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The Future of Woodland Music – Marissa Iezzi

People of all ages seem to love music, as it encaptures a moment, a feeling, or a story in just three or four minutes. Music underscores a teenage life – going to concerts with your friends, driving in the car late at night blasting the radio loud, and even attending your younger siblings’ school concerts. It underlines movies, television shows, and is the reason for so many people become famous. Though music is so widely loved and enjoyed, many students at Woodland do not participate in anything musical, even though they love and appreciate it greatly.

New band and choir teacher Marissa Iezzi plans on bringing this love of music to life.

Iezzi believes the key to changing this is to bolster interest in the arts, and she has already started her mission by creating a winter music department showcase with the school’s Thespian Society. The show was December 7th at 6pm, and featured the Woodland band, choir, a few members of the Thespian Society, and a student band outside, the 3 O’Clock Losers (composed of Natalie Katrenya, Michael Baz, Ryan Zhu, and Austin Woloszyn). This night of music was some of the thunder that the department needs to pique interest.

Smaller music and fine arts class sizes at Woodland has become a new normal, and at Iezzi’s old school, James Hillhouse High School in New Haven, there were approximately 979 students in total attending the school. That’s almost double the amount of students attending Woodland Regional. That means that the amount of students in every class of Iezzi’s at Hillhouse was likely double, even triple, the current music class sizes at Woodland.

If one looked into the band room while the concert band is in practice mode, they’d see a room full of hard working and talented musicians, yet, if they enter the room while the band was not practicing, they’ll be lucky enough to see a room full of students who are enjoying themselves and have formed something of a large family. From strings to percussion, to sopranos and basses, the entire music department is a talented, driven, close group of students who do what they love together, and share that love with the rest of Woodland.