November 9, 2006

Valley Christian new Conservatory of Music pursues a ‘Quest for Excellence’

By Lorraine Gabbert
Staff Writer

Pursuing its tagline “Quest for Excellence” Valley Christian Schools recently unveiled the crown jewel of its Skyway Campus: a new conservatory of music.

Valley Christian students performed the Messiah Project with the community and vocalists from the San Francisco Opera. (photos courtesy of Valley Christian Schools).

The school’s vision is to provide a conservatory like none other, combining strong academics, Christian values and extraordinary musical opportunities. “We’re hoping to discover and develop the extraordinary God-given talent of young artists,” says Valley Christian Schools President Clifford Daugherty, “and to reclaim the arts as an expression of God’s love.”

Founded by Troy Gunter, Valley Christian Schools’ director of visual and performing arts, the Valley Christian Conservatory of Music Program was launched this year to

provide gifted musicians with a comprehensive academic and music education in preparation for attending major universities and music conservatories.

“There are some students who rise above and want to attend a music conservatory in college,” says Daugherty. “They need to have a higher level of training and more focus on music. Rather than the scholar athlete, this is the conservatory scholar.”

Emphasizing academic achievement as well as musical expertise, the conservatory graduation standards are rigorous, requiring 290 credits. Yet, more than 70 percent of Valley Christian Schools’ music students make the honor roll.

In addition to music classes such as theory, composition, technology, history, jazz lab and piano, the conservatory offers students programs ranging from private lessons and master classes with high-profile professional musicians to performing in recitals around the world.

Maribeth Wiens, Assistant to the Visual and Performing Arts Director, believes that performing in recitals enhances student’s self-esteem and expectations. “Our jazz students had professional musicians backing them up in a recent recital,” she says. “They got such a kick out of it. We’re trying to give them wonderful performance opportunities to feed their drive to succeed.” For instance, vocalists from the San Francisco Opera recently joined conservatory students in a performance of the Messiah Project and last year, the Symphonic Band played at Boston Symphony Hall where Joshua Bell had led the Boston Symphony the night before. On Dec 11, at 7:30 p.m., the Valley Christian Conservatory will be performing Christmas in the Mission at the Santa Clara Mission.

“Affirming the arts is really important to Valley Christian,” says Wiens. In their inaugural year, the conservatory currently includes 25 students and can accommodate about 200. But, they dream of building a 2000 seat symphonic hall incorporating 22 to 24 classrooms, allowing them to bring more students into the program. “We’re excited about the possibilities,” says Daugherty who believes in aiming for the stars and achieving excellence in everything you do. “We think God likes to do things like this and are anxious to see what develops.”

Implementing the “Conservatory Concept” in realizing his vision, Gunter gathered a circle of extraordinary musicians to teach the students, each specializing in their area of expertise. “We have an exceptional faculty,” says Daugherty. “We have great talent in our school.”

Concert violinists Scott Homer and Lily Koh Homer joined the staff from Hong Kong, where Scott played first violin with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and Lily acted as concert master with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. Scott first gained recognition when he joined the Sacramento Symphony at age 22, as the youngest concertmaster with a major symphony in the United States. Lily is a graduate of the Julliard School in New York. Scott currently acts as Conservatory Administrator and Director of Orchestral Studies at Valley Christian Schools, while Lily is Director of
String Development.

Director of Contemporary Music Studies, David Gregoric teaches jazz, while Jeffrey Wilson, Director of Wind and Percussion Studies teaches concert band, each playing to his strength. Rounding out the staff, David Hook, Director of Choral Studies, who has a Master’s in Choral Conducting from UCLA, is in high demand at local churches. “We’re fortunate to have him here,” says Daugherty. Gunter, in addition to being Director of Visual and Performing Arts is also Director of Piano Studies. “Gunter is amazing and can play virtually any instrument,” says Daugherty.

At Valley Christian Schools, Gunter also developed a high school marching band which has claimed the Western Band Association’s state championship title four times and Gunter was awarded the National Band Association’s citation of excellence in 2004 for his outstanding contribution to band and music.

Weins finds working with the Valley Christian Marching Band and Color Guard extremely gratifying. “Working with the arts affects their souls,” she says, “and affects their lives forever.” In February, the Marching Band and Color Guard will attend a festival in Asia, visiting Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand. As ambassadors of their school, they will also tour four schools and perform two service ministries, visiting an AIDS orphanage in Bangkok and helping missionaries in an outlying village.

“We decided to expand their horizons because travel is one of the best educations you can have,” says Weins, “and visiting another culture and seeing how people there are living is so valuable and life changing. We hope to be a light to people of other cultures in other parts of the world, but it will probably change our lives even more than we’ll change theirs.” They are collecting money and goods to take to the orphanage and plan to do a marching band performance in a small village in Thailand to draw the community to meet the missionaries. “It’s a wonderful opportunity,” she says.

Gunter recently founded the Silicon Valley Honor Band, which includes public and private high school musicians from Gilroy, Live Oak and Valley Christian Schools, who serve as ambassadors for Silicon Valley. Independence High School will soon join their ranks, as well. Their goal is to march in the Rose Bowl and Macy’s Day Parades. This year the Silicon Valley Honor Band marched in the Chinese New Year Day Parade in San Francisco and will participate in the Holiday Parade in downtown San Jose.

As Valley Christian Schools’ director of visual and performing arts, Gunter teaches art, dance, theater and music for students from kindergarten to 12th grade. In the music program, he ensures that every student from fourth grade on has a string or band instrument or is exposed to music through piano lab. “This way, all the students gain appreciation for music and some excel,” says Daugherty.

Investing in their students and the music program, Valley Christian Schools provides elementary school students with instruments free-of-charge from their extensive lending library. “While many of the instruments have been purchased by the school budget,” notes Wiens, “our department has benefited greatly by the fundraising efforts of our parent organizations, Band Boosters and PTPF (like PTA), and we also have received donations from individuals and bequests from estates.

The music department’s current star student is Yuma Sung, a jazz student and concert performer. Sung, who has won numerous solo and music awards from the Reno Jazz Festival, Central California Jazz Festival and San Jose Jazz Festival, played in concerts this summer in Japan and at Villa Montalvo with the Dave Brubeck Quartet and David Benoit. In 2003, Sung released a CD entitled, “Looking Up,” with liner noted written by Benoit and in 2006, he was chosen to play at the Grammy Awards Salute to Jazz.

Through Yuma, Valley Christian Schools was able to bring David Benoit to campus to conduct a master class for their conservatory students. “Benoit has played for 3 presidents,” says Wiens, “and here he was playing for our kids. It was spectacular. We’re hoping to inspire our students with more high level performers and get their feedback to add to their education.”

Wiens, who believes that the conservatory is going to become a world class program, sees it as an outstanding light in the community and hopes to attract more top students to as their reputation grows.

“If we can get young people to pick up this vision and this passion,” says Daugherty, “then there is going to be a lot of good done world-wide. It’s part of our overall Quest of Excellence at Valley Christian Schools. I believe that the arts are an avenue to the soul and that God does gift certain people with a message: the Christian message of God’s love.”