A Musical Metaphor for Life

Hannah Graves

"Always be the best you can be at whatever you're doing," said Dr. Erin Bodner in response to the question, "What do you want the students of the Massed Band Festival to take away from this experience?" 

Last week, fifty-five Dalat International School students traveled to Bangkok, Thailand, for the annual ISB Massed Band Festival. Every other year the Dalat high school band has the chance to attend this special event. This year, students had the opportunity to experience a very proficient conductor. Before the concert on 12 September, they spent two entire days preparing music with Dr. Bodnar and five other international schools from the Bangkok area.

“She had a very passionate connection with the music and the students,” said Jarrod Chang (11).

 Dr. Bodnar’s positive attitude contributed to the students’ improvement over the course of the two days.

“She really pushed us to be the best we could be and try our hardest throughout all of the practices,” Titus Hwang (12) commented.

Dr. Erin Bodnar, from Alberta, Canada, received a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Seattle in Washington. She is now the conductor of the Symphonic Band and head of the music department at Graceland University in Ohio. She used her musical experience to teach the students valuable lessons during the festival, and her passion for music and expressive attitude truly inspired the young musicians around her.

A favorite takeaway for some students were her metaphors for music.

“I love all the different colors [instrument sounds] of music and how each piece of music brings out different colors,” she repeated to the band numerous times. “Don’t let the audience see a black canvas, paint the picture for them!” she continued.

In response to the question, “What do you love about music?” Dr. Bodnar replied, without hesitation, “Sharing it!”

She surely did share her love for music with all of the students at the International School of Bangkok during the two days of this festival. The memories made and lessons learned will surely not be forgotten.