Ask a kid what’s fun to do and it’s unlikely you’ll get the answer, “Learning Gregorian chant.” But about 40 kids in Ave Maria are having a ball learning to sing the medieval liturgical music.
They’re doing it using a type of instruction called the Ward Method, which uses exercises and fun to learn music.
At their first practice Wednesday night in the choir loft of the Ave Maria Oratory, it was hard to tell who was having more fun – the kids or their teacher, Jennifer Donelson, who energetically worked the children through a program of both physical and musical exercises to develop their sense of pitch and rhythm.
Dr. Donelson is so enthusiastic about the class that to do it, she’s driving once a week across the Florida panhandle from her home near Ft. Lauderdale, where she teaches music at Nova Southeastern University.
Read the article in the Ave Herald
"…she's driving once a week across the Florida panhandle from her home near Ft. Lauderdale…"
Sorry, but Ft. Lauderdale isn't in the panhandle, which runs east/west from Pensacola to just east of Tallahassee. Us folk up here in the "Redneck Riviera" are nothing like our southern counterparts =).
wonderful news. I learned to sing chant at age 6. Bishop Trautman wasn't around then to tell me it was TOO HARD.
Yes, I too was wondering how one would get to Ave Maria from Ft. Lauderdale via the panhandle!!
This is an excellent program though, and it would be a good thing to consider moving on elsewhere. A whole generation of Catholic Children who grow up learning chant rather than "Hi God" songs….