Dewitt laments lack of music teachers on Saipan

Despite the abundance of musical talent among CNMI students, there is a serious lack of music teachers who could help develop and bring out these talents, according to William Dewitt of Saipan Southern High School.

In a presentation before members of the Saipan Rotary Club yesterday at the Hyatt Regency Saipan, Dewitt, who is also the musical director of the Manta Band, said: “There’s a lot of musical talent among the CNMI students but there’s a dearth of music teachers to train and nurture these talents.”

“We don’t have qualified teachers in other schools right now,” added Dewitt.

He said he would love to extend his commitment to develop the musical ability of other students in other schools but with over 120 members in his band, he can only do so much.

He said there’s also the lack of musical instruments to cater to the students’ needs. Right now, he said, they want to have a drum set, which costs up to $8,000.

“We [also] need more woodwind instruments,” Dewitt said. “Right now we have 80 brass instruments and about 40 to 50 woodwind instruments.”

Dewitt and eight members of the Manta Band represented the CNMI during the Opening Ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics. “We were the last group of the 2,008 musicians that were part of the opening ceremonies,” Dewitt said.

The group made it to the event after the Manta Band won the Gold Award at Guam’s 2008 Tumon Bay Music Festival in March this year.

That success, Dewitt said, was mostly because of the dedication of the band members. He said they began grueling daily practices in January 2008, always early in the morning before classes begin. The students themselves proposed the 6am practice schedule, he added.

He said it all paid off when they bested 30 groups of all genres and came home with the title of Best Musical Group Overall as well as Best in Show.

Band members Anthony Gamez and Trimi Macduff joined Dewitt in sharing their Beijing experiences with the Rotarians and talked about their goals for the future. Both expressed a desire to pursue degrees in music upon graduation.

Other band members who made it to Beijing were Raegina Castro, Ray MacDuff, Gayle Martin and Ted Parker.

Dewitt said they would definitely go back to Guam next year to defend their title. “We’re now practicing for that,” he said.