Singing River Youth Orchestra Helps Young Survivors of Hurricane Katrina

August 29, 2005, will remain alive in the minds and hearts of everyone who lived here. Katrina was the storm for which we weren't prepared. We didn't tell our children that their schools might be destroyed. We didn't warn them that their homes might be no more. We didn't prepare ourselves or our children for the possible death of their pets.

For nearly a year no subject could be discussed except in the light of Katrina. Schools met at odd places and odd times, making a normal classroom experience difficult. The children in the classrooms went home to grandmother's house, or to a FEMA trailer park, or to a FEMA trailer parked outside their destroyed home. Parents who were struggling to deal with insurance companies, FEMA, other aid agencies, with getting homes fixed, with learning to do home repairs, and the endless other difficulties could not focus as much as they would have liked to on school work, sports, or extracurricular learning.

Two years later too many Jackson county children are still in FEMA trailers or in other temporary housing situations and PTSD in both children and adults is too common. Yet, much has improved, and that is what this story is about.

Von Deen was 12 years old and lived in an apartment with his mom and new little infant brother when Katrina hit. He was playing soccer and baseball, and dreamed of football. He had started in the band program in school, and taken a few piano lessons as well. After Katrina there was no hope of football that year. He had no trumpet and no way to continue in piano lessons. The apartment was gone. They moved into a shelter, lived briefly with a grandmother upstate, then moved back to the area into a FEMA trailer in a trailer park. He had to go to a different school, with different friends, but everyone else had to adapt as well.

Sydni Crain was 8 years old and had played the piano for four years. She was an honors student at Resurrection Elementary School. She lived with her mom and dad a few blocks from the beach, in a neighborhood that had survived storms for recorded history. After Katrina her house was gone. So was her piano, and her piano teacher had moved. Her dance studio reopened six months later. Her parents got her a keyboard to use in the house they live in temporarily while they try to get their home rebuilt.

David Knowles was 7 years old and living with his grandparents in an older home that had also always survived the many hurricanes that passed through over the years. Their FEMA trailer is parked next to their home, which his grandparents themselves have been working on to repair. One year after Katrina his grandmother was able to get him back in soccer, but wanted him to be able to focus on some other things as well, things that have nothing to do with Katrina or recovering from disasters.

The Singing River Youth Orchestra was started in August 2006. Some teachers put instruments into children's hands in July, and one month later they struggled together through their first "concert". The Ode to Joy may have sounded much better when played by more experienced musicians and groups, but it never had more meaning. Von plays cello, Sydni has continued her studies on piano and is playing the violin, and David is a violist who has also begun studying piano. They, like the other members of the orchestra, are inspirations to each other, to the community, to their parents, and to the people who lead the orchestra.

Connor Read was also 12 when Katrina hit. He and his family are just now moving back into their home. He started viola that July after Katrina, and later agreed to switch to the bass because the orchestra needed one. His brother, Charleton, was 10 when Katrina hit and 11 when he started the viola. Because Connor switched to bass, the Singing River Youth Orchestra only has three violas right now, but we are fortunate that they are all very talented musicians and strong on their instruments. Connor and Charleton are also very active on their soccer teams, and have been active in state tournaments.

Our concertmaster, Jeffery Johnson, is now 16 and played violin a little before Katrina. There were no lessons or places to play right after Katrina, so he really started getting into it for the first time the spring after Katrina. He has made amazing progress since then, has begun playing professionally for weddings, and is looking forward to studying violin in college. His younger brother, Glenn, is now 12 and also plays viola in the orchestra. Jeffery and Glenn are both baseball players, both All-Stars.

Mason Lyons has just turned 12 as well, and is another All-Star baseball player when not playing the cello. He and his sister and family lived with their grandmother after Katrina until a FEMA trailer was set in front of their house. They are finally in their home, but the piano destroyed in Katrina has just finally been picked up by the rebuilder. Mason's little sister, Jenna, a soccer star who had just started piano and violin before the hurricane has made great progress on both instruments, but really shines on the violin. Though she only just turned 9, she has moved to the first violin section of the orchestra.

