Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

The Southeast Alaska Music Honor Festival wrapped up with a bang on Tuesday with a final concert performance in the Chilkat Center for the Arts. The three-day festival featured students from thirteen Southeast high schools.

The show marked a significant milestone for the Haines community. The last time the Haines Honors Music Fest was held in Haines was in 2016. "I think it's going great," said Haines High School music teacher Matt Davis. "We've kind of lost some institutional knowledge about how to put on a music festival, because we haven't done it for six years. We used to do it every four years, but now there's two more schools in the rotation, but it's going really well, and we've got some excellent guest conductors and the kids seem real fired up about music."

Davis invited guest conductors to help prepare the participants for the festival. Ryan Beeken, who currently serves as Director of Choral Activities at Wichita State University and earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Choral Conducting from Michigan State University, helped prime the students by bringing enthusiasm and direction to their vocal performances. Local pianist Nancy Nash was choir accompanist, as she has been every time the festival has been held in Haines.

"The kids here in Alaska are truly amazing; you guys are really bringing them up right," Beeken said. "I can't even imagine how these kids manage the travel schedule, never mind practicing for the show."

David Thornton, Assistant Professor of Music, Associate Director of Bands, and Director of the Spartan Marching Band at Michigan State University, where he also earned his doctoral and master's degrees in Wind Conducting, brought with him a wealth of knowledge and encouragement for the students. "This whole experience has been incredible. I'm honored to be a guest conductor and get the chance to work with these kids," Thornton said. "It's been an experience for them, but it's been a fantastic experience for me as well."

The students, who spent the last several weeks preparing for the festival, presented material from a range of different artists. "Auditions began only a month ago and students have been rigorously preparing their rhythms and pitches in order to turn it into music in time for the show," Davis said.

The festival kicked off on Sunday afternoon with an open mic night. The Haines High School Band performed John Philip Sousa's "The Thunderer" to an energetic crowd of attendees and The Man(ish) Choir provided a fun and upbeat version of "Everybody Knows," originally composed and performed by Keith Lancaster, to rounds of applause.

The opening event was the highlight for many students who seized the chance to showcase their own skills performing pieces they selected themselves. High school musicians from across Southeast took to the stage in front of their peers to perform a variety of songs, singing acapella or accompanied by piano or guitar. Other students demonstrated their own talents on various instruments including the drums and trumpet, saxophone, hand drum and even the electric guitar which kicked off the show with an interpretation of the National Anthem. The night spanned everything from contemporary to the classics, including a rendition by Matilda Rogers of ABBA's "Name of the Game," which she recently performed in the Haines debut of "Mamma Mia" on the same stage.

Davis said it's a unique gift for students of small schools in the region to have a chance to share music with their peers in a more challenging environment and to a higher degree than would be feasible on their own.

"The general hope of each of the conductors is that kids take that energy and that love of advanced music back to their schools and it becomes sort of a kindling or a germ to help ignite the school and build those music programs," Davis said.

The event recording is available online thanks to the efforts of Haines High School technology teacher Sam Mcphetres, who has published the performances on the Haines High School website. You can also find the Haines High School channel available on YouTube to revisit the event.