`FIESTA DE MUSICA' UNIQUE CHILDREN'S PERFORMING GROUP

Fiesta de Musica is about children performing and these children put in long hours of rehearsal to get ready for events.

Many people have never heard of Fiesta de Musica, says Becky Fulgham, director of the the Music Academy at Southeast Missouri State University, but she hopes that will change as people come to understand what a unique program it is.

"It's a grade school performing group," Fulgham said, "that exposes kids to multi-cultural music and folk songs from different countries."

But the key word is performing, because that's what Fiesta de Musica, which includes children from all over the region, including Jackson, is all about.

"The children are not just singing," said Pam Dummey, of Gordonville, who is the head of the Fiesta de Musica program. "I try to teach them beat and rhythm, and I have them do a movement activity such as stomping or clapping."

When seeing one of the four performances that Fiesta de Musica puts on a year, one should expect something different.

"You're not just going to see the director's back and children on a riser," Dummey said. "You'll see children performing -- children involved in making music."

Dummey is a firm believer in the Orff Schulwerk style of teaching music and she incorporates this into Fiesta de Musica.

"It's child-centered rather than teacher-centered," Dummey said. "The children learn about music by making music."

The Orff Sculwerk method allows children to play zylophone- and percussion-style instruments that are designed specifically for young children.

It's easy for a child to play these instruments and children do not even have to know how to read music.

"These are very unique instruments," Fulgham said. "On the zylophones, the bars are removable. In any particular song, we just leave the bars on there that -- no matter what they hit -- will sound good."

Dummey is the one who teaches the method to the children in Fiesta de Musica, and she says it's wonderful.

"It's very successful," Dummey said, "because it's effective. "I have taught other methods and this one just works better."

Dummey has been training on this method for five years. She got her level one instruction at the University of Kentucky at Lexington, and she got her level two instruction in Memphis.

"It's very big in Memphis," Dummey said. "In fact, they have 95 Orff programs in Memphis.

"All the music teachers have to know the Orff method."

Last year, the program focused on Japanese, Mexican and Hawaiin music, but this year, Dummey says they'll concentrate on folk music.

"We did a lot of child choir workshops and performed with the Jackson Muny Band," Dummey said.

This year, Dummey said she hopes to take Fiesta de Musica to perform in front of the Missouri Music Educators, but they will have to audition for that.

"We'll have to make a tape to send them," Dummey said. "We probably won't start that until next semester."

The program had about 30 children involved, and they're hoping for more this year, but Fulgham said that enrollment has been slow.

Dummey said that participating in Fiesta de Musica will help children in other ways, too.

"The program also helps children enhance other music lessons they may be taking," she said.

Music Academy programs have children from Jackson, Gordonville, Pocahontas and other areas of the region.

Editor's note: If you're interested in having your grade-school-age child enrolled in Fiesta de Musica, please contact Becky Fulgham at Southeast Missouri State University.