Hobbs Municipal Schools

“The word art is derived from an ancient Indo-European root that means “to fit together,”… Art is about fitting things together:  words, images, objects, processes, thought, historical epochs.”

- Jeffrey J. Schnapp, Director of Stanford Humanities Lab at Stanford University

It is in this grand tradition that we find our master, Dr. Wong, his assistant, Margaret Whitley, and her class of apprentices in the 3^rd Grade Discovery Program at Will Rogers Elementary School.  I had the privilege of going to their first violin class and hearing Dr. Wong’s lecture on responsibility before we handed out the instruments donated by Joyce Walker and the Southwest Symphony. 

Then came the “E” note played first by Dr. Wong and then by the class. Thus began our 3^rd Grade students’ inauguration into the society of notable gifted minds such as Albert Einstein and Thomas Jefferson.  As we follow this connection from the first violin class to tonight’s opening performance, we will hear the same notes that focused Albert Einstein’s mind to think of E= MC2 and that inspired Jefferson’s poetry of “when in the course of human events.” 

I hope you admire the harmony of hard work put on by two talented music teachers “fitting together” the first finished melody of a beginning violin class in Hobbs, New Mexico on December 6th 2009. 

Tyson Ledgerwood
Elementary Fine Arts Coordinator
Hobbs Municipal Schools