Students From 6 States Will Perform At Conference

Nine hundred of the Northwest’s best high school musicians will perform in Spokane this weekend.

The student musicians will perform at the All-Northwest Music Festival, which takes place today through Sunday in conjunction with the regional conference of the National Music Educators Association.

Although 4,000 students applied from Washington, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Wyoming and Alaska, only 900 were selected.

Seven North Side high school students are among the musicians chosen.

As members of the one of elite AllNorthwest honor groups, they will find doors opened for college scholarships, according to Mel Clayton of the music educators association.

“For students, the importance of the concert is not so much the prestige as it is the experience of doing it,” Clayton said.

North Side students who will perform with the 200-member AllNorthwest Orchestra are Tom Battista, a trumpeter from Shadle Park High School; Karen Krebs, a violinist from North Central High School; and Shannon McKinney, a French horn player from Lakeside High School.

Daniel Silver, a guitarist from Lakeside, will play in the 20-person jazz band.

Bridget Curran of Gonzaga Prep, Mayalisa Anderson of North Central and Robert Peterson of Shadle Park will perform with the All-Northwest Choir.

The students will be asked to perform on a schedule that only professional musicians typically keep, Clayton said.

Having learned the music for the concerts, students will get together for the first time today and begin rehearsals. By Saturday and Sunday, the groups will be in swing for fullscale concerts.

Peterson said he’s nervous.

“I’m going to be thrown in with a bunch of other singers I’ve never met before,” he said. “For All-Northwest, you’ve got to be performing at your best.”

But organizers say the students are strong enough performers that the whole thing will come together.

“If you close your eyes during one of these concerts, you wouldn’t even know these are high school students,” Clayton said.

Plus, with help from local music teachers, who are coordinating the event, it’s sure to be good, he said.

Wes Sanborn, music teacher at Riverside High School, is helping coordinate the concerts.

“It’s a giant puzzle,” he said.

Randy Fink, music teacher at Shadle Park who is recovering from eye surgery, is managing, with help from student teacher Mark Bickelhop,, the practice for the All-Northwest treble choir.

Music teacher Mike Caldwell of North Central High School is coordinating the mixed choir. Music teacher Kevin Hartsy of Shadle Park is coordinating the jazz choir.

The All Northwest Music Festival concerts - the jazz band and jazz choir at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, and the orchestra and mixed and treble choirs at 3 p.m. Sunday - are open to the public. Tickets are available at G & B Select-A-Seat outlets.

A learning experience

North Central High School singing, drama and instrumental students got to check out each other’s roles last week.

“We’re going to do a musical, and we didn’t want the same old people who are always doing it,” instrumental teacher Collins Loupe said. “Everybody had a little bit of something they were uncomfortable with.”

So Loupe, drama teacher Tom Armitage and choral teacher Mike Caldwell brought their 400 students together.

They taught drama students to sing and play instruments, singers to play instruments and act, and instrumentalists to get out on stage to act and sing.

Science competition

Whitworth College will host the Eastern regional Washington State Science Olympiad this weekend.

Competitors come from around Spokane, including students from Shaw and Salk middle schools and Shadle Park and Rogers high schools.

“The Olympiad allows students to get recognition for their schools,” said Mark Biermann, assistance physics professor. “Academic achievers sometimes miss out on the type of recognition that goes to athletes.”

But when the science students arrive at Whitworth with egg carts, homemade clocks and towers in hand, they’ll show just how much fun science is.

The Olympiad challenges students to tackle problems that seem unsolvable, Biermann said.

Winning students will go on to the the statewide competition at Eastern Washington University in April.