에피소드 81: 초등 음악 프로그램 및 합창 페스티벌

3월 14th, 2025 /
알렉산더 글레이브 /

Sup과 함께

00:00 / 35:09

PCSD Annual Choral Festival

Welcome everyone to the next episode of Provo City School District’s What’s Up With The Sup’ podcast. I am Superintendent Wendy Dau. I have three guests with me for our episode this week. Elementary Kodály music teachers Juliana Gylseth from Spring Creek, Kayla Spurlock from Franklin, and Logan McKinney from Westridge.

They’re here to talk about the Kodály Elementary music program, how it supports the elementary school choirs, and talk about the 25th annual Provo City School District Choral Festival that recently took place. But first, let me give you our updates.

There are eight new policies or procedures available for review on our district website.
- 에듀로 이동하여 정책, 양식 및 문서를 클릭합니다. 여기에서 정책 초안 검토를 클릭할 수 있습니다.
- You will see a draft of policy 3500, Students Extracurricular Activities. Policy 5210, Reemployment of Retirees, Policy 5400, Procedure 12, About Postpartum and Parental Leave, Policy 4210 and Procedure 1, Curriculum Instruction and Assessment, Policy 3152, and Procedure 1 about compulsory attendance and Policy 7120 about school support organizations.
Provo City School District is accepting applications for the student board member position for the 2025/2026 school year.
- This unique opportunity allows two high school seniors, one from Timpview Boundary and one from the Provo High Boundary to serve as liaisons between students and the Board of Education.
- Applications are due by midnight on Monday, March 17th.
Thank you to all of the individuals who are serving on our Community Connections Committee.
- We had our first meeting today and was great to see how many individuals wanna come together to help Provo City School District be a destination district.
The next school board meeting will be an all day board meeting on Friday, March 28th.
- The meeting will take place at the Grandview Technology Center.
- This is where we will be discussing results of our boundary and feasibility study, and the board will wrestle with some topics about if and how to change any boundaries.
- We will also be discussing this cost of specific programs. We will be working with the association to identify key priorities for our teachers and employees because our budget is limited and we need to ensure that the priorities we put in place reflect the priorities of the board and our employees.
Continue watching for my weekly videocasts in your email. These videocasts provide one place for you to learn about important things happening across the district.

Welcome everyone. Today I have three wonderful guests on our podcast. I have Juliana Gylseth. Welcome.

Julianna Gylseth: Thank you.

Wendy Dau: And we have Kayla Spurlock.

Kayla Spurlock: Thanks.

Wendy Dau: And we have Logan McKinney.

Logan McKinney: Thank you.

Wendy Dau: You’re all music teachers, choir teachers in particular. Tell us a little bit about what school you’re at, how long you have been there, and maybe why Provo’s music programs are so incredibly awesome.

Julianna Gylseth: Awesome. Well, I have been here for 20 years in the district. This is my 20th year.

Wendy Dau: You don’t look old enough to have been here 20 years. Holy cow. That’s amazing.

Julianna Gylseth: Well, thank you. I’ve taught at Spring Creek Elementary the entire time, and really enjoyed the chance to work with the students there. We just have an amazing music program, I think, in our district, and that’s what we’re here to celebrate, is the way that the Provo School District has supported us for all of these years to ensure that all the Provo school kids have the opportunity to have a musical education in their lives. I love serving the Provo children and our community.

Wendy Dau: Awesome. What about you, Logan?

Logan McKinney: So I’m at Westridge Elementary. Um, this is my second year there. But I taught at Lakeview for about seven years before coming over.

웬디 다우 알겠습니다.

Logan McKinney: So I’ve been in the district for almost ten years.

Wendy Dau: Okay. Awesome.

Logan McKinney: Yeah, just like Juliana said, I mean, it’s amazing the work that the district does here in Provo to support the kids with the arts, music, and the visual arts across the board.

Kayla Spurlock: I have been at Franklin Elementary for 15 years, and that was my first job out of college, and I still have it because I love it.

Wendy Dau: I love that! Your enthusiasm is incredible.

Kayla Spurlock: Thank you. I was thinking of the fact that I think it’s true that Provo School District is the only school district that fully funds full time elementary music teachers across the board. I mean, what a gift to give to our students in the 15 years that I have taught.

