03/30/2006
Special guest makes music at Coventry High
By: Jessica Selby

The hallways at Coventry High School were quiet yesterday. Students were in their classrooms reading or listening as their teachers lectured. In the music department, however, it was a different story.

The sounds of saxophones humming like bees, flutes whistling like birds and drums roaring like thunder traveled under the doorway of Room 121 as guest clinician Gene Pollart instructed the students.

Coventry High School band director Bill Smith invited Pollart, a lifetime band connoisseur, to his classroom to help prepare his students for their performance trip to New York this weekend.

Pollart, band director at the University of Rhode Island, worked with the advanced band students on "Incantation and Dance," "Scarlet Hurricane" and "Chorale and Capriccio," the three compositions Smith is planning to use in the weekend performance at the Festivals of Music in New York.

"We practice and practice and practice in class but bringing in a guest clinician as talented as Gene will hopefully help us to achieve a superior rating for our performance," Smith said.
Pollart, an experienced musician, obtained his master's degree from the University of Colorado and his doctorate from the University of California, Pacific. Pollart has taught at four universities and a handful of public schools. He is a percussionist by trade but skilled in various instruments. He has played in the Fresno Orchestra and the Providence Orchestra. Currently, he conducts the American Band, the oldest community band in the country, in addition to his 30-year run as the band director at the University of Rhode Island.

"I have adjudicating experience so I can offer information to these kids about what they can expect at the Festival of Music," Pollart said. "And even though this is not technically a contest, people will be listening, and their performance will determine where they fit in terms of their sound against others in the state."

The students leave today at 9 a.m. by motor coach. Their anticipated time of arrival in New York is 1 p.m. Upon arrival they will visit Battery Park, the Statue of Liberty, South Street Seaport and Lincoln Center. They will also see the "Le Nozze di Figaro" performance at the Metropolitan Opera.

On Friday, the combination of approximately 40 students from Advanced and Concert Band will assemble and re-board the bus headed for the Jacksonville Chapel in Lincoln Park, N.J. There, both the concert band and the jazz ensemble will perform.

Upon completion of the performance, the students will have the opportunity to see the Manhattan Mall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Empire State Building.
Before they head back to Rhode Island on Saturday, they will attend a festival awards ceremony.