feature stories
Music to her ears
Jun 8, 2006 1:52 PM
Longtime elementary school teacher, creator of unique program, rewarded for public service
Marie Sanzone’s music lab at PS 247 in Brooklyn surpasses what most private schools offer.
Music teacher Marie Sanzone got a standing ovation when she was recently named one of six 2006 recipients of the Sloan Public Service Awards. The awards, given by the Fund for the City of New York, are the highest independent honor for city workers who display extraordinary commitment to serving the public, often far from the limelight.
Sanzone, a longtime elementary school teacher working at PS 247 in Brooklyn, has taught music to 6,000 children so far and is still counting. She created a much-heralded, high-tech, one-of-a-kind music program that surpasses what most private schools offer. Her lab consists of a teacher’s workstation and 16 student computers connected to a keyboard synthesizer.
“It started a little at a time with a Project Arts grant in 1998,” Sanzone said. “The lab went up in 1999 and each year we used our funds to buy another computer. Then one of the parents saw that the program was so wonderful she convinced our then-superintendent to gift us with 10 additional computers, and soon the lab was complete.”
The innovative teacher uses technology to enhance traditional music education such as training the ear, reading and writing music, and playing the keyboard. After the basics the sky is the limit: exploring jazz, classical music and other styles, and playing instruments. It’s a far cry from just playing the recorder, which was pretty much the only resource Sanzone had 38 years ago.
“The UFT was extremely important in planting the idea in my head,” Sanzone said. “In 1997 I went to a Saturday workshop run by Sylvia Dunsky [former chair of the New York City Music Teachers Association/UFT] where Don Muro, an internationally known educator in music technology and computers, was speaking.
“I thought it was such an exciting idea but cost a lot of money. When I was approached at school to write a proposal connecting music to academic disciplines, I connected with Muro,” she said. “He helped us set up what is now the program at PS 247. But I always think back that if it wasn’t for that UFT workshop, I would never have known that this wonderful tool existed, the tool of technology in enhancing music education.”
Sanzone, who plans to reincarnate her lab as a resource for Region 7 and replicate her success for other music teachers, has forged partnerships with Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center and arranges for artists to perform in her classroom. When she won the Sloan award, she was cited for opening up her students’ world and for constantly reinventing her teaching style as her students’ interests and circumstances change.
Some years that has meant using music to teach history, fractions and geography. But every year, Sanzone makes a point of engaging parents, uniting children and their families with the universal language of music, which is no small feat. Currently, 30 languages are spoken at her school.
Discovering the use of technology and establishing the music lab came late in Sanzone’s career. “It energizes my teaching, gives me another way of doing what I was already doing all those years, gives me another hook in working with today’s computer generation,” she said. “I love it; I absolutely love it.”