I love just watching the effects of that really, and the student’s abilities to feel creative and the student’s abilities to, um, one of my students just said a couple of weeks ago, like, I feel so confident when I sing and I’m like, yeah, that’s why we are here, baby girl.

Wendy Dau: That’s right. That’s exactly right. You’re specifically all associated with the Kodály elementary music program. Tell us what that is. And why it’s so unique and why it’s so important to our students.

Logan McKinney: Zoltan Kodály was a Hungarian composer, musicologist and educator. And he really wanted to see how to help students be completely literate in music with reading music, understanding music, being able to sing, being able to, um, create and develop their own styles of music.

And so he really developed a system for the entire country of Hungary. For music education, every school had a singing class. Some schools had singing every single day. The Kodály singing schools. The whole idea is that every child is musical and these abilities should be developed to their full potential.

And so that’s what inspired me for it. I was a, an instrumental musician. Before I played the cello. But after studying this, I was like, this is how to teach children music. It’s high rigor, high impact, and bringing in the best materials.

Julianna Gylseth: Yeah, and the focus is definitely on the voice and the voice being the first instrument that a child has.

And so it’s very empowering for kids to be able to develop that side of who they are. When I say we develop their voices, it really is about their intonation and their singing, but it’s also very deep set in who they are in their hearts and in their souls of developing their personal voice.

Wendy Dau: Well, and I think what’s really powerful about that, too, is I don’t have to have a lot of money to have a voice, so it isn’t based on, you know, that I have to be able to buy this really expensive instrument to be able to do it.

It’s just I need the coaching and the support to be able to do it, and I can practice literally anywhere. It’s pretty incredible, right? Like that. That’s just I love it. I love it so much, but I’m a singer, too. So.

Julianna Gylseth: You are? That’s aweome!

Wendy Dau: I was totally inquire when I- Oh, yeah. Oh, we could go on. I have so many stories. I could show you videos.

It’s terrible.

Kayla Spurlock: I was just thinking to reiterate what you said, that it is a lifelong instrument to they’ll keep it with them their whole life. So, I mean, I remember clarinets that I’ve left behind in years past, but I still have my voice.

Wendy Dau: Yeah, my piano is still at my dad’s house, but my voice is still here.

It’s fantastic. Talk to us a little bit about why you think our choral program is so successful. Other than that, we have these full time music teachers. I mean, when I walk into your classes, or I come to one of your performances, the kids are, like you said, so confident, so excited. It really infuses the culture of the school.

It’s beyond just the kids that are participating in this. Talk a little bit about how you have developed that at your schools, because it really is incredible, and it just makes my heart so happy. I just have to tell you, I love it so much.

Kayla Spurlock: I think something that you already mentioned is our general music classes during the day are exactly what feed into that choral program and what make it so excellent when we’re practicing rhythms and melodies, having the children sing the folk songs and then trying to not speak in a bunch of musical jargon.

To derive the rhythms later or identify like all the musical intervals in the piece later with songs I’ve been learning in the general music classroom. It just we take those skills later into choir and they just more fluently learn the songs are able to add more nuance and musicality to them because of just the efforts we made in general music ed.

Julianna Gylseth: Yeah.

Wendy Dau: How many minutes a week does each kid have access to music? I mean, it probably varies a little bit.

Julianna Gylseth: It does vary from school to school, but the goal is to have twice a week, at least 30 minutes.

Wendy Dau: That’s incredible.

Julianna Gylseth: So that, yes. So that we can. You’ll really be able to have that consistency and the repetition so they can have the musical memory.

It’s not something that’s like, Oh, I’m trying to remember that from a whole week ago, but they’re able to have it continually be part of them. You know how it is being a musician. You’ve got to practice on a daily basis, but this at least gets us the opportunity to be with the kids and have that contact time.

I was going to say another thing, Wendy, about why the choirs are, like successful. I think a big part of it is community. It’s really brings in all of the families. It brings in all of the population. We’ve got kids from everywhere that all of our families that are looking for an opportunity to grow and looking for an opportunity to shine and the parents really get behind it.

So that’s one of my favorite parts as, as being a choir director is that it’s kind of a family, you know, it’s something we’ve developed over the years and they are, they’re my family.

Wendy Dau: That’s so great. What is your time commitment on the choir part of it? When are the kids engaged in because you’re teaching these music classes during the week?

So everybody across the school is getting access to this. But the choir piece is something that you’re putting a lot of extra time into. And I just want people to understand what that actually entails.

