Orchestra conductor Bishop

Heritage Music Festivals are held in cities all around the country every spring and allow band, choir and orchestra groups to perform.

“It’s a way that if you want to take your orchestra or band or choir on a trip, you could justify it educationally,” orchestra teacher Jeffrey Bishop said. “We need to go and have a quality musical experience.”

In the past, the orchestra has participated in festivals in Dallas, St. Louis, Anaheim and Orlando. This is the first time they have gone to Chicago.

At the festival, the orchestra will perform three pieces.

“Bailes para Orquesta” by Richard Meyer, “Elegy” by Dwight Beckham and “American Reel” by Kirt Mosier.

“The music I selected was designed to showcase the depth of our orchestra program. We have a really strong cello and viola section that is featured in ‘Bailes,’” Bishop said. “I really wanted to do music that the kids would like, that they wouldn’t get sick of after preparing it for a month.”

In addition to performing, the students will visit the Shedd Aquarium and the Museum of Science and Industry.

While touring the city and during the performance, Bishop has high expectations for his students.

“We represent Northwest,” Bishop said. “We play our best. We are our best.”

The schedule put the spring musical “Big River” and “Leaving Iowa” only two weeks apart. About a month ago, the show was cast and they had a week of rehearsals.

“We’re doing it because I have two weeks before it’s supposed to open,” drama teacher Keli Rogers said. “We can’t seem to get our schedules straight in order to have a decent length of time to do a show.”

“Leaving Iowa” is about a man from Iowa who moved to New York and is going home to Iowa for his nephew’s christening. Two or three years previous, his father had died and was cremated. The man was supposed to spread his father’s ashes on the farm where he grew up.

“The son takes the urn of ashes and sets it out. It’s a couple of hours to get to grandpa’s farm. When he gets there he discovers that the farm is now a Wal-Mart. He doesn’t really feel like he can scatter his father’s ashes at Wal-Mart,” Rogers said.
The man then sets out to find another place to scatter his father’s ashes and, in the course of doing so, remembers several of the vacations his family took when he was a child.

“There were several incidences that happened during vacations that are really funny,” Rogers said.

In the show, Julia Stanislav is the mother; Joe Uhl plays the father; Luke Meyer is the son; and Cassie Jones is the sister. There are also four other male roles and three other female roles.

“Leaving Iowa” will run April 29, 30 and May 1. Tickets are $7 or $3 with an activity pass.

“This concert is different because it gives us the opportunity to work with the orchestra and get to know more about them,” junior Matt Harrison said. “It makes [the experience] a lot more incredible.”

The program featured three choirs, as well as Chamber Orchestra and several Symphony Orchestra members. A Capella Choir took the stage to sing “All That Hath Life and Breath, Praise Ye the Lord” by Rene Clausen, which included a solo by sophomore Isabel Zacharias. The smaller 21-member Chamber Choir then sung “Seek the Lord,” written by the same composer, but directed by senior Andrew Shaw.

“Every year seniors have an opportunity to direct a choral piece if they are interested in a career in musical education,” Shaw said. “It was nerve-wracking, but it was worth it in the end, and the choir did a good job with the song.”

The Chamber Orchestra then played two pieces: “Epilogue,” an original composition by orchestra teacher Jeffrey Bishop, and the “Concerto Grosso for String Orchestra and Piano Obligatto” by Ernest Bloch, which featured sophomore Amanda Hedrick on piano.

The next piece, “Regina Coeli” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was played by both the orchestra and choir. It also included parts for trumpet, oboe, timpani and harp.

“Music in our curriculum is like picking a book for English class. There are certain things that the piece works on, and we have to pick something that choir and orchestra can both do well,” Bishop said. “[‘Regina Coeli’] is a good one to use, and we’ve done it in the past.”

“It’s a very mature piece so it must have a lot of dynamic changes. Plus, it takes a lot of control,” sophomore and audience member Melissa Balino said.

Both the orchestra and choir had been preparing “Regina Coeli” for weeks, but they only had the chance to practice together twice. The piece closed out the 33-minute concert.

“The choir alone is a just a choir; the orchestra alone is just an orchestra,” Harrison said. “Together, it makes a wonderful ensemble.”

“We didn’t raise as much money as we needed, so we could only pay the tech crew for one performance,” Fashion Careers I student Haylee Slocum said.

The show is produced completely by the students in Fashion Careers. Promotion, modeling, music, commentary and merchandising committees pull together all aspects of the show.

“I have to keep an eye on all of the committees and make sure everything is fitting together,” coordinator junior Peyton Smith said.

Although there are usually two performances, the student show during lunch was cut to one show due to limited funds. Each student was charged $3 admission, but most of the profits will go to benefit Haiti relief. Any other money raised will go to the class fund.

“Two of the three dollars [of admission] will be donated, but the rest will go toward Fashion Careers classes’ expenses,” Smith said.

