In late August, Dara Adams-Smith sat down with Indë Francis (Web, Media, & Marketing Admin at NCMC) to chat about her connection to the Music Center and what she teaches here. A true musician and seasoned educator, Dara is proficient with a range of instruments, and teaches several in Private Lessons at NCMC: trumpet, trombone, drums, clarinet, and early flute. Dara also teaches Animal Adventures in Music, a foundational course that teaches children ages 3-7 musical concepts, folk songs, and popular music through a colorful, hands-on curriculum.

After years and years in the public school system, I wanted a more personal approach to teaching.... I love that at NCMC students come in and they know it's time for music, without the distraction of other classes.

Dara taught at Hampshire Regional for over two decades, evolving hundreds of students into budding musicians, but there's only so much you can control in a grade school environment. As a music teacher in a grade school, you learn that attention is always divided.

The bell rings, and the class cascades in, still processing the science lesson from last period. You hold as much focus as the students can offer as you dive into the day's instruction. The kids in the back chatter while you introduce a new song to the curriculum. The intercom interrupts your demonstration. Someone asks a great question, and you feel the class lean in with intrigue. Your answer satisfies the room, and you begin running through the semester's repertoire. Before you know it, the bell rings again, and the instruments fall from students' hands. Sheet music flies into binders, binders into backpacks, backpacks onto bodies, and bodies off the chairs. Harmony turns to cacophony as students begin the next movement, be it History, Spanish, or Math. If you're like Dara, you adapt to each batch of students attentively and passionately, engaging them in the joy of music that'll keep playing in their minds long after they leave your classroom. You shelve your thoughts, and prepare for the next period. Sneakers squeak across the linoleum floor. The bell rings again.

Since you're reading this newsletter, you're likely well aware that the arts are a fundamental part of human development on an individual, communal, and global scale. So while public schools can be stretched thin with variable challenges in their dedication to arts education, NCMC is constant. This is what Dara appreciates; students of all ages and backgrounds come to our campus solely for music. There's a natural atmosphere of focus and creative expression that gathers here, so when her student walks into the room, music is their focus, and Dara can give that undivided attention right back.