Logan McKinney: Right? And that’s another thing that I think is different from school to school, depending because like at Westridge, we have the sixth grade choir, so you could have it during the day.

And then we also have an early morning choir that we combine for these performances. And so I’m teaching the sixth grade choir twice a week. And then I’m also coming early in the morning to teach the early morning choir twice a week.

Wendy Dau: Cause you’re a teacher.

Logan McKinney: That’s what we do.

Wendy Dau: Oh my gosh.

Logan McKinney: And then when it’s time for performances, we have to pull them together so they can rehearse as a large group.

And so I’m really fortunate that I have support from the teachers who say, yeah, you can take my kids that are in the choir for these times to get them ready for it.

Wendy Dau: Good. What about you at Franklin?

Kayla Spurlock: We have after school choir, and I stay after about an hour and a half on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and rehearse our Christmas concerts at the beginning of the year, and then our spring concerts, and then of course the district festival that’s happening tomorrow, actually.

Yeah, it is a little bit of an investment beyond my general music classroom, but I’m also a musician too, and I love watching the students eyes light up when they begin to hear their voices harmonize, and understand like, oh, we’re moving beyond unison singing, and this is what it feels like when we have this polyphony going of different melodies at the same time, and it’s just so magical.

Wendy Dau: Yeah. Magical. That’s a great word for it. I love that. What is it that kids describe for you? You’ve kind of hinted at it a little bit, but what are the things that they love the most about participating just in a regular music class, as well as being part of a choir?

Julianna Gylseth: I think they just enjoy being able to have the friendships.

Like they have a place that they belong, a place that they know that they’re going to be accepted, that they are going to feel like they have community.

Like I was saying, we were just talking earlier about how oftentimes it’s our music teacher that sees us. You know, that it’s the environment where we’re like, oh, I’m seen here. I really am. And this is a place where I can grow and I’m accepted for wherever I’m at along my journey as a vocalist or as a musician.

And so, yeah, I think that that’s a big part of it, a place that they can be.

Wendy Dau: That’s great. That sense of community, the friendship, the belonging. Yeah, the belonging piece.

Does it have quite the same level of stress? Maybe it’s a different kind of stress than the rest of their school day. I feel like there’s this, no, this is amazing! I get to do something that’s so different from what I’m doing the rest of the day. It’s like, do you get kids that say things like that?

Kayla Spurlock: I do and I also love, I take pride in this really, that some of the students that I know have behavior issues during the week focusing in other subject areas when I hear about that later I’m always really surprised because I’m like this student is perfect in my class.

Wendy Dau: You don’t want to tell the other teachers that, right?

Kayla Spurlock: But I think just so much of what we do with their bodies are making music we’re kinesthetically involved a lot almost the whole class and it just It’s a great outlet for them to emotionally just express themselves, release and let tension and stress go of many different factors in their lives, especially at Franklin.

There’s a lot of factors going in. And yeah, I just pride in it. That music does that for them and I get to play a part in that.

Logan McKinney: Yeah. And they might not even know the rigor of it, you know, because a lot of it singing games or singing bass, they might think over just singing a fun song together. And not even realize that we’re actually teaching them musical concepts or we’re going to be pulling things out later that they’ll need to be reading and working with.

So it’s a wonderful balance of relaxation and also really intense rigor.

Wendy Dau: Yes, I read an article one time that said that choirs are really profound in the way that if people participate in them, their hearts start to beat like together and they start breathing. I mean, obviously you’re breathing together that that becomes kind of a no brainer.

But I didn’t even realize that like their heartbeats will start to sync up. And I just was like, what on earth? This is the most amazing thing ever. It’s like you become a single organism almost. Tell me what that’s like to like conduct that and to watch your kids go from say the beginning of the year from when they’re tiny in elementary school and watching that progression happen.

Because you get to have. Well, hopefully you get to have kids. Sometimes when we have high mobility, you don’t get to have kids all the time, but there are kids that you’re getting for several years in a row. Talk to us a little bit about what that means because I think that’s so powerful that you get to watch that progression of students and and to watch that progression in music is even more amazing.

Julianna Gylseth: I was just thinking today about how that’s like the biggest thing for me as to why I love what I do. Because like I have a student right now who is going to be singing a solo at graduation sixth grade and when she was in, you know, kindergarten, she could not keep a tune. That was the hardest thing for her, right? And she was nervous about it. And I knew her mom. Well, so we talk about it.

