“I do not know exactly how it happened,” Moll, senior, said. “It was a really old bass that was donated to [the orchestra], and it always had big seams that were open.”
Moll said that small damages like this are expected in an older bass, and they are caused by the wood of the bass warping or changing over time. These damages do not have a critical impact on the bass’s sound.

Moll said this year, however, the bass was subject to more severe damages caused by vandalization.

“[My first reaction] was ‘why would somebody do this?’,” Moll said when she saw the three inch by six inch hole in the instrument. “Bass and cello players normally use the school instruments for class rehearsal, but now I have to bring my own bass to school every day, which is kind of a pain.”

As unfortunate as these damages are, they seem even worse once the uniqueness of the instrument is understood.

“The bass was made in 1880-something,” Patrick Jackson, orchestra director, said. “I taught a student back in 1998 in the Parkway District. Then in either 2003, ’04 or ’05, I was contacted by the family and was told that the student still had the bass but was no longer playing it and wanted me to have it.”

Jackson said he then donated the bass to the orchestra. He also said even though the bass is old, it would not crack if it fell, and the damage would have had to have been done by a person.

According to Jackson, the repair is very complicated and is being payed for by the district. Jackson also said this is not the first time he has found an orchestra instrument that has been vandalized.

“Earlier this year, there was a cello in the band room with a hole put in it about as wide as your thumb. That [repair cost] came out of our orchestra budget,” Jackson said.

Andie Barnett, sophomore, works at St. Louis Strings Violin Shop, where the bass currently resides and where the orchestra sends most of its instruments for repair, so she is able to see instruments from several different schools come into the shop for repairs.

“I have never seen anything like this. Basses and cellos usually come in for general repair, but I have not ever seen damage to an instrument as purposeful or intentional as this one,” Barnett said.

Barnett also said that the incident had an impact on the entire orchestra, making students fear the same thing may happen to their instruments.

“[The vandalization] scared a lot of people, because they are wondering if it is safe to keep their instruments at school,” Barnett said.

Jackson, Barnett and Moll all said since the occurrence, the instrument storage area in the orchestra room is constantly locked. Students needing to get an instrument from storage must be supervised by a teacher.

“People need to know how serious the problem is, and how the damage the student did to it was so detrimental. It is really a shame that this had to happen to such a great instrument,” Barnett said.

In the KHS orchestras, students play difficult music, travel around the country to participate in contests and rehearse each day at school. But since last year, orchestra students also write letters. In order to keep fourth and fifth grade musicians in the program, each high school orchestra member is assigned a fourth grader to be pen pals with through the school year.

“We wanted a program to bring more of a connection between the high school and elementary school orchestras,” Patrick Jackson, symphonic orchestra teacher, said. “We want to know the elementary school kids as young musicians.”

One current fifth grade cellist was pen pals with a high school student during the year she was in fourth grade.

“When I got the letter I felt excited because a high schooler took time to write me,” the cellist said. “It was a lot of fun because I got to talk to someone who was way older than me.”

High school students begin the exchange by writing letters to their pen pals and mailing the letters to the elementary students’ houses. The letters describe how high school orchestra works. They explain why remaining in the program is worth it. For example, the high school orchestra students get to travel to places like Chicago, Atlanta and even New York City to participate in contests. The letters also invite the elementary school students to the high school’s winter concert and encourage them to sign up for orchestra for their fifth grade year.

“I had a fourth grader come up to me after the concert. She gave me a huge thumbs up,” Jackson said. “It’s cool to show [the elementary orchestra students] how they’ll play once they’re in high school.”

Michelle Dodson, sophomore and symphonic orchestra cellist, has exchanged letters with her elementary pen pal throughout the year. She thinks it’s fun to have a pen pal because she gets to encourage the students to play well and keep going in the program.

“I think it’s really cute because they use their big language and try to act all mature for us,” Dodson said. “They share not just music, but my pen pal shared her family and her hair color and then she talked about how she loved the violin, and what song she’s on, so it’s really good communication. It’s really good to help them and encourage them to keep going. And they seem to like it.”

Jackson is positive that the pen pal program is working. He said this year, more fourth graders continued to fifth grade orchestra than in past years. After discussing the pen pal program with parents of orchestra students at a Kirkwood Orchestra Parent Association (KOPA) meeting, he looks forward to continuing this program in the following years.

“It’s going to be interesting when the current fifth grade class [the first grade level to receive letters] are freshmen, and they will turn around and write letters to fourth graders and remember the first letter they ever got,” Jackson said. “I know it’s a really great thing we’re doing.”