Sounds like cooperation
Concert features musicians from five high schools playing, singing together
One percussionist wore a Ferris T-shirt.
Someone from Shadle Park draped a letterman’s jacket over a French horn case.
And in the flute section, Celeste Reynolds was wearing a sweat shirt commemorating North Central’s centennial.
Rivals became teammates Monday as more than 300 top musicians – band, choral and orchestral – from Spokane Public Schools’ five traditional high schools rehearsed for tonight’s Festival of the Arts concert.
“Our usual (NC) band is like 50 people,” Reynolds, a junior, said during a break. “This is awesome. It’s a full sound.”
As the 120-member band practiced “Electricity” under the direction of University of Idaho professor Alan Gemberling, an equally large choir was in another room of the Spokane Convention Center, working with Kristina Ploeger, music education coordinator at Eastern Washington University.
Ulysses Velazquez complimented some girls on their singing, then learned they were from Lewis and Clark.
“I thought, ‘Ooh, I’m not supposed to like them,’ ” said the Ferris senior. “We have the Rubber Chicken (basketball) game – we’re supposed to hate them.”
Brian Bell was impressed that there were maybe two girls for every boy in the all-school choir. At Rogers High School, he said, the ratio is more like 4 to 1.
“We actually have a full section of men and have a ‘man’ sound,” said Bell, a sophomore.
Across the promenade, at the INB Performing Arts Center, nearly 100 orchestral musicians were learning from Julian Gomez Giraldo, EWU’s director of orchestra. A native of Colombia who sometimes went to school hungry and shoeless, he told the teens to be passionate – and not just about music.
“Tell your dad how much you love him. Tell your mom how much you love her,” he said. “Do the dishes, make your bed.”
A Spokane tradition since the late 1980s, the Festival of the Arts used to happen every year. Budget cuts turned it into a biennial event, with money from the voter-approved Spokane Public Schools levy and a couple of grants covering the $15,000 price tag, said Dave Weatherred, director of visual and performing arts for the district.
The change means most kids, like Reynolds, only get one opportunity to work with the college directors and perform on the big stage in the Performing Arts Center. She applied as a freshman but couldn’t get a seat in the all-city band.
A lucky few, like senior Jenni Whelchel, live the experience twice.
“I’ve been looking forward to this since the last time,” the North Central chorister said.