And over the years, she slowly, gradually was able to start following that melodic contour and be able to match the pitch. And then she joined choir.

And I’m like, wow. I mean, that’s a celebration when you’re like, wow, you’ve decided that, hey, you’ve You feel good about this enough that you’re going to step up and come and join and, and then to see her wanting to do solos and sound so beautiful.

It’s so exciting to go on that journey. It really is to see them, you know, see that growth.

Wendy Dau: And just to see how incredible these young people are, cause I feel like they’re tiny. Like I’m so used to high school kids and they’re very big. I’m just always so amazed at the talent and how incredible they are.

Kayla Spurlock: Something I love that is unique to Provo School District too is because we have music education during the week. I love the excellence of our choirs, I think is what I mean.

That yesterday I worked with my students a lot on getting a tall sound ready for the district festival. And they were holding their fingers up to their mouth and getting those unified vowels to make sure they blend with their neighbor. And I heard them doing the success criteria, like, am I blending with my neighbor?

And they would like audibly ask themselves this question. Am I, am I wrapping myself up in the sound next to my neighbor? I mean, that’s something that adults need to do and teenagers need to do in choir, but hearing students that young process, that kind of excellence in choral singing is rewarding to me.

That’s pretty incredible that they’re able to articulate that, too, and be able to say, oh, this is what I need to do, and this is what it’s going to sound like and feel like when I sing it.

Logan McKinney: You know, that’s their whole life. They could have this for their entire life. Like, I was at an event at BYU, and a young woman came up, and I taught her in sixth grade, and she said she was still in a jazz ensemble.

She joined the choir when she got to BYU.

Julianna Gylseth: Oh, wow.

Logan McKinney: She wasn’t sure what she was going to do with her life, but she found community right there, getting there. And I think that’s the beauty of it, is we give them a skill they can have for the rest of their life that will build community wherever they go.

Wendy Dau: And it really connects kids to school. It connects kids to that community. They’re just much more engaged in, in the things that they care about, for sure. Tell us a little bit about the inception of this choir festival, because this is unique. In my opinion, I’ve only been in three districts, but this elementary choir festival is phenomenal.

When I went last year, I was like, what in the world is this? This is the most incredible thing and the breaks that were built in. So the kids are going to be well behaved. I was like, this is, um, every single person needs to watch this masterpiece that is happening. It was, it was incredible. I’m so excited for tomorrow, but tell us a little bit about what it is.

How did it begin? And what you’re excited about for tomorrow.

Julianna Gylseth: Well, I’m just excited that you loved it so much.

Wendy Dau: I did!

Julianna Gylseth: I think that’s wonderful!

Wendy Dau: I did! It was amazing!

Kayla Spurlock: Thanks for coming!

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Julianna Gylseth: And, and I also love the, you know, that piece of that child, the, the, we want to make it child friendly. You know, choral singing can be very intense, as we’ve talked about.

There’s a lot to learn with that. But to make it fun and engaging for the kids. It’s a delicate balance as a choral director, especially at the elementary level. So yes, we do try to make it fun and engaging, but to answer your question about how this all began, we started with Spring Creek and well, it was actually Maeser at the time and Wasatch.

They had started having some full time music specialists and so they were having their choirs and they just wanted to have a chance to come and celebrate together. And so they met up at the Maeser building at BYU campus and that’s where it all began. And then year by year, more schools were added to the program and more and more choirs were part of it.

And really the idea behind it was to help just bring unity. It was all about the community. It was about giving an opportunity for voices from all sides of the district to come and join together. And to make it something that was a, you know, music is a great equalizer.

Wendy Dau: Yes, it is.

Julianna Gylseth: And so that was an intent. That was a big part of it.

Another part was an opportunity for choirs to be able to see how they were growing. And to then raise the level of each of the individual choirs so that we’re all helping each other, you know, attain greater heights.

Wendy Dau: And what’s your favorite part about the choir festival? I know the stress part is not your favorite part, but what’s your favorite part about it?

Kayla Spurlock: I like the exposure that my students have to all the other schools, that they, they recognize, Oh, we’re not just making choral music at Franklin, we’re going out and the other students are learning similar things. Maybe even, this might be a little snarky, but maybe even what Ms. Spurlock said is right.

