By By LYDIA GRIMES – features writer
If you have children in Brewton Elementary School and they are exhibiting some musical talent, Anthony Turk just may know about it.
Turk is the music specialist at the school and he calls the students there &#8220my children.”
Turk said that he believes that music and the appreciation of music and art is a very important part of a child's development.
Every student comes through the class learning singing, playing an instrument and the movement that comes with music. Some of them are so involved and interested that they participate in an after-school program, Brewton Elementary School ORFF Ensemble (BESOE). The program is voluntary and for those students that express a real interest in music. ORFF is the term used for the particular approach to music that Turk uses. He has had special training and plans to take Level Two in the ORFF training this summer at Samford University in Birmingham.
The school musical groups perform in the community and in the school.
Turk was born and raised to age 10 in Newark, N.J. He has one brother, one sister and one half sister. At age 10 he moved to Evergreen to live with his grandmother. He graduated from Evergreen High School in 1989. He said he was a quiet kid in school and graduated in the top 10 percent of his class.
After graduation from high school, Turk went to Alabama State University in Montgomery. Although he did not go on a music scholarship, he was able to get several music scholarships to help pay his way through college.
But he did graduate in 1998 with a degree in music. He began looking for a job and he got one at Monroeville Elementary School where he met Deborah Marriott. He worked there for a couple of years until the funding ran out and he lost his job. He got a job in Atmore in telecommunication for about a year and a half.
His old acquaintance, Deborah Marriott, had moved on to become the school principal at Brewton Elementary School. When the opportunity presented itself, she remembered Turk and contacted him about teaching music at BES.
He has continued to live in Evergreen and drive back and forth to work in Brewton.
In addition to spending time with his family, Turk expressed an interest in building three-dimensional puzzles.
Turk is also working on losing weight.