Groton — A French harpsichordist performed for students in the band room at Carl C. Cutler Middle School on Friday, and a boy in the second row was so wowed, he stood up afterward and said, “Fist Pump! That was incredible!”

That’s teenage boy lingo for “Bravo! Bravo!”

Aymeric Dupre la Tour, a solo and ensemble performer who has played throughout France and in the United States, Canada and South America, wasn’t sure how to react.

But the friends in the second row thought Dupre la Tour was too cool — even though they play drums.

“I thought it was amazing,” said Tyler Bergendahl, 11.

“It was like an electric-guitary sound,” said Alexander Goins, 11.

“But it wasn’t really technology. It was strings,” said Nicholas Lubrano, 11.

Dupre la Tour, a former faculty vocal coach at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford and harpsichordist at Zuckermann Harpsichord International in Stonington, trained at the Conservatoire National de Region of Lyon, France.

He earned an artist diploma in organ performance and master's degree at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, as well as a doctorate in musical arts from The Juilliard School.

A teacher who also is a friend helped bring him in, and the Cutler Parent Teacher Organization sponsored the program. 

The school held the program three times so all 254 musical ensemble students could watch.

Dupre la Tour brought two harpsichords to the school. He played, then explained how a wooden rail holds the small pieces of the instrument inside it.

He removed a key and held it up. It moves another part that plucks the harpsichord's strings, he said.

Next, he struck a chord, and decided one note was too loud. Obnoxiously so.

He pulled his tools from a bag and examined the pick that plucked the string. It was too thick, he said, as students watched. With a scalpel, he shaved it thinner. Then he played the chord again. 

“It’s still loud, but it’s not as loud, right? It’s not as obnoxious,” he said.

The process is called "voicing," he said, “because you are teaching a harpsichord how to sing nicely."

Tomomi Kimura, 13, had never played a harpsichord before Friday. But she plays piano, and got to try the new instrument in front of her classmates.

“It was so cool,” she said.

Dupre la Tour suggested she strike the first notes quickly and the later ones with more force.

The most important thing about playing a dance, he said while stomping in front of the class, is “every step is not the same because that is walking.”

Six students performed on the harpsichord or another instrument, accompanied by their guest.

Simon Choi, 12, played clarinet as Dupre la Tour accompanied him.

Students visited the New York Philharmonic and Metropolitan Museum of Art in January, so Friday's performances also helped connect students to the lessons learned there, band teacher Kevin Mazzarelli said.

“The reaction’s been a little bit in awe, a little bit of curiosity,” Mazzarelli said. “He definitely made it fun.”

d.straszheim@theday.com