Like, other, other choirs are tall too and she’s not just picking on me or something like that.

But just, and even the repertoire that we sing, I love that students get exposed to that and different genres.

Logan McKinney: Yeah, I love how excited they are about it. I mean, once they go, usually when it’s time for the next year, they’re excited and they want to do it again and they want to see the other choirs.

And I mean, they have friends, they do sporting events, so they have friends all across the district. So it’s really fun for them to see their friends in the other choir programs.

Wendy Dau: I also noticed one of the things that was just so fascinating to me was it didn’t matter which one of you got up in front of all of the kids. They knew exactly what you were talking about because you are a really amazing collaborative group that works together and you are very intentional about what you’re teaching and how you’re teaching it and how you’re building on those skills. And it was apparent just like within five minutes.

I was like, oh, my gosh. This is like the best professional learning community I’ve ever seen in my whole entire life. And the student outcomes were right there because they were so incredible. And what they were able to do. I was just amazed. I’m sorry. I really was. I just thought it was incredible, so…

Julianna Gylseth: We love working with each other.

You know, I think, I think that there is something to be musicians. Again, it comes back to singing together, creating together. We in that creative process, you can’t help but to become friends. You know, we’ve been through highs. We’ve been through lows, but more than that, we share a curriculum. So we are constantly having conversations about how we can meet the kid’s needs better.

We enjoy each other. We’re friends.

Wendy Dau: Oh, good. Yes. There’s actually a question that says that if an employee really enjoys their work, they actually identify their colleagues, not as colleagues, but as their friends and that that’s a really high indicator that they have pretty good job engagement and job satisfaction, which I thought was fascinating.

So good job. That means you’re doing that for each other. Your friends, not just colleagues. That’s, that’s amazing. What has been the greatest challenge in pulling off something like this that you’re doing tomorrow?

Julianna Gylseth: Kayla is our great organizer.

Kayla Spurlock: I got logistics coming out of my ears. And maybe it’s because I’ve done it for a few years.

It’s gotten easier once templates are made for things, but I think just getting everyone on the same page of this is like, I need your songs by this day. I need, we need to get the buses by this day. We need to pick out the group sing song that everybody sings together. But really I think it’s all just communication.

So as long as I pull my planner out and I know I need to give everybody warnings by certain dates and everyone has time to check their email and process how they’re going to apply that to their school. But really, because we’re so collaborative in other aspects, it is a well oiled machine. They just know what’s coming and I try and check in with people a lot and give gratitude.

I think gratitude is a lot when, when things like this happen. So many people serve the event, they serve me, we serve each other. And I, I try to be good at just saying, thank you so much for helping us bring this to pass.

Wendy Dau: And it takes a lot of people to pull something like that. Yeah. What is a fun challenge that comes from doing this, like that you would say, because I think one of the things that’s so fun about teaching is it’s like, can I get this group of kids to do this? Like, have you had an experience like that as a choral director? I would love to hear a story just about that.

Logan McKinney: One thing that makes it really unique is that you’re taking your choir to sing.

But you’re also having them sing in front of every other choir. And so it’s a very different kind of stake that goes into it, where it’s not so much, oh, your parents will be there. They love you. Everything’s going to be great. It’s like, wow, we’re all here. And this is a real experience. Because when you go into this, you’re not going to choose your audiences.

They’re going to be there. And so I think there’s something really special about that. We’re representing our school. And we’re going to be singing in front of other singers. We’re all in this together. So there’s this really powerful moment that comes from that.

Wendy Dau: No pressure.

Logan McKinney: Well, and you know, that’s the hard thing because what’s nice about it is you’re the performer, but you’ll be the audience in a minute.

And so it’s, this is a very, it’s a community, but it’s a lot of pressure, it’s a different experience.

Wendy Dau: But that’s also good for kids to experience that kind of intensity, I think, especially with a really loving and kind teacher, because that intensity is going to happen lots of times in their lives, right?

And so if they can start to learn, this is how I handle these particular situations and do it in a very supportive environment, then as they get older, and maybe that supportive environment isn’t as supportive or isn’t as present. They’re not afraid of those kinds of things. It really challenges them. It’s just a very powerful thing, I think.

What do your middle school and high school colleagues say about the fact that we have a robust music program? Because I come from places where it’s like, the reason we don’t have good music programs is because there is nothing good happening in the elementary school.

