Typical Day
Akka Pella is up by 5am, dressed, and listening to classical music on her way to work at Shmoop High School. She has to make it to her zero period class so she can go over three new songs with "The Madrigals" before their city presentation that weekend. Normally she has more time to prepare, but she just received a call asking if "The Madrigals" could fill in for the animal handler that was originally scheduled. (Hopefully the monkey returns his thumb.) It's a tall order for these kids to learn three new songs in an hour, but Akka holds them—and herself—to such high expectations, that she'll be sure it gets done.
After Akka whips "The Madrigals" into shape, she prepares for her first two-hour block of the day—Advanced Jazz band. The group will be recording three assigned songs that will be entered in the Savannah Swings Jazz Festival to compete with jazz bands from all over the country.
"The Zzyzzyx" group has come in second place for the past three years, but Akka wants to win. Just the fact that the group gets to go down to Savannah to compete in the first place should appease the booster club's parents, but it never does. Winning means a lot of money and prestige for the school, not to mention some additional job security for Akka. If they don't win this year, it's possible they’ll replace Akka with someone who can go the distance. "No pressure," thinks Akka.
The horn section is a little rusty but there's no time left to do anything other than play and pray. If the band's recording gets chosen, Akka and the group get to fly down to Georgia to compete.
By the time class ends, they sound great. Akka's so impressed that she even thinks that they have a real shot at the championship. She wonders if the school will buy a special case to house the award if they can win. Akka better get in touch with the booster president to start working on travel arrangements, and, well, to look into that trophy case.
The next two-hour block, beginning wind ensemble, is painful. Akka's got her work cut out for her. She's got three drummers, none of who can keep time, and a clarinet section that's squeakier than a mouse stuck in a tire hose. But Akka trudges along and imparts her wisdom, turning these hapless youngsters into a joyous symphony of sound (at least that's what she tells herself as she removes the cotton from her ears and downs her third dose of Tylenol for the day).
Akka's lunch break isn’t much of a break at all. She spends it conducting the student orchestra pit at the rehearsal for the school musical, a poignant updated version of Cats but with dogs instead. The tempo is a little fast, but Akka thinks that's probably because the kids are hungry.
Next up is marching band practice out on the football field and Akka gets to work on choreographing the fight song so that the musicians spell Bulldogs, only there's not enough kids in the band for it to work, so it just reads "Bulldo."
The final bell sounds, but Akka stays late (as usual). She's working with some seniors, helping them pick out solo projects to consider for their college auditions and listening to a few tunes that might work for solos at the Savannah competition.
Akka has just enough time to run out and wolf down a burger before her meeting with the boosters. They typically discuss ways to raise funds for the kids to travel to competitions and to get some of the new instruments that the school is sorely lacking. This time, the discussion focuses on how important the music program is and ends with Akka almost bursting into song à la Harold Hill, but by the end of the meeting, she has the support and funds to take the kids all the way to the top—she hopes.
9pm, after the meeting is over and she's spent about an hour going over her emails and entering grades into the computerized system, Akka finally gets to go home for the night. She turns on her car, puts on her favorite John Coltrane tune, and heads on home.