PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

The Syringa Mountain School will perform a Spring Showcase at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 7, at the WRHS Performing Arts Theater at the Community Campus in Hailey.

The concert will include singing and flute playing from first, second, third and fourth graders. The fifth and sixth-grade stings orchestra will also perform.

A Bake Sale will be held before and after the performance.

Each class gets between three and five hours of music per week, divided between daily rhythm songs and instrument lessons.

Younger students learn the pentatonic flute, then the C flute. By third and fourth grade, every student is playing a string instrument, starting with the violin.

Music is an important part of the traditional Waldorf curriculum and it’s taught in a subtle progression where younger students often don’t realize the lesson has begun.

“When students are reading music and playing their instruments, all parts of the brain are active and the act of making music has many positive effects on a child’s self-esteem and sense of place in the world,” said Aris Flood, a parent of a Syringa Mountain School student. “It literally unifies students and has kids playing together in a way you might not find them playing together on the playground.”

Up until now, students have practiced in the school’s center called the Heart Space. Construction is beginning on a new private music class space to be complete in the fall.