I’ve heard that and, and I would imagine because based on what I’ve seen as I’ve gone to choir concerts and, uh, different things at the middle schools and high schools, we have a very different setting that’s happening here. And so talk a little bit about that vertical alignment and that collaboration as they’re moving into the secondary level. What that looks like.

Julianna Gylseth: I just went to the concerts last week over at Timpview, and it was a combined concert between Centennial and Timpview. I was blown away. I was impressed with the level of musicianship that they were achieving at the high school level. I mean, they even had an organist up there and they were all singing Amazing Grace together.

And it was, it was very moving. It was really well performed at a very high level. I was impressed. And today we were just in touch with Heather Williams over at Centennial. We were just talking about how our success is so dependent on each other. We are all successful together and it’s all about the kids.

It’s exciting to see these kids going into middle school and continuing.

웬디 다우 네.

Julianna Gylseth: That’s what we want. And I would love to even see more of that. I think that that’s something we can definitely engender more is making sure that those kids have a place to go when they get to that middle school level and when they get, you know, that they’re continuing on into high school.

I would love to see us all doing that even more because there’s amazing things happening vertically.

Wendy Dau: I’d agree with that.

Logan McKinney: Well, and one thing I really like to do before COVID and the big change is we would have side by side concerts with the middle school. And it was so much fun to take the elementary school up there and have them see the program that they’ll be able to go into.

And it was really, it was a wonderful experience. And then COVID happened and now we’ve have to get back on track with everything, but it was really powerful for them to see the teacher that they’ll be able to work with and really powerful that for them to see the program that’s up there and say you can be a part of this.

It’s not just here at school. You can keep doing this

Wendy Dau: What do you think is the, well, I won’t say greatest benefit, but what do you think are the benefits of kids being involved in music at a younger age that travels with them throughout their life, whereas if they start, say, music at the secondary level or start it later?

What have you seen in your experience about why that’s so powerful? Because we hear about it all the time with sports, but it’s the same thing with music. And so I would just love to hear your ideas about that. I grew up in a musical household. So like music was always in my home from the time I was born.

I, my dad was always singing. So I just think it’s, it’s a very powerful thing. And, and I’d love to hear your thoughts about that.

Julianna Gylseth: One of the thoughts that comes to me initially is that it’s language development. Really, it is, the first sounds we hear as a baby are musical sounds. And one of the books that we’ve been reading as a team, some of us have had the chance to read it, is Of Sound Mind by Nina Krauss.

Logan McKinney: Nina Krauss.

Julianna Gylseth: Right. Yes, it’s it’s amazing. She has a research lab called Brain Volts. And that’s the whole idea is that our world is full of sound ingredients. And we construct our meaning based on the sound that we are continually surrounded with. And we get to choose what those ingredients are as part of our life.

We get to choose the kind of music we’re listening to. But not just music, the linguistic sounds that we’re hearing. And I really feel that music and the language that we speak are just … I mean, they’re tied, right? We have the phonics of music that we talk about. You know, we sing so fa to the children.

You know, do re mi. You know, all those kinds of things. That’s the phonics of music. But, you know, it’s the same thing as that we’re working with children. We’re working on being able to understand the semantics. You know, to be able to break down all of the little pieces of a language. They go together, hand in hand.

Logan McKinney: Yeah, and from Nina Krause’s work, it’s really fascinating that you can take an 80 year old who had music lessons as a child, and their brain will show that they had music lessons as a child. Those neural pathways stay for their entire life, and they found that even as you get older, they’ll still, they won’t need hearing aids.

Not necessarily because their hearing isn’t decreasing, but because they have such a great differentiation ability in sound that they can still hear in a crowded room because they’ve been trained and their brain has that categorization and that differentiation of sound. It’s kind of difficult because you realize the profound impact that this does have on them and that having music twice a week will change their lives forever.

Even if they don’t necessarily like it and even if they don’t necessarily participate fully, that experience will be with them forever and it’s really powerful. I mean, there’s a study out of Canada. Where they say that active music making is the gold standard for brain development in small children and every child should be participating.

Julianna Gylseth: And what do we ask our students to do? We always say, listen, you know, if we could just listen and really that’s what they’re learning with music is those listening skills and we’re asking them to even fine tune those. listening skills and connect it to the brain on an even deeper level of being able to hear pitch relationships and those kinds of things.

