Cape faculty boogies to boost music program funds
The lights shined for music teachers from all across Cape Henlopen School District, as they performed songs with their specialty instruments. The faculty performed a recital Sept. 12, to raise funds for the music department.
The concert was the idea of Marian Sunnergren, Cape Henlopen High School choir teacher. She, along with the rest of the music staff, had been hoping to do a performance for a long time. She said she remembered talking about it when she was first hired.
Chris Burkhart, Cape High band director, said the group had been practicing on their own since late June.
“We had our first practice a week before our performance,” he said. “That’s a professional musician thing. Everybody learns their parts, and then do one run through and play the concert.”
Sunnergren performed three special songs: a duet with Burkhart on trumpet called “Let the Bright Seraphim” from “Sampson” by G.F. Handel; a solo song called “The Girl in 14 G” by Jeanine Tesori and Dick Scanlan, both songs accompanied by David Libby on piano; and a group performance with the whole department.
After the show, Sunnergren said she felt very proud of herself and her colleagues.
“It felt like it was the right thing to do,” she said. “To be able to perform for our students and to be able to practice what we preach was really interesting.”
Audiences agreed the performance by Cape High Assistant Band Director Elly Rolfes was the hit of the night. Rolfes was ecstatic to be able to perform the song “Strive to Be Happy” by Ivan Trevino on the marimba.
“It was one I did for my sophomore year of college. That was COVID, so I wasn’t able to perform it for my big sophomore final exam,” she said.
Rolfes also performed alongside the whole group for the song “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” by Don Raye and Hughie Prince, made famous by the Andrews Sisters. Rolfes played the drums along with Burkhart and Brian Mahoney (Mariner Middle) on trumpet, Nick Greeson (Frederick D. Thomas Middle) on saxophone, Rob Barbarita on bass guitar (Beacon Middle), Mirella Gable (elementary band director) on the french horn, Libby on piano, as well as choir teachers Sunnergren, Juleeann Schlitter (Frederick D. Thomas) and Kait Colegrove (Mariner Middle) on vocals.
There were other performances from H.O Brittingham and Milton Elementary music teachers, Heather Sadowski on clarinet, and Zach Coffman on percussion, vocals, and harmonica. Terry Alvey, a local retiree who gives trumpet lessons at Cape High, presented “Prayer of St. Gregory” on her trumpet. The new choir teacher at Beacon Middle, Windsor Allen, also made her Cape district debut singing “Caro Mio Ben” by Guiseppe Giordani.
With the success of the first performance, the faculty hopes to make it an annual event to further improve and demonstrate their talents and skills.
