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Schools

Presto: Skylight Opera Entertains, Educates Burleigh Students in FAB

The opera company delivered a fun, interactive program on rhythm, tempo and other musical concepts as part of the Fine Arts at Burleigh (FAB) program.

With their week of standardized tests completed, ’s five classes of second graders headed to the band room Friday afternoon for a special performance.

As a part of the school’s Fine Arts at Burleigh (FAB) program, each grade enjoys a yearly visit from a “cultural partner” from the community. Skylight Opera Theatre, based in Milwaukee, came to entertain the second graders for 45 minutes of singing, dancing and teaching.

Katie Bart, Burleigh’s general music director, organizes FAB activities and invited Skylight to come.

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“We already have orchestra, band and chorus for fourth and fifth grade, but the FAB program is more enrichment for K through 5,” she says.

But Burleigh’s fine arts program is an exception to most schools, says Rana Roman, who has been performing with Skylight for five years.

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“Right now especially, so many music programs are either eliminated altogether or cut down so [Standard Songbook is] just a way to inject some music and music theory, particularly into the Milwaukee Public Schools who aren’t getting it anymore.”

Roman was born and raised in Milwaukee and attended the Milwaukee Public School system. After moving to California for college and then to New York for six years, she returned to her hometown in 2005.

“All of us come from a pretty intense performance background where there can be a lot of glitz and glamour, lights and huge audiences. It really is humbling to come into such a small environment where you get to see everybody’s faces. And the kids are really pretty fantastic.”

Between show tunes from “The Sound of Music” to “The Music Man,” and familiar fables like Tortoise and the Hare and the Boy Who Cried Wolf, the four artists from Skylight taught the approximately 125 students about melody, rhythm, lyrics and tempo.

The relaxed and interactive show, called "Standard Songbook," is one of two school tours put on by Skylight during the school year. Standard Songbook visits approximately 35 schools in a three-week period in the fall. That’s two to three shows a day, five days a week.

“When you come into a school like this where the kids really are engaged and they really are paying attention and learning and smiling, you really know that you’re doing something good and that is worth something to them as well,” Roman says.  

To teach the students the difference between a largo tempo (fast) and presto tempo (slow), Skylight’s Cynthia Cobb led the group in a quasi-game of Simon Says. She asked students to raise and lower their arms in the air depending on whether she instructed “largo” or “presto.” 

Students also got to take the stage. Eight volunteers helped act out parts of a song called “Hillbilly Named Pap” with silly costumes and props. The audience stayed engaged by listening for the answers to three questions they were asked in advance about a song.

In addition to the “cultural partner” component of Burleigh's FAB program, students also experience:

  • A symphony concert
  • An educational series play, and
  • A family concert at the with a guest performer

Other grades have had visitors from the Milwaukee Ballet, visual artists or musicians. Families pay a “FAB fee” of $15 to $20 during registration in the summer that covers these extra opportunities.

“It’s pretty arts heavy here at Burleigh, which we are very proud of,” Bart says.

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