There’s also very clear evidence out there that says that children who can keep a beat and can keep a rhythm, they are ready to read. So there is a correlation between beat and rhythm with reading readiness.

Wendy Dau: That’s incredible.

Julianna Gylseth: It’s huge.

Wendy Dau: Anything you wanted to add?

Kayla Spurlock: Just a couple weeks ago, one of my students that I had over 10 years ago, she was bringing in cupcakes for her little brother’s birthday.

I had to do a double take, because, you know, they get older, and you’re like, you look just like this student. And she’s like, I am that student. I mean, she didn’t miss a beat. She just jumped in, and she’s like, guess what, Ms. Spurlock. I am going to the University of Arizona this fall and I am studying music. And it was just so, it was like a full circle moment for me.

And I remember matching pitch and intonation, things like that were very, came easy to her as a child. It was so interesting to watch her using gifts that I knew she had with the education that she had received in Provo all the way through secondary, she was going to keep going on and making a life’s mission with it.

And those are moments I look forward to. And you’re like, yes, yes, you just see the impact of that forever.

Wendy Dau: That’s really great. I probably just have all of these useless facts from weird podcasts and whatnot that I listened to, but there was one too, that said that the music that you listen to before the age of 25 stays with you more than any other music in your life like it just gets embedded into your brain and I was like this is why I remember all of those songs from elementary school like, I can, I seriously can. It is really interesting to me. Even music that we sang in high school and I know all of the words, like, how does that happen?

Because I can’t remember the words from the Taylor Swift song I listened to yesterday, but I can remember all of the words to, I don’t know. Anyway.

Kayla Spurlock: Those neural pathways!

Logan McKinney: Those neural pathways.

Wendy Dau: It has, it has burned into my brain. It’s pretty amazing.

Logan McKinney: Well, and Kodály talks a lot about that in his writing is he talks about choosing the right materials for the students.

Because it is so important that they have the only the best is good enough for the child. He would write over and over and over again because he knew it lasts forever. And so you want to give them a very good foundation. We use folk music, we use high art music. It’s all the very best that we can give these children.

And a lot of times people say, well, why don’t you sing popular songs? Why don’t you do this? And because they’ll get that. You know, they’ll get that their whole life. We’re giving them something special that they can carry with them.

Wendy Dau: Oh, it’s really great that you emphasize that because you’re right. I’m going to listen to Taylor Swift no matter what that’s going to happen.

But the exposure to the other pieces has to be very intentional and it does. It changes you. It’s really powerful.

Julianna Gylseth: I believe it opens their world to we do folk music, a lot of folk music. And so it gives them an appreciation for not only our culture, which is very diverse. And so, you know, we bring in the, the music from Appalachia, did I say that right?

Wendy Dau: Yes, you did.

Kayla Spurlock: Oh, good job.

Julianna Gylseth: You know, and then we also bring in the music from the Southern African American influence in our country, but then also world music, the folk music of many people. And today my students were singing a song from India and they love that song, they just beg to sing that song, but it’s opened our mind to a wider world and to step into those worlds.

Wendy Dau: When you guys do such an incredible job too, of teaching kids about the composers and about the context and what is surrounding this piece of music and why and what it means. And so they really do get the whole context and can really kind of put themselves in the place of people who were singing it, even if it was hundreds of years ago.

That’s very powerful. It allows the student to kind of think outside of themselves. So, well, I am looking forward to tomorrow. What should I be the most excited about?

Julianna Gylseth: The kids.

Wendy Dau: Wow. I can’t even believe I asked that question.

Kayla Spurlock: They’re excited to show off what they’ve been working on.

Wendy Dau: I’m excited. Well, I want to thank all of you for being on our show, for sharing your love of music with our students and our community. It’s so fantastic. Your energy and passion is contagious. I love it. Thank you.

Kayla Spurlock: Thanks for having us. Thank you.

Wendy Dau: If you missed our 25th annual choir festival, you can still tune in to our YouTube channel to watch. We will provide a link in the description below.

Thank you for joining me for this episode of What’s Up with the Sup’. As always, all episodes will be posted on the district website, YouTube, and anywhere you get your podcasts. If you have any topics or questions you would like us to discuss on the podcast. Please email us at podcast@provo.edu. And don’t forget to join us again next week for another episode of What’s Up with the Sup’.

Have a great day, everyone.