About+Mr.+Baillargeon


 * About Mr. **** Baillargeon **



Mr. Luke Baillargeon has been Instrumental Music Director at the Westfield South Middle School since the 2006-2007 school year. He teaches the 6th Grade Band, 7th & 8th Grade Band, 6th Grade Keyboard Class, 7th Grade Guitar Class, 8th Grade World Music Drumming Class and after-school Jazz Band. He also co-advises the National Junior Honor Society.

Mr. Baillargeon has held the positions of MMEA-WD //(Massachusetts Music Educators Association)// Junior Jazz Band Manager, MMEA-WD Auditions Adjudicator for Junior and Senior French Horn and trumpet, Chairperson for MAJE //(Massachusetts Association for Jazz Education)// Western District Junior and Senior Jazz Festivals, Great East Festival Coordinator, and Music in the Parks Coordinator/site host. He maintains an active professional playing career performing for various functions on multiple instruments and as a vocalist.

Mr. Baillargeon has been awarded the Pioneer Valley Grinspoon Excellence in Teaching award twice: once as a novice teacher in 2005 and once as a veteran teacher in 2011.

Baillargeon attended the Westfield Public Schools K-12 where he was taught music by Janice Longstreeth, Walter Gladwin, Eugene Bartley, Thomas Gannon, Patrick Kennedy, and Korey Bruno. He graduated Westfield High School in 1999 winning the John Philip Sousa Band Award, the Louis Armstrong Jazz Award, and the National School Choral Award. Mr. Baillargeon graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2003 with degrees in Music Education and Music Performance studying under George Parks, Malcolm Rowell, Jeff Holmes, Laura Klock, David Sporny, Wayne Abercrombie, and Lanfranco Marceletti among others. He earned his Master's Degree in Education from Westfield State University in 2013. His main hobby besides musical pursuits is distance running. As of 2015 he's run 11 full marathons and 2 ultras.



=**Why Play Music??** =

 12 REASONS WHY SUPPORTING YOUR CHILD’S MUSIC EDUCATION MAKES YOU AN AWESOME PARENT!! 1. Early musical training helps develop brain areas involved in language and reasoning. It is thought that brain development continues for many years after birth. Recent studies have clearly indicated that musical training physically develops the part of the left side of the brain known to be involved with processing language, and can actually wire the brain's circuits in specific ways. Linking familiar songs to new information can also help imprint information on young minds.

2. There is also a causal link between music and spatial intelligence (the ability to perceive the world accurately and to form mental pictures of things). This kind of intelligence, by which one can visualize various elements that should go together, is critical to the sort of thinking necessary for everything from solving advanced mathematics problems to being able to pack a book-bag with everything that will be needed for the day.

3. Students of the arts learn to think creatively and to solve problems by imagining various solutions, rejecting outdated rules and assumptions. Questions about the arts do not have only one right answer.

4. Recent studies show that students who study the arts are more successful on standardized tests such as the SAT. They also achieve higher grades in high school.

5. A study of the arts provides children with an internal glimpse of other cultures and teaches them to be empathetic towards the people of these cultures. This development of compassion and empathy, as opposed to development of greed and a "me first" attitude, provides a bridge across cultural chasms that leads to respect of other races at an early age.

6. Students of music learn craftsmanship as they study how details are put together painstakingly and what constitutes good, as opposed to mediocre, work. These standards, when applied to a student's own work, demand a new level of excellence and require students to stretch their inner resources.

7. In music, a mistake is a mistake; the instrument is in tune or not, the notes are well played or not, the entrance is made or not. It is only by much hard work that a successful performance is possible. Through music study, students learn the value of sustained effort to achieve excellence and the concrete rewards of hard work.

8. Music study enhances teamwork skills and discipline. In order for an orchestra to sound good, all players must work together harmoniously towards a single goal, the performance, and must commit to learning music, attending rehearsals, and practicing.

9. Music provides children with a means of self-expression. Now that there is relative security in the basics of existence, the challenge is to make life meaningful and to reach for a higher stage of development. Everyone needs to be in touch at some time in his life with his core, with what he is and what he feels. Self-esteem is a by-product of this self-expression.

10. Music study develops skills that are necessary in the workplace. It focuses on "doing," as opposed to observing, and teaches students how to perform, literally, anywhere in the world. Employers are looking for multi-dimensional workers with the sort of flexible and supple intellects that music education helps to create as described above. In the music classroom, students can also learn to better communicate and cooperate with one another.

11. Music performance teaches young people to conquer fear and to take risks. A little anxiety is a good thing, and something that will occur often in life. Dealing with it early and often makes it less of a problem later. Risk-taking is essential if a child is to fully develop his or her potential. Music contributes to mental health and can help prevent risky behavior such as teenage drug abuse, which often leads to institutionalization in a teen rehab.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">12. An arts education exposes children to the incomparable. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Carolyn Phillips is the author of the Twelve Benefits of Music Education. She is the Former Executive Director of the Norwalk Youth Symphony, CT.