Webutuck receives grant for music education

WEBUTUCK — During the Board of Education meeting on Monday, Dec. 5, the Webutuck Central School District accepted a $1,000 grant from the Millbrook Friends of Music in the Schools fund, a Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation designated fund.Webutuck was one of nine schools to receive a $1,000 grant. The other schools include the Millbrook School, Kildonan School, Maplebrook School, Dutchess Day School and St. Joseph’s Parochial School.“Each of the nine schools received a $1,000 grant to be used as each determined best, especially for its youngest students to gain an awareness and hopefully an appreciation of classical music through which even the most cutting-edge of today’s music is derived,” said the press release. “Over the years, Millbrook Friends of Music in the Schools has tried to nourish this through in-school presentation and youth concerts at the Bardavon.”Webutuck elementary music teacher Eric Wiener said that the grant will fund a field trip for the students in grades three through six — roughly 240 children — to watch the Hudson Valley Philharmonic Orchestra perform at the Bardavon, a downtown-Poughkeepsie opera house built in 1869.“It’s really a fantastic opportunity for the boys and girls because most of them will never get another opportunity to see an orchestra play live,” said Wiener. “Seeing music performed in that way is very moving, and it’s something everyone should have the chance to participate in.”Wiener said the field trip will expose the students to classical music played by world-class performers in an accessible manner that is easy for the students to understand. “Its presented in a way that makes classical music come alive for them,” he explained.The school has taken field trips to the Bardavon for several years in a row, often with financial help from the Bardavon, but this year, there was some doubt about whether the school would have enough funding for the trip.“Funding is tight, and it’s getting tighter,” said Wiener, who continued on to say that the grant has made the field trip a certainty.The nine grants given out by the Millbrook Friends of Music in the Schools were the last disbursements from the fund, which is now closed.