by Maria Amador
ORLEANS — On Friday night, people of all ages braved a chilly rain to watch Lake Region Union High School students perform songs on stage in the Municipal Building. By the time they made their way home, it was clear the event was about far more than just music.
At the top of the hour, students arranged themselves behind a line of microphones to welcome the audience. They did this not by delivering remarks, but by saying nothing and letting the space fill with the irony of that choice. They did as they had practiced and began singing the lyrics to Europe’s “The Final Countdown.”
On the right side of the stage, their music teacher, Sara Doncaster, sat at a keyboard with a bandana tied around her head in the style of a classic rocker. She mouthed lyrics with enthusiasm as her students projected them through the room and looked as much part of the performance as she did the educator behind it.
In an interview with the Chronicle, Ms. Doncaster, who graduated from Lake Region, said she never planned for a career in public education. That changed when she was thirty-six and received an offer to teach at the Newport Town School and the Lowell Graded School. She had recently moved back to Vermont from Boston and took the job assuming it would be temporary, only to discover she loved working with kids. Since then, she succeeded her former teacher, Peter Gage, at Lake Region, where she’s been a music educator for thirteen years.
After “The Final Countdown,” singers stepped off the stage, while a new group of students walked on to prepare themselves and their instruments for the Edgar Winter Group’s “Frankenstein.” Asa Davis played drums, Josiah Quinn played alto saxophone and Max Demaine was on the French horn. Accompanying them were Noah Blanco on guitar and Ms. Doncaster on keyboard. All the students maintained a steady focus on the music and their cues, but also on each other. They communicated with subtle glances and smiles, reminders to each other that they were doing a good job.
As the show went on, it seemed every student enrolled in Lake Region’s modern band curriculum was well-versed in this sort of camaraderie. This seemed especially true of Tucker Broe who, unprompted, took to formally welcoming the crowd before his performance of The Score’s “Money Run Low.”
“Everybody, I would like to welcome each and every one of you to Dr. Sara Doncaster’s modern band project performance here tonight. I am so happy to see so many people here… I’m not even singing a solo, I just realized that nobody was welcoming you,” he said.
He introduced what he’d be singing, and like a seasoned emcee, took to introducing his rhythm section. “Can we give them a round of applause?” Mr. Broe asked.
“And of course, the absolute star of the show, Sara Doncaster,” he added, while the audience clapped and cheered.
Mr. Broe soon concluded his remarks before continuing with the show: “Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I hope everybody enjoys this song, the rest of the songs, and just has a generally amazing night. Let’s do this.”
While Mr. Broe and his classmates performed, Ms. Doncaster paused at her keyboard to cheer and clap for them, hoping the audience might follow suit. They gladly did.
The evening’s first set of music — performed by small ensembles — concluded with a simple, but polished instrumental rendition of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” Four flutes and one guitar lined up across the stage, setting the tone for the choral portion of the show which followed.
Asked how she and her students prepared for this concert, Ms. Doncaster explained how the unusual parts of the modern band curriculum are also what makes the program accessible to so many. While she holds both a master’s degree and a PhD in Music Theory and Composition, Ms. Doncaster explained her focus has always been on classical music. Part of the reason she can teach modern compositions is because of the curriculum’s model, which is comparable to a garage or jam band and “implies multiple modalities,” she said.
This means students can learn to play not just by reading musical notation, but also by listening to records or using tablature. “Basically, even if you don’t read music… a student can be engaged from day one,” Ms. Doncaster said of her class.
In fact, many of the students performing at the concert had no musical experience prior to enrolling in Ms. Doncaster’s class. The majority are also freshmen who only began preparing for the show at the start of the school year.
Ms. Doncaster attributes much of the success students find in her classroom to a series of collaborations. When picking the music for this concert, she said she selected some because they were “good teaching pieces,” while others were chosen by juniors and seniors. Some songs couldn’t be included in this concert, but Ms. Doncaster said they will shift into the next one.
