By Imma Tao Martinez Leger
This afternoon, I was at the DP music recital. This performance is the third in a series of four that the current class will complete as part of their Music curriculum, before graduating in May of 2024.
One thing I can say is that there was a larger audience in attendance than for the first two, which I also watched. Unfortunately, though, this audience was only around 35 people. As someone who frequents the school’s various theater productions, I’m used to seeing the auditorium at full capacity. With the secondary school theater productions, I even expect a full house for a couple of nights in a row, just to be able to cycle through all the people interested in attending. But today, seeing the rows of seats only sparsely dotted with audience members, I was forced into a state of reflection. Why is it that people actually come to watch the performances put on in the DFT?
I had thought, perhaps mistakenly, that we were a school interested in art culture, in general. But then why do so few people come to watch our DP students perform their music? It isn’t the quality of the music or the length of the show, I don’t think. Even with my very limited musical expertise, I can tell that the students have put in hard work to prepare, and it comes through in the quality of their music. The show itself tends to run for less than an hour, from 4:00 to 4:45 PM on a Monday night, four times over the course of the two-year program. It’s really something easy and pleasant to plan into your day.
At least I can say that there are more people watching now than at the start… For this cohort’s first recital, I think I counted less than 10 people in attendance, and many of those who came were only there to see one specific person that they knew personally. I wondered if maybe the event wasn’t being sufficiently publicized. Perhaps it was only the performers’ personal invitations that brought in this little group. After all, the main focus of the music recitals is for the students to have a high-quality recording of their piece, which they will then send to the IB at the end of the program, to fulfill requirements for the Internal Assessment. Nevertheless, the recital is announced in the “Week at a Glance” newsletter, which CIS parents and teachers receive, so the lack of publication cannot be to blame.
There’s no reason why this student talent shouldn’t be showcased to the wider school community, as opposed to them rehearsing and recording the final performance within their small class group, which would fulfill the assessment requirements, but may lack true purpose. This brings me back to my question: does anyone see value and purpose in what these students are doing, aside from the music department, who chooses to host the recitals as public events?
In the age of capitalism and monetary value, do we still appreciate the effort of practicing the same piece of music over and over again, so that we can perform it once, in front of an audience, with no expectation of any return, except to have shared a slice of true human passion and dedication? Because maybe the response from the wider audience tells us that they really don’t care. That these students should just record their audio and send it through for assessment purposes. Maybe we should just be laboring away to complete our diplomas, so that when we receive them, we can continue on to the next stage of our lives, on and on, until we begin to get paid for the work we do. I’ve recently heard of the situation described as a “real drought of DP Music students”, but it extends further than that. Tonight’s performance included just the six Music students, out of our cohort’s 150 total students. Can we assume that this lack of registration in the Music course is because of modern values?
In grade 11, for the first time, students have the choice between an art subject and one additional science or humanity credit. I’m disappointed but not surprised at how many choose the latter, and at how universities reward this choice when considering applicants’ level of academic challenge in their subject selections. Now, I thought the IB’s philosophy was founded in authentic work, the true thirst for inquiry, and a real dedication to the work we produce, but sometimes it’s really not clear whether the philosophy holds up to real-world factors. In the second year of this program, the students I see around me are tired and weary. As new tasks are introduced, the truth is that many of us immediately consider how to complete the minimum requirements for our desired grade, without depleting our time and energy further than necessary. Perhaps in the PYP and MYP, we were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, but as we learned the DP, we quickly lost our initial shine. Curious, committed children are transformed into relentless achievers, as we struggle to keep up with the repetitive cycle of new tasks.
This context is why I’m pleasantly surprised to see that DP Music students are taking full advantage of this component of their course. Specifically, because it is not a requirement for their course that the performance be held to this standard. There are much simpler ways to collect a final recording for the Music students. The event doesn’t need to be announced to the public, the musicians don’t need to dress up in formal wear, and they don’t have to set up the auditorium sound system. Really, they could perform to their classmates, and wouldn’t need to be introduced to the wider public. If the music department wanted to spare themselves the effort, they could do away with the recitals, in favor of a small room, where students would record their final performances one by one.
The fact that we don’t choose the easy way out suggests that maybe we do value the performance of art today, even in the face of more results-oriented activities. Whether or not the big crowds at some events are based on group hype, or if people only watch DFT shows to see the people they know, I truly believe there are people there who go to appreciate the art and talent of performers. It’s true, and we see this from the small turnout, that many people nowadays are pursuing work that produces tangible, permanent results, rather than chasing experiences based on eliciting a feeling that will later fade. However, based on the effort of a select few individuals, I surmise that art remains valuable to certain people, if only to those people.
