A2 Tuesday, May 3, 2005                              Los Angeles Times News-Press/Leader YOUTH & EDUCATION
		Photographs by SCOTT ROBY News-Press/Leader
			Soprano Susan Asbjornson from the Contemporary Opera of Los Angeles shows these Columbus Elementary students how to sing with emotion Monday.
		By Jackson Bell News-Press and Leader   Third-graders at Columbus Elementary School tried out the roles of prima donnas and maestros on Monday.   Susan Asbjornson, a professional singer with Contemporary Opera of Los Angeles, dropped by Paul Gersten's class Monday to teach students a few opera techniques and have them flex their vocal cords for an hour.   "We want to enlarge their scope, " Gersten said.  "You can't constantly drive reading and math into them every day.  This gives them a different take on life."   As part of an outreach program through COLA, Asbjornson plans to meet the class six times before the year is done.  This is the third year she has taught the program at Columbus.    "The idea," she said, is to share opera with schoolchildren who otherwise might not be exposed to it."   "Music for me has always been an excape and a way to get in touch with my feelings," Asbjornson said.  "Hopefully, this can become an outles for some of them."
					Students giggled while applying such singing techniques as decrescendo and staccato to "Mary Had a Little Lamb."  A few then stood in front of the class and practiced singing songs of their choice. "Everyone likes a singer better if they have emotion," Asbjornson told the class.  "You wouldn't like Christina Aguilera if she sang without emotion, would you?"   Meeting an opera singer shows the children that there are careers in the art form if they want to pursue it, Gersten said.   "If they meet someone in the flesh, they will think, 'Gee, this is possible,' instead of thinking of them just as a person on TV or in movies," he said.   Cynthia Esmaili, however, just liked to be able to take time out of her school day and indulge in her favorite pastime -- singing.   "I like to sing," Cynthia, 9 , said.  "Mostly at home, but I sing wherever."   "Even in class sometimes," classmate Arpine Terhovhannisyan chimed in.   Robert Arakelyan liked when Asbjornson played the first movement of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" and had the children visualize the story the music told.   "I liked being able to look at the pictures in my mind." the 8-year-old said.			KIDS TALK BACK Clearing the aria   The Glendale News-Press visited a third-grade class at Columbus Elementary School while the students got instruction from a professiobnal opera singer and asked, "What was your favorite part of the lesson?"
							"I liked having a chance to sing the most, because singing is real good exercise for the voice.  And it's fun." CYNTHIA ESMAILI, 9 "I liked being able to sing.  I want to be a singer when I grow up." ARPINE TERHOVHANNISYAN, 9 "It's good to learn music because it's very important for the voice and makes you sound clearer." RIMA SAHAKYAN, 8 "Whenever [the opera singer] sang for us, because she had such a pretty voice." TATEVIK KAGRAMANYAN, 9 "Singing is really fun because you could get your voice louder." ROBERT ARAKELYAN, 8