A Little Orchestra Can Make a Huge Sound

All through the Colorado Academy Lower School Orchestra’s before-school, Thursday morning rehearsal—through the Fourth and Fifth Grade musicians’ constant shuffling of sheet music; the breathless late arrivals; the tumble of coats, instrument cases, and backpacks across the floor; the tuning and retuning of instruments; the spontaneous giggles, side conversations, and blurted questions—conductor and Violin and Viola Instructor Olasuyi Ige’s warm smile and patient tone never falter.

“I just love seeing the joy my students have when they’re making music with themselves or each other,” Ige explains. “I keep remembering how if I’d never had my own fifth grade music teacher, I wouldn’t be doing anything even remotely close to this—teaching and playing professionally. This is truly what I want to put my life’s work into.”

The son of a Nigerian father and American mother who met in Germany and settled in Tennessee, Ige—whose given name, pronounced “Oh-la-shoo-yee,” is a common one in the Yoruba language of West Africa—never felt drawn to the popular music of his youth: hip-hop, R&B, and all the other American genres his friends devoured. “I concluded, ‘Well, I guess music just isn’t for me.’”

But one day, Ige was entranced when he happened upon a television show about classical music, and soon after, his fifth grade teacher suggested he give the violin a try. “And I said, ‘That sounds fun—sign me up!’” recalls Ige. The moment led to undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music and, even before he had completed his master’s, an offer to teach music lessons and conduct at CA.

“Music at CA has really been the best thing to happen in my life so far.”

‘What got you there’

The Thursday morning rehearsal is one of the last before his ensemble’s first big public performance, a concert for newly admitted Lower School students and their families. Ige remains unbothered that nervous excitement outweighs actual practicing in the crowded rehearsal room in Schotters Music Center by about two to one.

“I tell my students all the time that when it comes to performing music, it’s not about things being perfect; if I want something perfect, then I can just listen to Spotify. People don’t believe it, but even most classical recordings you hear have so much editing and studio magic behind them that we rarely hear music that’s unaltered.”

The beauty in the Lower School Orchestra’s playing, he continues, is that it represents “something that we made ourselves. It’s just like sports: You do all this hard work, and in the end, what matters isn’t that you won, but what got you there.”

Indeed, hard work is Ige’s trademark as a music instructor and professional string player. In addition to teaching around 40 violin, viola, and piano lessons to students in Kindergarten through Grade 12 every week, the multi-instrumentalist also performs a dozen times a month in the Denver Candlelight Concert series and with the Symphony of the Rockies, Boulder Symphony, and Greeley Philharmonic. He and a group of fellow musicians even book weekend weddings and parties.

Of course, he spends a big chunk of each week thinking about how to conduct an orchestra composed of Fourth and Fifth Graders who are, for the most part, still learning how to read music and play their instruments even as they work on social emotional foundations such as self-regulation and caring for their peers. 

“Individual lessons are wonderful,” says Ige, “but there’s not much room for collaboration. Getting to play with someone who plays the same instrument as you, or who plays a different instrument than you, just teaches young people so much: how to work together, how to manage their time, how to get along, how to listen, how to give and accept feedback. These are the skills that will propel them forward in life.”

Still, according to Ige, “Being able to take private instrument lessons here during the school day is awesome for our students. Growing up, I sometimes had to go to my own lessons at 9:00 p.m. just to fit them in. At CA, students are so excited to run over to the music building and knock on my door. They get to put their school day aside for a moment, forget anything that’s worrying them, and then go back to the ‘real world’ recharged.”

A big stage

CA’s music “pipeline”—from individual lessons starting in Kindergarten to ensembles in all three divisions of the school, including chamber groups, orchestras, and jazz and rock bands—means that every instrumentalist has the chance to become part of what Ige describes as a “huge sound.”

“I know that playing my instrument alone I sound like this,” he explains. “But then when I’m part of something bigger, playing alongside four or five or 20 other musicians, it’s a whole different experience.”

At the concert for new CA families, the members of the Lower School Orchestra get their chance to go big in front of the parents and guardians of their soon-to-be peers, who fill in almost every seat beneath the Choir Room’s iconic stained glass windows. The sounds of the medieval-inspired “Dragonhunter,” a short orchestral piece by Richard Meyer arranged for this group by Ige, swell and recede as everyone plays their part. 

Understandably, the nervous Fourth and Fifth Graders rush the tempo a bit, but they stay together, all the way to the final chord, after which the musicians stand and bow during the appreciative applause. Not perfect—but by far, this group’s best performance ever.

Seeing the moment of pride and joy light up the faces of his young instrumentalists, Ige notes, he can’t help thinking, “Wow! Now this is what I’m here for.”