MBMS Instrumental Music
Members of our Manhattan Beach Middle School instrumental ensembles enjoy involvement in a campus organization that provides immediate identity and purpose. MBMS instrumental music ensembles encourage and promote academic excellence, and rehearsals and performances are compatible with the students’ academic responsibilities. Band and orchestra members are involved in concerts, festivals, recitals and honor groups.
MBMS’s band and orchestra programs benefit student growth during these critical middle school years in many important ways:
With 3 bands and 4 orchestras, the MBMS instrumental music program provides numerous performance opportunities each year, including concerts, recitals, adjudicated festivals, and solo competition opportunities.
MBMS’s band and orchestra programs benefit student growth during these critical middle school years in many important ways:
- Develops musical and artistic excellence through daily musical technique and performance training
- Builds social and emotional connections and growth through daily creative expression
- Fosters teamwork, discipline and tenacity that drive success in all other aspects of a student’s academic career
- Significantly boosts student’s brain and cognitive development as music has demonstrated to activate a myriad of brain pathways and networks and keep them strong.
With 3 bands and 4 orchestras, the MBMS instrumental music program provides numerous performance opportunities each year, including concerts, recitals, adjudicated festivals, and solo competition opportunities.
Denise Haslop - Director of Instrumental Music
[email protected]
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Denise Haslop is in her 3rd decade as the Director of Instrumental Music at Manhattan Beach Middle School. In the years that she has been at the Middle School, the enrollment in the instrumental music classes has increased significantly. Her bands and orchestras have consistently earned unanimous Superior ratings at SCSBOA festivals. In 2001, the Middle School staff voted her the Manhattan Beach Rotary Club Teacher of the Year. She was also selected as the recipient of the 2002 Manhattan Beach Recreation and Youth Services Award. In the 2004-2005 year, she was selected as the Teacher of the Year for the Manhattan Beach Unified School District. In 2020, she was honored with the Distinguished Member Award from the Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association (SCSBOA).
Prior to her current position, Denise taught at Lennox Middle School in Lennox, California, for six years where she developed outstanding band and orchestra programs. She was also the district’s Teacher of the Year in 1998 and was nominated for the State Teacher of the Year that same year. Her dedication and quest for excellence earned her a nomination for the Los Angeles Music Center’s Bravo Award in 1998. |
Denise graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in Music Education from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1992. She also earned a Master’s in Education degree from UCLA in 1993. Denise has been the recipient of several scholarships, including the Jacqueline Fisher Klein Memorial Award in 1992 and the American Youth Symphony Award in 1991.
Having now taught for almost 30 years, she believes that with sequential teaching based on fundamentals, middle school students are capable of playing challenging music and performing musically. Her advanced band and orchestra were selected to perform at the California Music Educators Association annual conference in 2002. The following year, they were invited as the only California middle school to participate in the National Festival of the States in Washington, D.C. She has since then co-presented workshops on string teaching, and guest conducted local honor orchestras.
Having now taught for almost 30 years, she believes that with sequential teaching based on fundamentals, middle school students are capable of playing challenging music and performing musically. Her advanced band and orchestra were selected to perform at the California Music Educators Association annual conference in 2002. The following year, they were invited as the only California middle school to participate in the National Festival of the States in Washington, D.C. She has since then co-presented workshops on string teaching, and guest conducted local honor orchestras.
