Distinct music streams will flow together
Performers to draw
from many genres for
upcoming RFH concert

JEFF HUNTLEY Music teacher Donald Swinchoski goes over the program fro the upcoming Prism concert at the school with some of his students during a recent class.

The great jazz musician Charlie Parker said, "Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn."

Donald Swinchoski, Rumson-Fair Haven High School’s music teacher, has been living it all his life. Swinchoski was born into a musical family, is married to a musician and has a 2-year-old daughter who, like her father, is growing up surrounded by music.

For the last four years Swinchoski has been a music teacher at Rumson-Fair Haven High School, where he teaches the symphonic band, the orchestra, the Tower singers (the school’s vocal group) and the jazz ensemble. With about 70 music students in all, he has put together the school’s first Prism Concert, a concept developed approximately ten years ago at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y.

"Just as in a prism, where there are many colors, this is a program with many musical styles and various cultural and historical mixtures," he said.

Donald Swinchoski

"There will be a piano solo, vocal solos and small groups of singers and instrumentalist using acoustic and electronic instruments," said Swinchoski, who noted that along with many well-known pieces, student compositions prepared for the music theory class will be performed.

The idea behind the concert is to open people up to listening to different kinds of performances — "different genres that aren’t usually included in our programs, like African drumming or Latin jazz," he said.

The program is intended to broaden appreciation of music for both the audience and the performers.

"We could begin with a violin duet by Beethoven, followed by a jazz piece that may segue into an African drum piece, and so on," Swinchoski explained. "The rhythm, tempo, style and arrangements, both vocal and instrumental, should make for an enjoyable evening."

There will be improvisational jazz and a Carole King song, the title of which means heart in Spanish, he said. The band will play a Korean folk rhapsody, and the Tower Singers will perform "Mascarade" from Phantom of the Opera.

Swinchoski said much of the program has been initiated by his students.

"We are experimenting," he explained, noting that his music room at the high school is a good place for experimentation.

It is a room that invites young musicians to grab an instrument and play, he said. The room is full of large brass instruments and percussion pieces; some of them look quite old, and all look well-worn. There is also a black baby grand piano, a synthesizer and stereo equipment.

Each item plays an important part in Swinchoski’s classes, and judging from the results, those classes are bringing out the best in his students.

"Several of my students have gone on to study music in college," he noted. "We also have high-achieving kids here now who are considering music as a major."

Before becoming a music teacher at RFH, Swinchoski, a New England native, taught music at a regional high school near Worcester, Mass.

He grew up in Johnson, Vt., a college town where his father was a music professor at Johnson State College.

"My mother and father met at an all-city orchestra while they were both still in high school. They both play the violin," he said.

Swinchoski completed his undergraduate work there and was a student in a couple of his father’s classes.

"At first it was a little awkward, but my father bent over backwards to be fair to me. He was a good role model," said Swinchoski, noting that he knew since his junior year in high school that he wanted to teach.

Swinchoski completed his graduate work at the New England Conservatory in Boston, where he majored in conducting. As for instruments, he started learning the violin and then tried the trombone before he decided that the trumpet was the instrument for him.

Swinchoski plays with the Navesink Brass Quintet. The group plays in various places in Monmouth and Ocean counties, but particularly with the United Methodist Church of Red Bank, where Claire Maxwell is the director of music and oversees the activities of five choirs as well as two concert series and special musical events at the church.

Swinchoski lives in Wall with his wife, Carol, and 2-year-old daughter, Anya. He first met his wife, a New Jersey native, at a music camp in Maine 15 years ago while she was attending school in Baltimore.

Carol is also a music teacher. She instructs toddlers in the Music Together program, part of a national program based in Princeton, in which children and their parents are taught music appreciation.

In addition to their separate music careers, Donald and Carol run a community music group called Band of the Two Rivers, which meets in the music room at RFH at 7:30 p.m. every Wednesday.

"It’s open to people of all ages," Swinchoski said. "We perform in various places, such as senior centers and the Fair Haven tree lighting."

Swinchoski, who is classically trained, said his musical taste has evolved.

"I’ve come to appreciate different styles over the years. I love everything from medieval to the Dave Matthews Band, an innovative rock band that makes use of violins and intricate rhythm patterns," he said as the bell rang for the change of classes.

Students began straggling into his classroom, distracting him from the interview.

"I can’t imagine life without music," Swinchoski said in closing.

Doors for the Prism Concert will open at 6:45 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, call (732) 842-1597, ext. 254.