Peter Nevin, with a woodwind ensemble, plays the clarinet for a group of students from Dixieland Elementary School in Madera. It wasn't the first school performance by a Fresno Philharmonic ensemble but it was the first ever at Dixieland. Diana Baldrica / The Fresno Bee
MADERA — The Fresno Philharmonic's woodwind ensemble sounded some upscale notes Friday at Dixieland Elementary School.
Some 120 pupils gathered 60 at a time in the compact Dixieland cafeteria to experience flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn and bassoon music firsthand.
The kids listened and watched intently as each musician in the five-member ensemble explained their instruments and the sounds they produce. Jenny Kim showed how she makes her French horn emit more than just some "weird noises."
Before the performance started, sixth-grader Mario Campis said he expected to hear some "good music."
"I thought it was a really good performance," 10-year-old Gilbert Falcon said before he returned to class. "I liked the French horn especially."
"They're very well behaved, flutist Pam Ellzey said about the Dixieland kids.
"They just love it," oboe musician Rachel Aldrich said between Friday's two 45-minute performances.
It wasn't the first school performance by a Fresno Philharmonic ensemble but it was the first-ever at Dixieland, a kindergarten through 8th grade school opened in 1913 at Road 19 and Avenue 18 1/2, amid the vineyards of rural Madera County.
"The children out here are not wealthy and the school is not supported by a large wealthy district," Philharmonic education coordinator Robert Marsh explained. "This is up-close and classical."
The Madera students also will be guests of the Philharmonic at a special March educational performance in Fresno.
Earlier this week, the woodwind ensemble played at Howard Elementary School, just a few miles across the vineyards, orchards and pastures. But the performance Friday was special, Dixieland Principal Bob Madsen explained over the sounds of music.
While many school music programs are cut or limited to a few instruments in a financial pinch, any Dixieland student from grades five through eight who wants to be in band can be. Dixieland has assembled one of the finest and most complete elementary school bands in the Madera Unified School District
That is because the Bay Area-based Alice Liechti Education Foundation in each of the past two years has bestowed an unexpected $10,000, which Dixieland has agreed with the foundation to use for the school's music program.
Alice Liechti, a Dixieland student in the late 1930s, moved to the Bay Area years ago and after she died she left money in her estate for her former school, Madsen said.
Dixieland's old musical instruments have been given to other Madera Unified schools.
The reporter can be reached at cmccarthy@fresnobee.comor (559) 675-6804.