It was 7 a.

Saturday, January 19, 2002

It was 7 a.m. on Wednesday morning and the members of the Southwest Jazz Band were in the band room at Southwest for their regular practice. Their rehearsal was anything but regular on this day, however, and the guy leading the class wasn’t their usual teacher. Ray Vasquez, artist-in-residence in the Albert Lea Area Schools, was in charge.

Using a mixture of praise and humor as he offered comments, peppering the students with questions, and relying on his own playing to provide examples, they spent 40 minutes together practicing pieces the ensemble is preparing for its next performance.

&uot;This will be a great benefit for us. It’s very motivational for all of the students to hear someone of this caliber. It tells them: This is where you can go if you practice,&uot; said Geneva Fitzsimonds, middle school and sixth-grade band teacher.

&uot;He gave us tips, and he had a good way of showing us how to do things by playing them for us. It was especially nice that he was a trumpet player himself and had a fun attitude,&uot; said Ericka Austad, a trumpet player in the ensemble.

&uot;It was actually fun to see how bad we are,&uot; said Emily Wirkus, a student in the band, after practice had ended.

&uot;But it was good to have someone show us what we need to do to get better,&uot; Brandon Overland, another student, quickly added.

Both Wirkus and Overland play trombones in the jazz band, and they wished that they could have a professional trombone player come in sometime, too.

Vasquez, a professional musician who also teaches music at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, spent the week as an artist-in-residence in the Albert Lea School District, performing for and working with students at all of the district’s schools.

Vasquez has been playing the trumpet since he was 6 years old, getting a couple of years of informal music &uot;lessons&uot; from his father, who played in the U.S. Navy Drum and Bugle Corps. He didn’t start taking formal music lessons until he got to college. Since that early beginning, he has spent a lifetime performing, playing with symphony orchestras, jazz bands, and even on board a cruise ship.

He grew up in Del Rio, Texas, and later moved to El Paso, where he participated in the music programs at the public schools. Currently, he is completing work on a doctorate in music at the University of Minnesota.

Being both a performer and an academic brings extra dimensions and stretches how he teaches music, Vasquez said.

Being comfortable in both performance and education keeps him aware of different student skills.

&uot;Working with students there’s always a thirst for knowledge with me. It means helping students understand what music can do, as a release and as a creative process,&uot; he said. This is especially true when working with kids with disabilities, he said.

Vasquez talks about getting involved with the students and letting them see him practicing and performing.

&uot;The energy I bring to rehearsal and performance maybe can speak to a student. They see me constantly striving to play just a little bit better. Don’t just settle for OK, settle for great,&uot; he said.

One of his goals this week is to let students see both how to continually work at getting better at performing, but he also wants them to see how much fun music can be.

&uot;I want them to see how they can still have fun with music, like play in a community band, and still want to play even if it’s not their profession. Even after you’ve done your time in high school, you can still play, you can still enjoy it,&uot; he said.

Scott Fitzsimonds, the high school band director, sees Vasquez’s presence as doing three things. He provides the perspective of a professional musician for the students. He can observe how Fitzsimonds himself teaches. And the community gains an opportunity to hear some quality music.

&uot;He’s here for the benefit of all music students in the district,&uot; said Fitzsimonds.

While here, Vasquez conducted workshops with students and teachers, worked one-on-one with students, and performed at all six district schools. His final performance will be a concert with the Albert Lea High School Orchestra and Jazz Ensemble at 7:30 a.m. Monday, Jan. 21, in the high school auditorium.

Vasquez comes to Albert Lea courtesy of the Perpich Center for Arts Education, which provides opportunities for professional artists – musicians, painters, and writers – to spend time in local schools working with students and conducting continuing education workshops for teachers. This is his first opportunity to spend a whole week in residence at a school district, although he has been teaching workshops and performing in schools for several years. Vasquez already had at least one connection to Albert Lea before coming here, though; he was one of Fitzsimonds’ teachers in college.