Each year, the outfits have a common theme selected by the class. This year, Candyland was chosen as the theme to tie the scenes together.

“[We chose] a Candyland theme because bright bold colors were predicted to be a prominent trend for spring 2010,” Smith said.

Preparation started in late January, and both classes helped to organize outfits donated by local businesses. According to Fashion Careers teacher Erin Samborski, gathering outfits was labor-intensive and continued up until a week before the final runway show. Every model had two outfits, plus extra formal looks.

“Doing the fashion show for the first time has shown me trends coming up and how to coordinate them into my everyday wardrobe,” Slocum said.

The models played a large role as well. All Fashion Careers I students walked the runway, unless they chose to opt out. Male models are students nominated by the classes, and teachers are chosen as well. Female models practice by taking a class at Hoffman International, a local modeling agency.

“We have to learn the basics of walking, posing and just being on the runway,” Slocum said. “Modeling makes you feel confident.”

Fashion Careers students also gained experience that will be critical if they continue on to work in the fashion industry.

“[The fashion show] takes a lot of organization,” Samborski said. “It teaches the students to delegate responsibility.”

“I thought it was really interesting and really sad because the people never got the chance to get justice.” Freshman Monica Castellon said. “When I was watching my sister, I thought that she was very emotionally accurate.”

The play was recommended by a former student who performed it at his college.

-Claire Gordon

The Jazz Ensemble performed as people and performers took their place. The seniors, in their last Area Band Festival performance, played the “Star Spangled Banner.”

Throughout the hour-long concert, Snead recognized the muscians of all ages according to their elementary school.

Following tradition,  the combined bands, 5th grade through high school,performed “Cougar Fight.”

“I thought everyone did well tonight,” Snead said. “Hopefully by having it earlier more students will enroll.”

Photo by Ryan Duong

Most of the songs were holiday-themed except for “Marching Season,” played by the percussion ensemble, and “Brazil,” played by the jazz band.

The jazz band performed first. Highlights included solos by trombonist Michael Tarne, trumpeter Joey Kendrick, alto-saxist Josiah Rosell, guitarist Brett Bulter and pianist Aaron Thornburg. Trumpeter Spencer Merryfield also played a flugelhorn solo.

Percussion Ensembles played next. In addition to  ”Marching Season,” the ensembles performed “Carol of the Bells,” which featured the marimbas.

Concert band played “A Cartoon Christmas,” a medley including “Ruldolph the Red Nose Reindeer,” “Christmastime is Here” and “Frosty the Snowman.”  Some musicians from marching band played with the group to help fill out the sound.

The finale featured the combined marching and concert bands performing “Christmas Medley” and “God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen.”

The marching band recently returned from its trip to California where they marched in the Hollywood Parade as well as in the Disneyland Parade. More than 100 band and drill members attended. A slide show presentation of the band trip was shown at the conclusion of the concert. Liz Kumar, trip coordinator, compiled the photos sent in by students and chaperones.

“Watching the slide show was fun,” sophomore Lauren Severance said. “We got to remember the trip.”

The concert begins at 7 p.m. in the auditorium. Admission is free.

Jazz band, concert band, percussion ensemble and the marching band will all perform a variety of music including a couple of holiday medleys.

A slideshow of the marching band’s trip to California will be shown after the concert. The slideshow is a compilation of photos sent in by students and chaperones.

Mural club members Staci Darby, Cassie Jones, Sara Irick and Michelle Landis met on Tuesday, Oct. 27, to brainstorm ideas for their upcoming mural. “We’re trying to put something unique on the walls that can’t be found in other murals,” said Irick.

“It’s my last year here, and I want to make a mark,” said senior Cassie Jones, co-president of mural club. There are about 15 members in the club, including junior co-president Sara Irick.

“We’re trying to put something unique on the wall that can’t be found in other murals,” Irick said.

Although the club is small, the group has quite a large project to complete. It involves a lot of discussion and processing to finalize just the sketch of a mural, and everyone must edit it and perfect it to produce the final product.

“You have to make sure it all goes together collaboratively, that all the elements work together,” Jones said. “It’s really cool to see everyone’s creativity just kind of blossom.”

After measuring the designated location for the mural, the club must put their sketch in a one inch to one foot scale. After the group accomplishes all of this, they must get their idea approved by the administration.

Currently, the club is working on an idea that came from junior Staci Darby. They are reluctant to give away their final product, but it involves a bridge with an infinity point. They are attempting to make it look a little more three dimensional and realistic, almost like you could walk into it. Because it’s still a school mural, it must tie into academic interest.

“Academically, it can apply to anything. That’s what’s so great about it.” Jones said.

So far, the group has managed to come up with a thumbnail sketch. Currently, working on perfecting the sketch and scaling it to size is the main priority. Although the administration prohibits the club from painting any of the walls in the new wing of the school, they are considering putting the mural near the environmental education room or in the family and consumer science wing.