Six-year-old Micah Williams and his three-year-old sister Ana played at Jackson Walnut Park School on Friday morning, performing violin and cello in the school’s String Ensemble for family and members of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston, at the school’s Grandfriends’ Day Friday Mass and Concert in the gymnasium.
A musical duo
The siblings played twice – first during the morning Mass, then again after the concert for an intimate session for which some teachers, kids, family, and staff stuck around to observe the young prodigies. Reporters from NBC10 Boston and CBS Boston set up cameras only a few feet from the musicians as they performed. All attention was pointed towards them.
Shelly Williams, their mother, told NBC 10 Boston that she took Micah to see an orchestra when he was about four and half years old. She said he had tears in his eyes during the performance.
CBS Boston reports Micah began playing violin when he was five years old, and his sister Ana would tag along for the lessons. For a full year, she asked for a cello and then she finally started playing the cello at three and half years old.
Micah plays both violin and viola. Shelly said he learns the songs quickly and is able to memorize them.
The catalyst
Parama Chattopadhyay, a mathematics teacher who helps out with music programs in the school, told Fig City News that Micah had an interest in performing at the Masses after the first one of the school year, in September. He saw Chattopadhyay and Richard Valanzola, the music director, playing violin and piano respectively, and wanted to be a part of it. Micah put the idea in their heads to create an orchestra for the first time at Jackson Walnut.
The second mass included a few kids in the orchestra, but interest is growing.
“Now everybody wants to be on the stage,” Chattopadhyay said. “We’re excited to make this a bigger and bigger thing.”
She described Micah as someone who is curious about the way the world is and wants to get involved in any way he can. Chattopadhyay said Micah is one example of the types of kids who attend Jackson Walnut.
“These kids are so dynamic and smart, way past their age,” Chattopadhyay said.
Both principals Kelly Sullivan (who presides over Jackson school which covers K-6) and Clarissa Robyn (who presides over Walnut Park, which is the Montessori Early Childhood program) said Friday’s performance reflected how much the program has grown, calling the orchestra a new staple of school life.
“Having the orchestra play was a nice touch, so everyone could see how talented our students are,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said she got emotional listening to the String Ensemble play. Robyn emphasized that the purpose of the Montessori methodology is to encourage students to learn by doing.
“We do academics and intellectual growth, but also we encourage any spark of talent and any spark of interest that the young children show,” Robyn said.
Robyn said the musical sibling duo of Micah and Ana is a perfect example of this phenomenon. Ana, thanks to the encouraging environment of her home as well as the school, is able to join her brother in a musical pursuit.
“Here she is just playing the cello with her brother,” Robyn said.
Robyn and Sullivan said there has been a conscious effort this school year to unify the two campuses of Jackson and Walnut Park, and these types of sibling connections help to foster a closer knit community.
After the duo performed together for the private session, Micah performed a solo while Ana curled beside their mother, watching him with wide-eyed admiration. Their mother looked at both of them with pride.
When someone asked if he could do another song, he simply said, “No, thanks.”
