Darryl Williams, a co-founder of the Robson Ranch Classic Rock Club, chats with Borman Elementary School fifth-grade orchestra students. The Robson Ranch Music Club and the Robson Ranch Classic Rock Club donated more than $1,800 to the elementary school orchestra to cover fees and transportation to a 2023-2024 music festival.
Orchestra students get a $2K boost from Robson Ranch music clubs:
'It becomes a part of your life'
By Lucinda Breeding, Staff Writer
September 13, 2023
Thanks to two music clubs at Robson Ranch, orchestra students at Borman Elementary School won’t have to worry about the expense of maintaining their instruments. They also get to end the school year with a music festival at NRH2O, the water park in North Richland Hills, with the trip expenses covered by the clubs’ donations.
Frances Hackley, Jay Vandenbree and Darryl Williams decided their Robson Ranch music clubs could help Denton ISD elementary school students better afford the introductory string program. Hackley is the president of the Robson Ranch Music Club, the community’s longstanding choir. Vandebree and Williams are a member and cofounder of the Robson Ranch Classic Rock Club, respectively.
The clubs set a target amount of $1,800 to cover students’ annual fees for orchestra and to cover transportation to a festival performance. They donated $2,286 Wednesday morning.
“Here at Robson, music and the arts are really, really important,” Hackley said.
The choir performs concerts for Veteran’s Day and Christmas, capping off their seasons with a spring concert. The classic rock club brings in cover bands for its wildly popular concert series, Epic Unplugged.
“They’re huge,” said Williams, who opened the Flower Mound School of Rock years ago before retiring.
“People camp out here for tickets. They set up tables and play games. We sell out.”
The choir raised money for the Borman program’s 2022-23 school year, and when Hackley started thinking about renewing a fundraiser for the 2023-24 year, she reflected back on the reasons the singers wanted to pitch in.
“I was talking to my board, and I was saying music is so very important. It’s something that, once you learn it and know it, it stays with you and it helps you your whole life,” Hackley said.
Hackley said she also started reading about some successes educators and music therapists are having by using music with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
“When you get started with music at a young age, it becomes part of your life a lot of times and it’s helpful in a lot of areas in your life,” she said.
Robson Ranch residents have supported Borman Elementary School through a backpack drive for school supplies.
Hackley said the neighborhood around Borman is more economically challenged than other schools, so she called last year and asked if any students had to forgo music studies because musical instruments are too expensive to rent. School officials told her that the rental rates are affordable, but students still have to pay for a pair of shorts to wear in concert, as well as cleaning cloths and resin for their instruments.
When Hackley posted on the community’s message board, the Classic Rock Club answered.
Vandenbree said he’s seen music make people more thoughtful and curious, so he jumped at the chance to give Borman students more access to orchestra education.
“Imagination and creativity really come out in a music student because they’ve had to do that all through their studies,” he said. “And they also appreciate, a little bit deeper, culture because they play music from different eras and different countries and different things along those lines.”
Williams said he’s had a lifelong passion for music and enjoyed his years at School of Rock passing that passion down to emerging musicians. The Borman students might not be sitting behind a drum kit yet, but orchestra will open new worlds for them. He said the Borman program can bring students out of their shell, just like the garage band program does through School of Rock.
“And these are kids usually that aren’t the cheerleaders, and they aren’t on the baseball team or the football team,” Williams said. “I would see kids come in and want to get in the program. And they couldn’t, a lot of them, look you in the eye. But at the last concert of the year, you’d see that same student with their foot on the monitor, leaning over and singing to the crowd. You’d be like, ‘who are you?’ I think the kids in this program can have the same kind of experience.”
For the 2023-24 year, Denton High School Orchestra Director Sandra Cubero said the Borman orchestra could use help getting students to the music festival in North Richland Hills. Cubero and the assistant orchestra director, Michael Jones, lead 26 Borman students in their violin studies.
Jones said the program takes good care of the instruments.
“Right now, it’s my violin cases that are falling apart,” he said.
Cubero said she’s thrilled the clubs have paid for the bus for the North Richland music festival.
“Transportation is actually really expensive,” Cubero said. “We go on a field trip every year, and it’s something we do for retention. They get to perform and then have fun at the water park.”
Cubero said the dollars from the Robson clubs stretch further than the donors know and that their generosity is something of a tradition.
“It’s amazing,” she said. “It’s really great, and this is a very Texas thing to support the arts. Texas is very supportive of the arts, and these students get to participate without worrying about all the costs. It’s not a scary topic. I tell them that money should never be the reason for you to not participate in this.”
Getting fifth graders to continue orchestra in middle school benefits Denton High School, which ultimately provides the instruments to Borman at a lower cost. Students on the free and reduced lunch program can rent an instrument at an even lower cost.
“The longer they have the instrument in their hands, the more comfortable they are by the time they get to high school,” Cubero said.
'It becomes a part of your life'
By Lucinda Breeding, Staff Writer
September 13, 2023
Thanks to two music clubs at Robson Ranch, orchestra students at Borman Elementary School won’t have to worry about the expense of maintaining their instruments. They also get to end the school year with a music festival at NRH2O, the water park in North Richland Hills, with the trip expenses covered by the clubs’ donations.
