Music Department Chair Dr. Michael Monroe, band teacher Dr. Clayton DeWalt, senior Jonathan Celli, who plays guitar and sings in the school band, and sophomore Bryce Concepcion, who acts regularly on stage, dive in.
The question is set. All the panel need do is demonstrate its truth, hence Quod Erat Demonstrandum.
Why are the arts and religion so entwined, and how does this enrich an education?
Bryce Concepcion: There was so much effort and love poured out behind the scenes of this year’s fall play Arsenic and Old Lace. From building CM’s largest-ever set to memorizing the script and the characters’ many mannerisms and blocking…. That labor comes from the faith that something good will come out of it.
Michael Monroe: And even with all that work, there’s so much unknown in any performance. Even as teachers, sometimes we don’t know if a performance will be a disaster or if it will all lock into place. You need that faith because it often does feel like there’s not a way to get there.
Clayton DeWalt: I agree there is a leap of faith in any artistic endeavor. There is also an intangible element to art and expression that goes along with the intangible element of religion. In both, you’re trying to express something bigger than yourself.
Jonathan Celli: Learning an artistic craft and having opportunities to demonstrate a skill in performance makes me thank God because He gives you the skills and ideals that make you you.
Monroe: Yes, there’s something about your soul or your spirit that comes through in an artistic performance that doesn’t come through any other way.
Do you feel that CM is cultivating a renaissance of student participation in the arts?
Monroe: The kids who are involved in the performing arts are super dedicated. A kid who acts in a play will keep coming back because they want that experience. I think what we’re doing is good, but there’s plenty of room for more people to get involved.
Concepcion: Yeah, it’s definitely hard to get kids to do the play because of stage fright. But once they get over that, they inevitably realize how fun it is. I feel that the arts being separate from academics and not being a requirement hinders the program because people see it as an optional risk they’d prefer not to take.
DeWalt: Exactly. A curriculum that requires arts education can be a huge benefit to a school’s program. Students may not otherwise take those risks as Bryce said, but they absolutely will once they’re already in the classroom. I love the light of discovery when a student realizes they’re good at something they may not have tried otherwise.
Celli: I agree, I had no idea I would love performing so much. I’ve always liked music, even produced some by myself, but when I step onto the stage, I feel that I’m expressing myself entirely. And that’s because someone in the band asked me to join and I said, “you know what, I’ll do it.” Honestly, it’s probably the best decision I’ve made, this senior year.
DeWalt: Students inviting each other, that’s the biggest thing that can make an arts program viable.
When you flub a line or hit a wrong note, does that bring something more than embarrassment?
DeWalt: Recognizing your own vulnerability in those moments, that’s another overlap with religion. Both a church and an ensemble are communities of people who gather together and admit that they’re not perfect. We all know that, as artists, we’re going to make mistakes, but the collective adventure towards a moment of performance is amazing.
Concepcion: If you never messed up while performing, people would see you as a robot. A mistake is a reminder that we’re human beings on the stage. It can be embarrassing, but most people in the audience will relate and move on.
Monroe: And in those moments, you feel so alive. There’s a new kind of energy that comes, just think about how dialed in you are when that happens. Everyone’s brain starts speeding up to figure out the next move.
DeWalt: Exactly, ears perk up for the whole group. Being in an ensemble like a band, a cast, or stage crew, teaches students that everyone has to spot the problem and recover from it together right in that moment because it’s happening live.
Do the arts help you see everyday academic problems in a different way?
Celli: Band, theater, they’re kind of an escape from the academic day. It serves me as a rest before I go back into traditional classrooms and reminds me to observe things in a creative way.
Concepcion: We were talking earlier about forgetting a line and having to think quickly and that correlates to academics, like giving a presentation that you haven’t memorized.
Monroe: There’s a lot of research that shows that performing music is good for the brain. Music is math, even though it doesn’t feel like it. Your brain is doing a lot of sophisticated work. It’s doing the same sort of thing as calculus homework.
DeWalt: And there’s no shortcut to doing a performing art well. You have to put in serious time, the arts require real attention to detail. I think that can train you to take time to slow things down, in whatever you’re doing in life, and recognize this process will not be quickly resolved. The more creative you are, the more you’re going to have to solve problems and find new avenues to do what you need to do. It’s a great way of learning.
Monroe: As teachers, we’re often pushed too. My training is in classical music, but when I’m teaching digital production now, I realize that my students don’t want to arrange Vivaldi concertos, they want to make hip-hop beats, which I knew nothing about. Now I’m having to learn about them, and it’s really fun for me too.
DeWalt: Right, I’ve been forced to play new instruments a lot more. My first year teaching at CM, I played a lot of piano, left-hand-bass, which was a big leap for me, and this year I’m playing drums.
Monroe: But it’s super rewarding, right?
DeWalt: Yes! Selfishly, it’s very enjoyable.
Dr. Monroe and Dr. DeWalt, have you witnessed a major transformation in a student directly because of what they’re doing in your classes?
Monroe: Chris Boensel ’24 came in as a freshman, a really quiet kid. I remember he joined the play the first year, it was hard to get a read on him. By the time he was a senior, he was a national champion in speech and debate, he was absolutely the leader of my choir, he was the lead in our spring musical and other plays. He may have aspired to do those things, but I did not see who he was going to become.
DeWalt: This is only my third year at CM, so I haven’t seen anyone from start to finish, but it’s really cool to have someone like Jonathan in the band. I had no idea that you hadn’t sung in front of people before until minutes before we performed in front of the whole school. That’s a huge transformation over the course of eight weeks. And there’s a middle school student, Trevor Foster ’29, a guitarist who’s just been flying.
Concepcion: He’s good.
DeWalt: He’s great!
Monroe: Our boys don’t seem to be afraid of failure.
Is art truly love?
Monroe: In the Psalms, we’re told to sing to God, we’re told to make music, so I do think it is a vehicle for love.
Concepcion: Not only a vehicle, but an expression. Art is love; you take a look at Dr. [Michael] Corso, he put, again, so much effort and love into building the set for Arsenic and Old Lace, and into directing us. His love for it inspired us to push past the struggles of a production.
DeWalt: I think art is all things. It’s the human condition reflected in what you choose to do and how you choose to do it. If our humanity was designed in heaven, that intangible element I spoke of earlier is brought to earth through art.
Celli: I believe in the power of lyrics. I mean, The Beatles, “All You Need Is Love.” It’s a chant you can keep saying and saying, and it keeps uplifting the best of humanity.
Monroe: That’s a good example. Those are powerful words, but being set to music is what makes that song communicate much more deeply to people.
Concepcion: It’s like the song we sing at every mass, “Carry Your Candle,” it’s something for all CM boys to remember that we are helping others, helping each other, and we’re all trying to grow.