Music Education

Edward Charles Roberts, a veteran music teacher in city schools who was also a church organist, died of cancer Aug. 28 at St. Agnes HealthCare. The Catonsville resident was 73. Born and raised in Scranton, Pa., he graduated from what was then Mansfield State Teachers College in Mansfield, Pa. He later received a master's degree in music education from the University of Maryland, College Park. Mr. Roberts moved to Baltimore in 1953 and served in the Army for two years before becoming a Baltimore schools music teacher.

McDaniel student to give senior flute recital today Clara Werner, a McDaniel College senior from Mount Airy, will present her senior flute recital at 7 p.m. today in Levine Hall, Room 100. A music major with an education minor, Werner will play pieces by Antonio Vivaldi, Antonin Dvorak, Claude Debussy and Georg Philipp Telemann. Rachel Andrews on the harpsichord will accompany Werner on the wooden flute during the Vivaldi piece. Information: 410-857-2294. Fiber art is focus of Scott Center exhibit Art created from fiber materials will be the focus of an exhibit in the Scott Center Art Gallery at Carroll Community College from Sunday to March 30. The exhibit, Layers: The Fiber Artists of Baltimore, will open with an artists' reception from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Carroll schools open tomorrow, Tuesday to make up snow days Carroll County public schools will be open tomorrow and Tuesday to make up for lost snow days. Schools were to have been closed tomorrow for Presidents Day and Tuesday for a professional day for elementary and middle schools, and conferences for high schools. The elementary and middle schools' professional day has been rescheduled for March 2. High schools will notify parents of changes in the conference schedule. The Carroll County Board of Education decided Wednesday to change the schedule because of the time lost to inclement weather.

Take a deep breath. Four beats. Breathe out. Four beats. Use your diaphragm. It was a lot for five aspiring flutists to remember as they placed their mouthpieces to their lips, breathed in again and released their air with a "puh," hoping to coax a sound from their instruments. "I hear three sounds and two possible sounds," said Anthony Spano, instrumental music teacher at Callaway Elementary School in Northwest Baltimore. It was a big step for the fourth-graders in Spano's flute class, many of whom played a musical instrument for the first time yesterday.

WE'VE RECENTLY been experiencing another wave of dire statements about classical music: It's dead, it's dying, the audience is aging, standards are decaying, support from governments, patrons and societies is disappearing; it's almost all over now. And there's plenty to be alarmed about since orchestras are in trouble, recording companies have drastically cut back and also are pursuing bizarre marketing concepts that many serious artists deplore, Broadway...

Morris Chester Queen, a retired organist and music director at Sharp Street Memorial Church who during his more than five-decade career there missed only one Sunday service, died of cardiac arrest Aug. 3 at Sinai Hospital. He was 81. Mr. Queen, who was born and raised in Northwest Baltimore, developed his lifelong interest in music before he left the baby carriage. "When he was a baby and in order to keep him quiet, his parents rolled his carriage over to the piano and let him bang on it," said his wife of 39 years, Ovella Dorsey, who retired from William H. Lemmel Junior High School as a guidance counselor in 1982.

Here's the latest sign of how deeply country music has penetrated the nation's psyche: You can now raise your infant on it. Like the "Baby Einstein" series of children's videos featuring simple images set to the sound of classical music, there's a new video on the block that does much the same thing but sounds less Richard Wagner and more Porter Wagoner. It's called "Country Baby!" and it's the creation of Jeff Jacobsen, a 34-year-old Pikesville native, who was inspired by his 15-month-old daughter, Sophie.

Bessie W. Harrelson, 84, music education advocate Bessie Macon Wrenn Harrelson, founder of a school transportation company and advocate for music education, died Sunday of an aneurysm at Sinai Hospital. She was 84. A longtime resident of Gwynn Oak, Mrs. Harrelson was a coloratura soprano who over her lifetime expressed her talents in voice and leadership. She sang in the Civic Opera Chorus in her early years and served as board chairwoman of the Baltimore Music Club from 1977 to 1981.

Deep Run Elementary School Principal Fran Donaldson was looking for a long-term substitute music teacher for the impending school year in summer 1999. LaFragia Jackson, who retired from the Elkridge school in 1996, stopped by on a whim to say hello while on her way to another employment possibility. Donaldson asked the 30-year veteran music teacher if she would be interested in working part time, and Jackson agreed. After resolving sick leave and insurance details, Jackson returned for 2 1/2 days a week.

IT WAS AN accident that placed Nichole Barner at a xylophone about10 years ago. A percussionist with the North Carroll Middle School band had broken his arm, and music director Jim Ryon asked Nichole to take his place. Try something new, he suggested. "I had put years into the viola, and he was desperate for me to try something else," Barner recalled. When she rolled mallets on the xylophone keys, "it was the perfect fit," she said. "I just fell in love with the instrument." It was a match so perfect that it's become her life's passion.