Local students cultivating musical talents

By Gina Smith
March 10, 2011

Music is alive and well at Lincoln County High School and Meadow Valley Middle School, where music students are actively involved in many different facets of the community.

The LCHS and MVMS bands play for all football and basketball home games. They also travel to play for any regional and state playoffs that the LCHS athletes qualify for. The band learns 20-25 songs for just sports alone.

A show choir of around 25 students puts on a show twice a year for the public. The choir specializes in singing and dancing in sync to fun tunes that get people dancing in their seats. Make sure you stay tuned for their end of the school year concert.

Adding to the fun, the students are putting on a play this week called ?Into the Woods?. This play is a compilation of ?Brothers Grim? fairy tales intertwined with a plot and story line of its own. Many band students are also involved in the play proving this is going to be a fun production to watch with a cast full of talent. The first performance was yesterday, and additional performances are scheduled for tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday night.

This past weekend, the MVMS and LCHS bands and show choir group went to the state music competition in Laughlin. It was an all day event where each group performed three musical numbers for a panel of judges. All groups received a ?superior? rating at the festival. Several students performed in duos, trios and solos in which they all received either ?superior? or ?excellent? ratings.

The pieces these kids performed were very challenging both vocally and instrumentally. No, we aren?t talking chop sticks. We’re talking pieces like ?Into the Storm? by Robert W. Smith, ?Maritime March?and ?Apollo: Myth and Legend? by Rob Romeyn.

The students also demonstrated the unique ability to be flexible and learn many different instruments. We truly have some talented kids in the community. For example, high school student Caleigh Stackhouse plays six different instruments, and Holleah LeBaron plays five. Many would walk back and forth to play different instruments or would keep one on their laps and swap out as needed. One would play a couple of instruments in the band competition and then play another in the individual performances.

A term that is used among students is ?band geek,? which they say is not a negative thing. As Stackhouse expressed, ?it means that you can just relax and have fun. No pressures about popularity and status. It?s a safe place to be yourself.?

When Alec Anderson was asked why he likes music so much, he responded, ?when music and sound come together, it is so cool!? He explained when harmony comes together and fits in with a musical piece, the result is ?the neatest sound ever!?

Music teacher Jacob Lester added his thoughts on this season?s accomplishments and state competition. ?What an awesome experience. I knew these students were good, but they even did better than expected. I was overjoyed to see every band and choir receive the highest possible marks, and the show choir scored even higher than last year, receiving a 98.25 out of 100. If parents can push their kids to stay in the program, then we will continue to see all these high marks. We also have an amazing choreographer, Mindi Anderson, who helps the show choir look amazing, and with a piano player like Calista Thomas, our choirs did great. It gives me great pleasure to think how much the efforts from myself and the groups paid off. Great year everyone.?

We can expect to see much more great things from such a talented group of kids at LCHS and MVMS.