News

Holiday Concert @ The Heights Center

December 14, 2016

The holiday concert at the Heights Center is a big deal for the kids, and a personal milestone for me, because I play an instrument in public with other musicians for the very first time! I’ve never played an instrument before, and have only been practicing on the cello for a couple months.

The beginning orchestra goes first, playing a number of tunes pizzicato – which means plucking the strings. Mr. Greg conducts. They’re simple tunes, using variations of two different notes, but you can follow the melodies.

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Metamorphosis Coaching, LLC

November 9, 2016

Originally from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Dr. Landefeld’s background is in executive college administration where she began her career in Student Services and worked her way up to Academic/Executive Dean. Leading a team of almost 60 faculty members and administrative staff, Doni started using coaching techniques before the profession of coaching became the growing industry it is today. Since moving to Florida in 2004, she completed her Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology from Walden University and created Metamorphosis Coaching to help business professionals transform their performance and leadership skills.

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Bucket Brigade

October 28, 2016

I love Friday afternoons – not because the weekend’s coming, but because that’s when Mr. Greg’s Bucket Brigade class meets.

We each get a five-gallon blue Lowe’s paint bucket that we turn upside down. Then we bang out rhythms on the bottom of the bucket. There’s just something so elemental and visceral about banging on a drum, even if it’s not a real one. It makes me think of that old Todd Rundgren song, “Bang the Drum All Day,” and its chorus: “I don’t want to work/I want to bang on the drum all day./I don’t want to play/I just want to bang on the drum all day.”

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The First Weeks of MusicWorks!

October 10, 2016

It’s been a few decades since I’ve experienced a first day of school. But I’ve been looking forward to Aug. 10, the first day of MusicWorks! at the Heights, and it finally arrived.
As arts & entertainment writer/critic for Florida Weekly, I wrote an A1 cover story about the MusicWorks! program earlier in the year, called “Symphonic Delight.” (March 10-16, 2016 issue). I was intrigued and fascinated by how these young kids, 5 to 7 or 8 years old, were learning about music and, in the course of just a few months, could play a song on their instrument — violin, viola, cello or bass. The program was drenched in positive feelings and encouragement, and, not only that, the kids appeared to be having fun.

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MusicWorks! launches GoFundMe campaign

September 19, 2016

Gulf Coast Symphony has launched a GoFundMecampaign to raise $25,000 for its MusicWorks! kids program.

The after-school program uses musical instruments to empower kids in the Harlem Heights community of Fort Myers, help them achieve their full potential and positively affect their society through music, according to a symphony press release.

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