Making sweet music in Brad Schoener’s name
They didn’t call Brad Schoener the “Music Man of Upper Darby” for nothing. The beloved music teacher lost his battle with cancer back in 2009, but he’s still teaching valuable lessons.
Saturday his “class” included more than 5,000 people who packed the annual Brad Schoener Festival, which benefits the award-winning Upper Darby arts programs that were so close to his heart.
The Upper Darby Performing Arts Center was jumping with a feast of every type of arts imaginable – music, visual arts, dance, theater and fashion.
Schoener’s theory was simple. He wanted to use the arts to forge unity in one of the most diverse districts in the region. More than 70 languages are spoken in the Upper Darby School District. Each day more than 3,600 students enter the halls of Upper Darby High School. From the hours of 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., it is akin to a small city.
Schoener’s idea was to take all that diversity and put it to music, creating a unity of heart and soul, between both students and staff.
Eight years ago, still reeling in Schoener’s absence after he lost his battle with cancer, the festival started with five people working on one committee.
Student musicians paraded across Lansdowne Avenue to serenade their mentor at his grave site in Arlington Cemetery.
It was the start of an annual reminder of just how big a role the arts play in Upper Darby, and the man who championed so many kids and who battled to be sure budget cuts did not crimp the education offered them.
It has grown into a major township-wide celebration of a man, his love of music – and maybe more importantly, his love of kids and what they are capable of doing with a little guidance and mentoring.
For the second year, the festival partnered with the district’s annual Arts Fest to feature the best of Upper Darby arts, with kids from Grade One right up to seniors at Upper Darby High taking part.
There were displays of student artwork, ceramics, sculptures, even a runway fashion show featuring student designs in a Junk to Funk celebration.
And, of course, all of it was put to music.
The school district’s jazz bands, orchestras, choirs and piano and ukulele clubs performed on four stages. They were joined by 15 professional music groups.
Jennifer Kramer, mother of a member of the Garretford Elementary School choral society, zeroed in on the breadth of the talent on display.
“The children see the types of things they will be doing as they get older and I believe it just keeps getting bigger and stronger,” she said.
The festival serves as the leadin to the Brad Schoener Music Man Academy, a series of fiveweek sessions for children and adults taught by talented local musicians. Participants can choose from offerings including band, strings, voice and piano lessons, drum circles, guitar 101 and little stars theater.
All of it in the name and memory of a man who simply saw the beauty in music and wanted to instill it in as many people as he could, in particular the young people of the Upper Darby community. Schoener, who was awarded the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation National Teacher of the Year Award in 2007, taught instruments and directed the bands at Bywood, Highland Park and Stonehurst Hills Elementary Schools.
His efforts earned him the nameplate the “Music Man of Upper Darby.”
Schoener’s work continues in the beautiful music made by all those kids.
Specifically, the mission of the Brad Schoener Memorial Fund is to support the musical abilities and aspirations of instrumental music students in the Upper Darby School District through the funding of instruments, instruction and experiences to interested and talented students who might not otherwise have the opportunity due to personal circumstances. The fund is supervised by the Upper Darby Arts and Education Foundation.
Schoener’s widow, Jen, has seen the effect her husband had in the Upper Darby community.
“The third Saturday in May is for the community,” she said this weekend amid the throng who had gathered in her late husband’s honor.
Brad Schoener understood the power of music. It crosses all boundaries, creating, as has been said many times, “a universal language.”
His spirit is alive and well in the Upper Darby School District.
Beautiful music indeed.