blaisdell Concert Hall, plus a visit from HOT Opera Express.
Waikele Elementary Students learn more about props from HOT Prop Master Rick Romer during their backstage tour of Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment. Backstage Tours are a part of each HOT Residency Program.
After years of watching students produce operas with HOT, Waikele Elementary School administration approved funding for the construction of a new fine arts stage in the school. Construction for the stage begins this summer, and HOT Education staff are serving on the project’s advisory committee.
Through the experience of HOT’s residency productions, HOT is connected with schools and students throughout Hawaii. And, in turn, the schools and students connect with their own community through each production.
“The experience is something inspiring, I think,” Sheldon said. “Our students should feel proud that they reach a larger community.”
View more photos from the Waikele Elementary School Residency Production here.
For more information on HOT’s Education programs, click here. To book a program for your students, contact HOT Director of Education Erik Haines by phone at 808-596-7372 or email e_haines@hawaiiopera.org.
To make a donation in support of HOT’s Education programs, click here.