She also gave ample credit to her nephew, Christopher Doncaster, without whom she believes she could not have pulled off this event. Mr. Doncaster, a professional bass player and teacher, would come to class once a week to provide both ensemble coaching and private lessons. He holds a degree in jazz performance and provided technical skills which Ms. Doncaster deems invaluable when teaching students how to approach different genres of music she had less experience with.
Others who helped students prepare for the concert include modern band vocal coach Kelly Stuber, live audio engineer Zeb McCoy, and Samson Wiggett, arranger and music copyist.
The choral performance began with a large group of students on stage, all prepared to sing their part in Queen’s “Somebody to Love.” Amelia Zola and Mr. Broe enjoyed vocal solos, while other singers harmonized and rocked their bodies to the rhythm of the music. In the crowd, their loved ones sang along to a familiar tune.
The chorus also sang “Chain of Fools” by Aretha Franklin, after which Amy Kelley spoke a few words. A teacher at Lake Region and the house manager for the concert, Ms. Kelley was not expecting to speak at the event until thirty minutes before start time, when Ms. Doncaster said, “We should talk about your speech.”
Still, Ms. Kelley took the opportunity to speak fondly of Ms. Doncaster and her ability to make the band room a space where students can grow as both musicians and human beings. She also praised Ms. Doncaster’s work during the pandemic, a time when school music programs took a substantial hit.
“It was a terrible time for all of us, but the impact on music was felt and experienced deeply by a lot of teenagers for whom Dr. D found ways to make music happen,” said Ms. Kelley.
In an effort to kill time before the next act, at Ms. Doncaster’s request, Ms. Kelley also spoke about the value of the modern band curriculum at Lake Region, which now operates in rotation with the jazz band curriculum as a complement to the classical music program at the school. She explained how modern band emphasizes arrangement, improvisation, and collaboration among students, pointing out how Ms. Doncaster was not directing performers during the music they had played.
“This is kids learning to work together as a team, learning to listen to each other, learning to hear each other, and to do their best to follow where the other leads,” said Ms. Kelley.
After receiving a cue from across the room, Ms. Kelley began to close out her remarks by introducing a special guest. The students now sitting amongst the crowd turned their heads to the back of the room in great anticipation. Out came Dr. Pepper Sue — a sort of alter ego to Ms. Doncaster — in glittering shoes, a cape, and sunglasses, tossing flowers into the audience on her way to the stage.
Hers was an improvised rendition of Elton John’s classic, “Crocodile Rock,” accompanied on stage by Lake Region educator Mark Violette on piano, Mr. Doncaster on bass, and Brian Holder on drums. Students and other audience members relished the performance from the crowd.
The chorus later returned to the stage, this time with all twenty-four of its members arranged to sing Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz” acapella. They also performed a pared back version of Lady Gaga’s “Hold my Hand,” featuring an opening solo by Mia Lussier. Ms. Lussier and Ms. Zola both had solos during Beyonce’s “End of Time,” the final number performed by the chorus.
The last portion of the show was dedicated to the jazz band, featuring classics like Santana’s “Oye Como Va,” which was performed by first year students. The song featured solos by Mr. Blanco on guitar, Owen Roberts on trumpet, Ben Bousquet on clarinet, and Jackson Lafont on alto saxophone. Mr. Quinn, Mr. Demaine, and Fiona Bock also returned to the stage to play the tenor saxophone, French horn, and flute, respectively, during “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” by Joe Zawinul.
After nearly two hours of live music, all students across band and chorus returned to the stage for their final numbers. Some stood near microphones, others sat on the edges of the stage and all of them performed an inspired medley of “Flesh Failures” and “Let the Sunshine In,” with vocal solos by Lorelai Collins, Xander Bradley, Mr. Broe, Mr. Demaine, and Ms. Zola. The show closed with Kansas’ “Carry on Wayward Son,” after which the audience flooded the room with applause for both the students before them, and the teacher who helped get them there.
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