Gifted and Talented teachers’ concert will benefit program
There will be a day when one of the students will graduate from the classroom into the real world and join Troy Davis on stage.
He’s predicting it.
And Mike Esneault is already experiencing it. He traveled to Switzerland in November for a performance and was joined on stage by a drummer named Simon Lott.
Lott was one of Esneault’s students in the East Baton Rouge Parish Schools’ Gifted and Talented Music Program.
“And it was great to be able to perform with him,” Esneault said.
Just as Davis is predicting great things for his students in the future.
“I tell them about how I’ve performed in different places, and how I continue to perform professionally outside of school,” Davis said. “And I tell them that one day, I will see them in Baton Rouge, some of them married with children. Maybe some of them not. But all of them playing music and having successful professional careers.”
Meantime, Davis, Esneault and other members of the music program faculty will come together to perform in “An Evening of Music: Classical to Jazz” on Thursday, Feb. 23, in the Manship Theatre.
Concert proceeds will benefit the Gifted and Talented Music Program.
“And it will highlight the talent we have in that program,” Sherry Scardina said. “We want to recognize this talent and let the community see the caliber of talent we have teaching in our music program.”
Scardina is the supervisor for the Gifted and Talented program, and she also would like the concert to serve as an inspiration to parents.
“I hope it encourages them to have their children tested for our music and theater programs,” she said. “We have such expertise at the junior high and high school levels, and the students in these programs benefit from that talent.”
She speaks of talent such as Davis, a highly regarded drummer in the jazz world. He performs several nights a week with Jeremy Davenport’s group in New Orleans and is a regular installment in the LSU Jazz Faculty’s annual summer concert series, “Hot Summer Nights and Cool Jazz.”
He’s also a product of the East Baton Rouge Parish School system, which is one reason he decided to return to Baton Rouge after performing throughout the world.
“I actually met my wife in an airport in Paris,” he said. “We were living in Boca Raton, Fla., and I was traveling. And it was so nice there. But traveling takes its toll on family life, so when we decided to start having children, I knew that I would settle in one of two places — New York or New Orleans.”
Davis chose New Orleans. It offered plenty of musical opportunities, and he could live in his hometown of Baton Rouge.
It also opened up an opportunity for him to teach as an adjunct instructor at the University of New Orleans, a position that eventually was supposed to be made full-time. But the position suddenly was cut.
That’s when Davis received a phone call from his friend Esneault.
“He asked if I would be interested in teaching on the high school and junior high levels in the Gifted and Talented program,” Davis said. “I learned through the music business to never say no. Always say yes and check it out. If you don’t like it, you can always quit and go to something else.”
Now, Davis had only taught on the college level, and he points out now that the level of instruction received by the students in the music program is highly advanced.
“They usually wouldn’t get this kind of instruction until they get to college,” Davis said. “But they’re getting it now, and they’re getting it in East Baton Rouge Parish.”
And Davis obviously learned something new from the program, himself. He’s been teaching it in for four years now.
“I love it,” he said. “I love being able to give back and pass on knowledge. And I love being able to teach these kids at an early level and shape their musical backgrounds.”
Especially when it comes to junior high school kids.
“I’m catching them really early,” he said. “And they’re so much fun. I teach them at Glasgow Middle School, and they’re so smart. They’re so ready to learn, and they soak up everything like a sponge.”
Of course, there’s always that middle school energy with which Davis must deal. Especially among aspiring drummers.
“There’s one student in my class that has so much energy he can’t keep still,” Davis said. “So, I tell him to go to the side of the classroom at the beginning of class and do 25 jumping jacks. Once he’s done, he’s ready to sit down and listen.”
The amazing part about it all is what these kids see when Davis walks into the classroom. He’s cool, he’s fun and he cares about what they learn.
But they see him as a teacher.
They may or may not truly comprehend who the person is standing before them. He’s the guy who has performed with such jazz greats as Roy Hargrove, Marlon Jordan, Joe Henderson, Kenny Burrell and Wynton and Branford Marsalis.
He’s the guy who has made a half-dozen recordings with Terence Blanchard.
He also performed in Blanchard’s Latin American quintet tour.
And he’s worked with Blanchard on movie scores, as has Esneault.
That lineup includes the movies Original Sin, Caveman’s Valentine and People I Know.
But the shining star in Esneault’s biography is the Emmy Award he won for composing the score for the PBS documentary Atchafalaya Houseboat.
Still, he simply mentions it, because his students are the focus at this moment. This concert is for them, to raise funds for their program.
Esneault is a pianist. He’s also director of the music program’s jazz group, and some of the students from that group will be performing in the concert.
And when he’s not teaching, Esneault, like Davis, is performing with jazz groups both in and out of town.
But again, the focus here is on the Gifted and Talented program, and Esneault and Davis will be joined in this concert by fellow faculty members Jamie Hipp, Yong-Hao Pan, John Bishop, Kim Costanza, Marie Flowers, Jo Garner, David Hinson, B.J. McGibney and Clarence Johnson III.
These teachers will be joined in the upcoming concert by New Orleans jazz vocalist Stephanie Jordan. Zia Tammami will be the master of ceremonies.
And maybe one day somewhere down the road, the students in these classrooms will see their names on the concert bill.
As teachers who happen to be performers, sharing musical knowledge with their students.