Woodstock welcomes Singapore American School musicians

Woodstock warmly welcomed eighteen middle school Orchestra students from Singapore American School. Under the direction of Darrell Townshend, a former Woodstock staff, the SAS and Woodstock Advanced orchestras came together for a wonderful collaboration of music and performance. The Wednesday evening performance had all students and staff enthralled with not only the beautiful orchestral playing but also the exciting music choices including Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Christian Bach, O'Fallon's Gaelic Overture and Soon Hee Newbold's The Odyssey, a modern score piece. Unfortunately one of the musical pieces prepared especially for this musical exchange, a Carnatic raag, could not be performed due to the illness of the visiting soloist, Deepti Varathan.

Several years ago Darrell Townshend had worked for a year in the Woodstock music department as an exchange staff from the Carey Baptist School in Melbourne, Australia. During the year he developed a love for Mussoorie and for the Woodstock community. After leaving Carey and joining the Singapore American School he had been keen on making a trip to Woodstock with a group of students. This trip was to have taken place last spring, 2007, but failed to happen for various reasons. The plans finally worked out this year.

The young Singaporean musicians were chaperoned by parents and teachers; all of whom were welcomed by a cold rainy week in Mussoorie. The chaperones could be found huddling around the Woodstock gift shop buying sweatshirts to supplement their meager cold weather wardrobes. The spring rains (including a huge hailstorm) made the trip to Mussoorie all the more exotic for the warm-weather visitors. The group stayed in the Hanifl Centre and noticed the inherent differences of living in a remote location with a small student body. SAS has over 3500 students on a thirty-seven acre campus just a short drive from one of the world's busiest metropolises. The visit became not only an exchange of musical talent but also an exchange of experiences.

The Woodstock School music department was thrilled to host this special group of visitors. The Singapore American School has donated a half sized and a quarter sized string bass; a small sized viola and also a three quarter sized cello. The music department is very grateful for these instruments as they are not available in the Indian market.

Darrell Townshend will be leaving the Singapore American School this year and moving to teach in Holland. He hopes to bring a group from Holland for a similar event some time in the future.