On Wednesday night the music groups of the Junior High School — the Chorus, Jazz Band, 7th-grade Band, and 8th-grade Band — joined forces under the direction of Angie Vaughn, chorus director, and Richard Laprise to put on a concert that featured holiday music, non-holiday tunes and a special guest. 

 

That would be local professional musician and UMass professor, Tobias Monte, who not only played with the seventh and eighth grade bands, but also helped to coach them before the concert. 

 

“It is rare for musicians of this age to get the opportunity to perform alongside a professional musician and they rose to the occasion,” said Laprise, “Monte, a professor of music at UMass Dartmouth, gave clinics and performed two solos with the bands as part of a grant funded by the Tri-Town Education Foundation. It was a special night as students created expressive and emotional music that seemed well beyond their years.”

 

However it wasn’t just Monte that made the occasion special. Laprise also gives much of the credit to the community support that he believes made the event possible.

 

The Tri-Town Education Foundation contributed, as did the Friends of Old Rochester Music, which donated the mutes that brass players used in the concert.  

 

"This is truly a wonderful community for music. The Junior High School concert on Dec. 19 was a showcase of not only the talented musicians in the 7th and 8th grade but also of the tremendous support music has in the Old Rochester Regional School District,” Laprise said.