THE violinist steps forward from her fellow schoolmates and gently places the stringed instrument to her cheek. What comes next is music so unexpectedly beautiful as to put tears of joy into a grown man’s eyes, music like the sound of God breathing.

The young Chamorrita soloist plays “Le cygne (The Swan)” from Camille Saint-Saens’ The Carnival of the Animals with a lushly romantic maturity that causes adults in the audience to blush. Dreams must sound like this: elegant, sad ... hauntingly melodic.

“She played so beautifully,” effused Harvest faculty member Sarah McGrew, herself an accomplished musician and a member of the Guam Symphony. “She had the musical maturity and the native intelligence to shape her sound and turn the music into art,” McGrew observed proudly.

Harvest Christian Academy sophomore violinist Maranatha Hennegan was but one of a multitude of stars of the Orchestra Concert held on May 10. Those of us lucky enough to be in attendance at the Harvest auditorium that night were privileged to see and hear the smart product of the well-rounded music education going on in Toto village.

Harvest Christian Academy is the only school on Guam that offers a comprehensive Fine Arts program, including general music, art, band, choir, drama and piano. Led by musician-teachers Kevin Inafuku, Lisa Flower, April Briggs, and Andrew Dongon, Harvest students learn music as part of their daily school life.

Under the direction of Miss Kelly Schlarb, the Harvest strings program has grown into a large part of the school's musical offerings. Groups perform at most all of the yearly concerts and compete in islandwide competitions. Some students are involved in-group and have private lessons for violin, viola, cello, and double bass. Through much faculty dedication and hard work, Harvest has a full symphony orchestra to play by combining the strings from the orchestra and the woodwinds from the band.

Mozart Effect

If the “Mozart Effect” does exist, and it lives at Harvest Christian Academy. The “Mozart Effect” refers to the popular observation that babies exposed to classical music, even in utero, tend to have higher intelligence and cognitive development. Its primary scientific support comes from a 1993 study showing that classical music temporarily improved college students’ scores on two parts of a general intelligence test.

The study of music is more likely to boost overall intelligence more than simply listening to it. Making music likely stimulates creative parts of the brain that mindless video games can likely never excite. More music majors who applied for medical school were admitted, compared to those in other majors including English, biology, chemistry, math, and Temple Run video game playing. (“The Comparative Academic Abilites of Students in Education and in Other Areas of a Multi-focus University,” Peter H. Wood, ERIC Document No. ED327480; “The Case for Music in Schools”, Phi Delta Kappan, 1994.)

Music seems to prime our brains for certain kinds of thinking. After listening to classical music, adults can do certain spatial tasks more quickly, such as putting together a jigsaw puzzle.

The classical music pathways in our brain are similar to the pathways we use for spatial reasoning. When we listen to classical music, the spatial pathways are "turned on" and are ready to be used. Researchers believe that musical training creates new pathways in the brain.

The complex music most people call “classical” – works by composers such as Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart – is different from music such as rock and country. Researchers think the complexity of classical music is what primes the brain to solve spatial problems more quickly. So listening to classical music may have different effects on the brain than listening to other types of music.

Parents and childcare providers can help nurture children's love of music by playing music for your baby and singing with your children. It doesn't matter how well you sing! Hearing your voice helps your baby begin to learn language. Babies love the patterns and rhythms of songs. And even young babies can recognize specific melodies once they've heard them.

Sing with your child. As children grow, they enjoy singing with you. And setting words to music actually helps the brain learn them more quickly and retain them longer. That's why we remember the lyrics of songs we sang as children, even if we haven't heard them in years.

The belief that music is a luxury is false. As someone smarter than me once said, music is as necessary for humankind as it is for birds. In the quiet of the night, we may hear the voice of God. In the music of our children, we may hear celestial respirations.