Students Of Note Play Together Prep Musicians From Six States Gather For Concert

Ruth Boden arrived at rehearsal Friday and saw her name on the second chair in the cello section.

She realized she had lost first chair to a cellist from Tacoma. She took the news philosophically.

“It gives you an idea there are many people out there who are better than you,” said Boden, 17, of East Valley High School, one of 27 cellists from six states chosen to play with the All-Northwest Orchestra.

To get into the elite orchestra, a Who’s Who of high school musicians, the students mailed in audition tapes last spring.

Competition didn’t stop there.

String players competed for chair positions until midnight Thursday. During a break in rehearsal Friday, a clarinetist from Seattle asked for a chance to vie for a solo already assigned to someone else.

“These kids are talented and like most talented people, some of them have big egos,” said Dave Weatherred, Ferris High School music teacher and coordinator of the orchestra.

The 210-member orchestra performs its one and only concert Sunday at 3 p.m. in the Spokane Opera House. Also on the program are a band and two choir groups made up of the region’s best high school musicians.

A jazz band and jazz choir perform tonight at 8:30 at the Opera House.

Tickets for the concerts are $7. They are part of a regional conference of music educators being held in Spokane.

University of Michigan music professor Anthony Elliott, who will conduct the orchestra, promised a high-caliber performance of a Shostakovich overture and Respighi’s “The Pines of Rome.”

“This is the most beautiful orchestral music in the world and here you have an orchestra of Berlioz-size proportions,” Elliott said. “Berlioz dreamed of orchestras of 200 players. This is every composer’s and orchestrator’s fantasy.”

For a teenager aiming for a music career, playing in an All-Northwest concert is like making the all-star team.

“It’s a dream come true for me, man. Holy cow!” said Bill Hauser, 17, an alto saxophonist from Anchorage, Alaska. “I would pay so much money for a jazz band like this at school.”

For many, it is the first time they have played alongside other students who can match their talent and enthusiasm, said All-Northwest jazz band conductor Bob Curnow, a jazz arranger who played trombone with Stan Kenton.

“These are the times that change your life,” Curnow said. “You begin to see what’s possible.”

Students paid $145 for their hotel rooms, meals and fees, plus whatever it cost to travel to Spokane.

“It’s quite a commitment on their part,” said Mel Clayton, a Bothell, Wash., music educator and chairman of the event. “We try to treat them right.”

There was inevitable confusion when more than 800 high school students left their three hotels and converged on three high schools to rehearse Friday.

“We need a piano,” a girl informed Weatherred at Ferris High School.

“Get one out of the choir room because theirs are better than ours,” he answered. “Don’t get the one with the broken foot.”

There were scenes of dedication too.

An English horn player from Gresham, Ore., stopped Elliott in the hallway during a break.

“What tempo is the fourth movement going to be?” she asked.

Elliott paused and began to sing the opening bars of the movement. The student sang to him her solo part. He sang it back to her with more intensity.

Later, volunteer first aid worker Jerry Young sat in the auditorium and listened to the Respighi piece. She played bass in high school and college.

“This brings back memories,” she said. “I’m thinking, `I could do that. I know that part.”’