01:00 AM EST on Sunday, April 2, 2006

The spiffily dressed fifth graders in Loren Palmer's music classes at Sheffield, Underwood and Cranston-Calvert schools slide into seats in the Navy Band's big rehearsal room at the Newport Naval War College.

These are the kids in Palmer's "Famous Fifth Grade Band," according to a tradition started back in 1978. Largely brokered by Palmer himself, the partnership between the Navy band and the Newport schools has been growing ever since.

The Newport schools' band program starts in the fifth grade, so the kids have had only from September to March to get familiar with their instruments, as well as a couple of longish -- for them -- pieces of music. One is a memorized march they play about 12 times in the St. Patrick's Day parade, and the other is the piece they'll play with the Navy band today.

The Navy-Newport schools partnership includes a Christmas concert for the community at Rogers High, with 300 singers on stage and the Navy band in the pit. The Navy's Brass Quintet plays at the fifth-grade graduations. And Navy musicians volunteer as guest teachers in the schools.

But the events today are designed, in Palmer's words, to inspire "musical shock and awe" in the city's youngest musicians.

To start, the band's director, Lt. Raymond Penland, introduces the "Chief," (chief musician) Jim Ramsey, who will conduct all of the musicians today. But first, the grownup band will play a few numbers, just as a warmup.

The kids come equipped with band instruments themselves, so it is with a great to-do that they find a spot for their cases, music, book bags and so forth. Eventually, they get settled.

Ramsey takes the lead and gives the kids a little talk about his role and the music. Even as he is talking, a kettle drum starts a low, quiet, but insistent beat. Maybe I've seen too many stirring old movies, but band music gets to me for some reason. To boot, the kettle's opening moments were only a foretaste of a longer introduction -- a highly embroidered, musical-comedy-like overture -- which finally broke into an over-the-top "America the Beautiful." The only way I could keep it together was to concentrate on the kids.

And they were rapt. Eyebrows raised, heads stuck forward -- these kids were impressed! The music quieted for a moment during a modern, semi-atonal bridge that gave the audience a chance to catch their breath before the next gigantic swell driving to a full-on Star Wars-scale ending. Jaws dropped.

Discipline was not going to be an issue today.

After a few more numbers, Ramsey invited the kids to get their instruments and join the grownups -- many of whom were quite young, of course. Twenty-seven kids crowded in with the regular musicians, each attached to an expert in his or her instrument.

A pleasant cacophony ensued as each section worked out small segments of the music. They talk about fingering, breathing, tricks for getting a softer sound out of a wind instrument. The kids seem very on-task.

Finally the chief suggests they give it a go. The kids have been working on "As Eagles Fly" specifically for this moment. This is "their" music. Together, Navy and kids, they play through part of it until Ramsey stops them. "We're having a problem with tempo. Without the bass helping us out, you have to play it in your heads. Don't slow it down or speed it up." They try again. It's better.

At another stop, Ramsey asks, "Who can tell me what legato means?" Someone shouts out "slow." Nope, so he asks again. A bunch of Navy smarty-pantses in the back raise their hands, but he waves them off as someone shouts out "connected." "Yes! Right! So you need to keep your air-stream steadier, more like how you might sing it." They go again. You can hear the improvement.

The ending was a total mess. Finally Palmer conceded "We haven't actually gotten to the last note yet." OK, so the Navy folks are going to do it without the kids and the kids will imitate what they do. The grownups play the last section with a really crisp end. A little nervous, the kids join the Navy to play the section again, but this time it is tight, precise and good. The grownups are enthused and the kids beam.

In the course of the day, the kids will hear the Navy's jazz ensemble, brass quintet, woodwind group and finally the rock band. It's an eye-opener, especially for those, say, 10 kids who clearly are what Palmer calls 'dry sponges.' These kids "just eat up everything I throw at them." After the mini-concerts, the kids have lunch with the musicians on the base.

Palmer tells the story of the most recent product of the partnership. "I found the perfect piece for a joint performance. Entitled 'Sweet Land of Liberty,' it was a 30-minute musical of American patriotic and folk songs that was perfect for our choral students systemwide. When asked I if he would entertain the notion of a joint performance, Lt. Penland's immediate response was, 'Of course! Let's do it.'

"We decided to dedicate the concert to the men and women of Rhode Island's National Guard, especially those serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. We would make a DVD of the event, and donate 1000 copies of it to the adjutant general to distribute to his troops in the field. There were 350 singers on stage -- every choral student from grades three through twelve; 50 members of The Newport Navy Choristers, with whom we share our spring concert; and 90 musicians in the pit -- every member of Navy band plus members of the Rogers High School band and orchestra. Thirty minutes after the first downbeat, there wasn't a dry eye in the hall."

Very cool, for literally everyone involved and touched by the event.

In a dense little state such as Rhode Island, rich with variety of institutions -- some world-class -- it's hard to believe that more of them couldn't partner with a school to their mutual benefit, somehow. OK, maybe not with such a perfect combination as learning music and being thrilled with a Star Wars ending, but with creativity and pluck, more partnerships could offer kids special time and attention, not to mention a glimpse into a real grown-up world.

Julia Steiny is a former member of the Providence School Board; she consults and writes for a number of education, government and private enterprises. She welcomes your questions and comments on education. She can be reached by e-mail at juliasteiny@cox.net or c/o The Providence Journal, 75 Fountain St., Providence, R.I. 02902.