Our youngest orchestra member is Rian "Beebop" Black. She was 6 when Katrina hit and had just turned 7 when the orchestra was started. At first her family lived with her grandmother, who also had other family members crammed into a three bedroom house. Then they lived in a trailer in their driveway until two months ago, when they finally moved into their not quite completely repaired home. She plays the cello, and is also studying piano. Her brother, Reid, is 11 and plays the violin in our orchestra, in the church orchestra, and in the Mobile Youth Orchestra. He studies piano in his spare time (haha). Since they are also both straight "A" students, it is easy to see that they are not victims... they are young people who have learned to focus on accomplishments rather then loss.

That is our theme at Singing River Youth Orchestra. It's not what you've done, it's what you can do. It's not what someone can do for you, it's what you can do for someone else.

Chris Charlton is only 11, but has made great progress on the guitar and in his schoolwork.... While living with his dad in a FEMA trailer. He and his dad also volunteer with several groups rebuilding homes throughout the area.

Three members of the Chandler family were in our orchestra, two on clarinet and one on sax. We just lost one of them, though, because Christian has recently been accepted on scholarship into the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Sciences. It is a public, residential high school for academically gifted and highly motivated teenagers. His sisters are in junior high, and the orchestra is looking forward to having them continue before they move onward and upward.

All of our students have accepted the challenge to work hard, and that is their greatest asset. As a group they are very talented and smart, to be sure, but their willingness to learn, to focus, to stay on task, to achieve has been and will surely continue to be the one key to survival.

Dr. Perry Combs, strings professor at Hinds Community College in Raymond, MS, and past Mississippi State President of ASTA has been one of our greatest supporters. He helped us acquire two cellos, two violas, eight violins, and needed strings and supplies when we first began the orchestra. He drove across the state to show support at our first Christmas concert and donated another violin at that time. He also spent two days here this summer working with students individually. Young students truly benefit when a college professor works one on one with them.

We have great needs. Not one of our children had a decent instrument post-Katrina. Most of them are using the most basic of donated beginner-level instruments now. We are grateful that we have them, but our children would so benefit from getting to progress on better instruments.

Most of the instruction comes from volunteers. The resources, time and energy of the volunteers is continually stretched. We have sponsored some master classes and the like, but we lack funding to bring in more master classes or consistent instruction.

We have no space. We have been using the backs of churches and people's homes, not only for the lessons, practicing and rehearsals, but also for tutoring and supervised play. We are using people's personal computers and our paperwork rides around in boxes in people's cars.

We sponsored five concerts and a small jazz festival, but our kids need more exposure to all arts. Parents struggling to get out of FEMA trailers cannot afford to travel and buy tickets. We cannot yet afford space or paid personnel, so we are limited in our ability to bring in many professional concerts. We have a website, put together by two volunteers learning as they went. Even the fundraising and grant writing efforts are being done by people who are learning as they go.

Yet, we have made great strides. Twenty-four children actively participate in the Singing River Youth Orchestra, though only four played their orchestral instrument at all before the storm. Many more children have begun music lessons. Equally important, many kids both in and out of the orchestra are tutored in academic subjects. Some of them are tutored daily. All our kids are participating in sports or some other extracurricular activities. Being victims of Katrina is not their primary identity anymore.

Mel Bay, the music publishing company, donated music to our strings program. This fall our kids will be playing some of that fiddle music at the Jackson County Fair, at the Veterans Administration Hospital for the veterans there, and at the grand opening of the main offices of Merchant Marine Bank, a local bank that lost its main building in Katrina.

Please remember us. Look at our website. The address is ecias.com. If you are a professional musician or website developer or grant writer and might be willing to help, we would be so grateful. If you would even like to come down and see what we're doing and tutor kids part time for a spell we would be thrilled. If you have an old instrument or a stack of music you're not using, we would love to put it into good use. And, thanks for being interested enough in us to make it to the end of this article.