Grammy-winning teacher’s secret? He gives kids a place to belong |
On Board Online • May 12, 2014
By Connie McKinney
Special Correspondent
Andrew Webster never knew he had a gift for music until he took a music class at Westfield Academy and Central School District taught by music teacher Kent Knappenberger.
“Students most people don’t think much of, he sees something in them,” Webster said. “This is what he saw in me. Every kid is looking for their niche – something to belong to.”
Webster went on to star in two musicals before he graduated in 2007. Today, he’s following in the footsteps of his favorite teacher by working as a substitute teacher at Westfield. He is one of hundreds of graduates of the tiny Chautauqua County district who count Knappenberger as a huge influence in their lives.
Even though Westfield has only 723 K-12 students, it puts on two or three musicals per year. It has several different choruses and bands including a steel drum band, a hand bell choir and a singing group called the Ape-Men.
Knappenberger created the last group to attract boys to music. “They‘re willing to try things if it‘s just a bunch of boys in the room,” he said. “We try to make it a safe place for them to do that.”
Knappenberger’s ability to connect with all kinds of students has earned him national recognition. He is the first winner of the Grammy Music Educator award.
Knappenberger, 48, was selected from among more than 30,000 teachers nominated nationwide from public and private K-12 schools as well as colleges.
"They are recognizing and acknowledging that virtually anyone who wins a Grammy in any category was influenced at some point in their life by a music educator,” said Nancy Ditmer, who served on a panel of judges that chose the winner. Knappenberger’s energy, ability to engage students and the wide variety of musical groups at his school helped him win the award, said Ditmer, who is president of the National Association for Music Educators.
In January, the Grammy Foundation arranged for Knappenberger to fly to Los Angeles to receive his award and a $10,000 honorarium at a Special Merit Awards ceremony. The school district received a matching $10,000 that will be used to buy new instruments and provide enrichment opportunities for music students.
A tall man with an impressive beard, Knappenberger did his best to fit in with the glitterati in L.A. as he walked the red carpet and posed for photos with stars such as Ringo Starr, who was there to accept a lifetime achievement award on behalf of the Beatles.
“I’m prone to emotional breakdowns at any time; that’s your only warning,” Knappenberger said at the ceremony. “Music is a reminder of who we are, and an expression of who we’d like to be. Thank you for honoring and encouraging those of us on the front lines of music education.”
Accompanying Knappenberger in Los Angeles was Westfield school board President Jeff Greabell, who said he wasn’t surprised to see Knappenberger win national acclaim because of his inclusive approach to education.
“He believes that you can be a part of a musical program without an enormous amount of talent,” Greabell said. “You just need to be creative.”
The son of a United Methodist pastor, Knappenberger’s ambition as a youth was to become a dairy farmer. But he took a lot of electives in music education while he was a dairy science major at SUNY Fredonia. In his senior year he switched to music education and went on to get a master’s degree in music education, harp performance and literature from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester.
Knappenberger currently owns one cow, a registered Guernsey named Giggle, but he barely has time to milk it. He and his wife, Nannette, have nine children. Eight were adopted from Brazil, where Knappenberger used to do volunteer teaching during the summer.
What did winning the Grammy educator award mean to him? “It’s a very overwhelming vote of confidence,” Knappenberger said.
Having the first winner come from New York is also a vote of confidence for the quality of music programs in the state, said John Krestic, a past president of New York State School Music Association who has known Knappenberger since his under- graduate days at Fredonia.
“It shows that music and the arts need to be an integral part of any child’s education,” Krestic said.
“He has this uncanny ability to know what motivates students,” said Roger Chagnon III, a 1999 Westfield graduate. “He figures out ways to get each student involved if they choose to be.”
Chagnon already played the piano when he took Knappenberger’s class. To keep him from getting bored, the teacher challenged him to try different instruments. Soon, Chagnon added guitar, harp and mandolin to his musical repertoire.
Knappenberger tries to get as many students involved in music as possible, including coaxing the shy to try out for musicals. They sing solos in front of a packed audience.
“They might not sing it the best,” Chagnon said. “They might not dance it the best. But they’re going to come out of it a better person.”
Knappenberger looks for the slightest sign that a child may possess some hidden musical talent.
“Kids are works in progress that are still learning,” he said. “It’s not about us having a great choir or a great band. It’s about skills that you learn that you will take with you,” such as problem solving.
They learn more than how to sing a solo or how to play a guitar chord, Knappenberger said.
“It’s a great vehicle to help kids figure out who they are as people,” he said. “I like to think we develop a kid’s sense of self. They become the human being they’re meant to be.”
He tries to spark their interest in music and get them to feel like they are competent musicians, he said.
“If you feel you’re competent at something, you’re willing to try it, and sometimes you end up liking it,” he said.
“We aren’t just reserving our musical performances for the top 12 percent,” he said. “You’re going to hear everybody doing something.”
That includes students who are struggling and may not be the easiest ones for teachers to deal with, Webster said.
“He breaks down walls where most people would run the other way,” Webster said of Knappenberger. “He has a way of making you feel special. I have seen many kids who would have gotten in trouble that have been able to turn it around.”
One boy was getting into trouble in school as an eighth-grader, Knappenberger said. He asked the boy and some other classmates to come together and start singing on Fridays.
“They felt special,” he said.
All of the boys will be graduating on time this spring. For these boys and many other students, music can be the reason why a student comes to school and sticks it out to graduate, Knappenberger said.
“This is why we have arts in our lives,” he said. “It’s not just a diversion. They somehow make the pressures bearable.”
His student groups have been successful, including a choral performance at NYSSBA’s 2011 Annual Convention in Buffalo. The Celtic string band, which includes honor students, students with disabilities, parents and local musicians has performed at New York State School Music Association competitions and for a regional competition in Connecticut.
During these trips, Knappenberger takes along some wool from sheep he raises himself. His fingers never stop spinning and then knitting as he conducts rehearsals. By the time the concert is held at night, he is wearing a sweater he knitted himself, former students recalled. He and his wife Nannette also knit sweaters for the players.
Knappenberger is a busy man but never hesitates to come in early or stay late to tutor a student who needs extra help. He also finds creative ways to help fund the music program. For example, he saves money set aside in the budget for professional music arranging by doing his own musical arrangements. The money is then used to buy supplies and instruments such as hand bells and steel drums.
Singing in the choir or playing in the band under Knappenberger is an experience most students never forget, said Jennifer Greutman, a 2001 Westfield graduate.
“He makes you want to be good at what you do,” she said. “We felt like the best parts of us came out when we were doing music under his tutelage.”
Some of Knappenberger’s former students have followed in his footsteps and become music teachers.
“His success made it possible,” said Laura Lee Anderson, a 2002 Westfield graduate who now works with the Urban Impact Foundation in Pittsburgh, where she teaches inner-city children how to perform Shakespeare.
“We had really high standards at Westfield,” she said. “Now I pass those standards onto my students.”
To see videos that Westfield submitted in support of Knappenberger’s nomination of the Grammy award, go to http://goo.gl/nK9OYE and http://goo.gl/RI6fAK. A video of Knappenberger teaching a class can be viewed at http:// goo.gl/GSyXev. You might also want to check out the Ape-Men singing Lee Brice’s “I Drive Your Truck” at http://goo.gl/61qkvE.