Frances Hackley, Jay Vandenbree and Darryl Williams decided their Robson Ranch music clubs could help Denton ISD elementary school students better afford the introductory string program. Hackley is the president of the Robson Ranch Music Club, the community’s longstanding choir. Vandebree and Williams are a member and cofounder of the Robson Ranch Classic Rock Club, respectively.
The clubs set a target amount of $1,800 to cover students’ annual fees for orchestra and to cover transportation to a festival performance. They donated $2,286 Wednesday morning.
“Here at Robson, music and the arts are really, really important,” Hackley said.
The choir performs concerts for Veteran’s Day and Christmas, capping off their seasons with a spring concert. The classic rock club brings in cover bands for its wildly popular concert series, Epic Unplugged.
“They’re huge,” said Williams, who opened the Flower Mound School of Rock years ago before retiring.
“People camp out here for tickets. They set up tables and play games. We sell out.”
The choir raised money for the Borman program’s 2022-23 school year, and when Hackley started thinking about renewing a fundraiser for the 2023-24 year, she reflected back on the reasons the singers wanted to pitch in.
“I was talking to my board, and I was saying music is so very important. It’s something that, once you learn it and know it, it stays with you and it helps you your whole life,” Hackley said.
Hackley said she also started reading about some successes educators and music therapists are having by using music with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
“When you get started with music at a young age, it becomes part of your life a lot of times and it’s helpful in a lot of areas in your life,” she said.
Robson Ranch residents have supported Borman Elementary School through a backpack drive for school supplies.
Hackley said the neighborhood around Borman is more economically challenged than other schools, so she called last year and asked if any students had to forgo music studies because musical instruments are too expensive to rent. School officials told her that the rental rates are affordable, but students still have to pay for a pair of shorts to wear in concert, as well as cleaning cloths and resin for their instruments.
When Hackley posted on the community’s message board, the Classic Rock Club answered.
Vandenbree said he’s seen music make people more thoughtful and curious, so he jumped at the chance to give Borman students more access to orchestra education.
“Imagination and creativity really come out in a music student because they’ve had to do that all through their studies,” he said. “And they also appreciate, a little bit deeper, culture because they play music from different eras and different countries and different things along those lines.”
Williams said he’s had a lifelong passion for music and enjoyed his years at School of Rock passing that passion down to emerging musicians. The Borman students might not be sitting behind a drum kit yet, but orchestra will open new worlds for them. He said the Borman program can bring students out of their shell, just like the garage band program does through School of Rock.
“And these are kids usually that aren’t the cheerleaders, and they aren’t on the baseball team or the football team,” Williams said. “I would see kids come in and want to get in the program. And they couldn’t, a lot of them, look you in the eye. But at the last concert of the year, you’d see that same student with their foot on the monitor, leaning over and singing to the crowd. You’d be like, ‘who are you?’ I think the kids in this program can have the same kind of experience.”
For the 2023-24 year, Denton High School Orchestra Director Sandra Cubero said the Borman orchestra could use help getting students to the music festival in North Richland Hills. Cubero and the assistant orchestra director, Michael Jones, lead 26 Borman students in their violin studies.
Jones said the program takes good care of the instruments.
“Right now, it’s my violin cases that are falling apart,” he said.
Cubero said she’s thrilled the clubs have paid for the bus for the North Richland music festival.
“Transportation is actually really expensive,” Cubero said. “We go on a field trip every year, and it’s something we do for retention. They get to perform and then have fun at the water park.”
Cubero said the dollars from the Robson clubs stretch further than the donors know and that their generosity is something of a tradition.
“It’s amazing,” she said. “It’s really great, and this is a very Texas thing to support the arts. Texas is very supportive of the arts, and these students get to participate without worrying about all the costs. It’s not a scary topic. I tell them that money should never be the reason for you to not participate in this.”
Getting fifth graders to continue orchestra in middle school benefits Denton High School, which ultimately provides the instruments to Borman at a lower cost. Students on the free and reduced lunch program can rent an instrument at an even lower cost.
“The longer they have the instrument in their hands, the more comfortable they are by the time they get to high school,” Cubero said.
Sandra Cubero, the Director of the Denton High School Orchestra, surprises Borman Elementary fifth graders who are studying orchestra. The Robson Ranch Music Club and the Robson Ranch Classic Rock Club donated more than $1,800 to the school's orchestra program to cover fees and transportationduring the 2023-2024 school year.
Pictured, from left: Juan Cardona, Borman Elementary School music teacher; Darryl Williams, Robson Ranch Classic Rock Club; Mike Jones, Denton High School assistant orchestra director; Frances Hackley, president of the Robson Ranch Music Club; Jay Vandenbree, Robson Ranch Classic Rock Club; Kelley McGee, Denton ISD Assistant Director of Fine Arts; and Sandra Cubero, Denton High School orchestra director.
The Robson Ranch Music Club and the Robson Ranch Classic Rock Club donated more than $1,800 to the Borman Elementary School's orchestra program to cover fees and transportation during the 2023-2024 school year.
The Robson Ranch Music Club and the Robson Ranch Classic Rock Club donated more than $1,800 to the Borman Elementary School's orchestra program to cover fees and transportation during the 2023-2024 school year.
The Borman Elementary School Orchestra poses for a photo with members of the Robson Ranch Music Club and the Robson Ranch Classic Rock Club. The clubs donated more than $1,800 to the elementary school orchestra to cover fees, as well as transportation to a 2023-2024 music festival.