Music Students Celebrate Progress

The Willow Grove branch of the Settlement Music School on Sunday opened its doors to community members, who joined to mark a milestone in the music careers of local budding musicians.

The school, one of six Settlement branches throughout the region, held its annual Certification Awards and Recital to recognize the progress of its students. The Willow Grove branch is home to about 600 students, about 200 of whom participated in the certification program.

“It’s a way of monitoring progress for students,” explained branch director Marsha Hogan, noting that while the tangible certificate is a nice motivator for the students, a certification allows the students to advance from level to level, such as Piano Level I-A or Cello Level II-B, as they acquire more skills.

Certification is voluntary, except for scholarship students, and the process required all candidates to audition this past March, to demonstrate their proficiency at a particular instrument and echelon.  

In addition to the certificate presentation Sunday, 12 students took the stage for a recital that featured instruments such as the piano, cello, violin, oboe and French horn. Students ranged in age from 6 to 18, which Hogan said is representative of the school’s student body, which also offers programs for students as young as age 3 and adults of any age.

“I think this gave a real sense of the various levels of our curriculum and the types of students we have,” she said. “We have everyone from beginners to those who are advanced.”

The branch headquarters used to be located in Jenkintown but recently launched its new venue on Davisville Road in Willow Grove, and Hogan said students hail from around the area, including a contingent from Hatboro and Horsham.

All three of Kile Smith’s daughters have taken lessons at Settlement, including one who wowed the audience Sunday with her cello performance, and another who next week will receive her master's degree from Julliard. 

Smith served as the guest speaker for the event, as he himself is an accomplished composer, curator of the Fleisher Collection of Orchestral Music at the Free Library of Philadelphia and co-cost of a classical and jazz program on station WRTI 90.1 FM.

In his address, Smith cautioned the young musicians that they had years to determine their future career path, and encouraged them to use their time at Settlement to determine if they want to make a living in music.

“It’s really a fantastic place,” Smith said prior to Sunday’s event. “It’s the largest community music school in the country, and I don’t know how many hundreds of thousands of students have come through Settlement. The lessons that they learn here will be with them throughout the rest of their lives, no matter what they end up doing. They may give up violin lessons after they get out of high school, and that’s fine, but these lessons here at Settlement give them such a good grounding.”

All of the Settlement branches will host an open house from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 4, with music and dance performances, as well as workshops, for prospective students and their families.