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Alex Foster and Richard Boulger held a small jam session before splitting the band into groups.

Professional Musicians Provide Free Clinic To Mount Greylock Band Students

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
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Alex Foster asked students to match the note he played with their voices. 
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Saturday Night Live saxophonist Alex Foster and New York City-based trumpet player Richard Boulger provided a free clinic to Mount Greylock band students.
 
Last week Foster, saxophonist in the SNL house band and Boulger, a North Adams native and recording artist, visited Berkshire County schools to give free clinics sponsored by New Jersey musical instrument manufacturer RS Berkeley.
 
"We are going to show them a few technical things and some exercises that will help them improve," Foster said just the lesson started. "Just stuff they can do if they want to devote some time to practicing that will elevate their level of musicianship that can hopefully open some doors for them." 
 
Boulger said many of the exercises they shared in the clinic are ones that have served both him and Foster well for years. 
 
"These are very specific exercises that I have done my whole life…Many I picked up in my time with Freddie Hubbard, Donald Byrd and just years of playing," Boulger said. "They simplify these complex ideas to help that freshman in high school who has enormous potential and does not know it yet."
 
After an introduction, Boulger and Foster split the band in two. Foster spent time with the woodwinds and Boulger took the brass section.
 
Band Director Lyndon Moors said he hopes Foster and Boulger can show his students that it is possible to keep playing music after high school. 
 
"It’s easy to listen to recordings, which we do, but to actually hear and see live musicians that are doing all of the things that we just talk about is great," Moors said. "There is a life after high school and people play music because they enjoy it and some people make a career out of it."
 

Richard Boulger demonstrated some simple exercises on the trumpet that has helped him over the years. 
Boulger noted that Wood Brothers in Pittsfield now carry RS Berkeley instruments and said one of their goals is to make music more assessable to students. He said they do this by offering affordable instruments and sponsoring clinics.
 
"This is the philosophy. They offer the instruments but also offer students education and insights from some great players," Boulger said. "It really is about trying to tap into something within each kid that is in there, and if we can turn that light on we have accomplished something."
 
Foster agreed and if anything, he hopes the clinics inspire. 
 
"I want to pass on a little inspiration but with whatever they are involved in," Foster said. "If they put their minds to it and devote a little bit of their time to it then whatever they try to do is going to get better."
 
Foster and Boulger also gave clinics at Herberg Middle School and Lee High School.
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Mount Greylock School Committee Votes Slight Increase to Proposed Assessments

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee on Thursday voted unanimously to slightly increase the assessment to the district's member towns from the figures in the draft budget presented by the administration.
 
The School Committee opted to lower the use of Mount Greylock's reserve account by $70,000 and, instead, increase by that amount the share of the fiscal year 2025 operating budget shared proportionally by Lanesborough and Williamstown taxpayers.
 
The budget prepared by the administration and presented to the School Committee at its annual public hearing on Thursday included $665,000 from the district's Excess and Deficiency account, the equivalent of a municipal free cash balance, an accrual of lower-than-anticipated expenses and higher-than-anticipated revenue in any given year.
 
That represented a 90 percent jump from the $350,000 allocated from E&D for fiscal year 2024, which ends on June 30. And, coupled with more robust use of the district's tuition revenue account (7 percent more in FY25) and School Choice revenue (3 percent more), the draw down on E&D is seen as a stopgap measure to mitigate a spike in FY25 expenses and an unsustainable budgeting strategy long term, administrators say.
 
The budget passed by the School Committee on Thursday continues to rely more heavily on reserves than in years past, but to a lesser extent than originally proposed.
 
Specifically, the budget the panel approved includes a total assessment to Williamstown of $13,775,336 (including capital and operating costs) and a total assessment to Lanesborough of $6,425,373.
 
As a percentage increase from the FY24 assessments, that translates to a 3.90 percent increase to Williamstown and a 3.38 percent increase to Lanesborough.
 
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