Camp spotlights string music

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Published 7/15/2009 in Local News : Education

By MONICA SPRINGER

They sat in a circle surrounding a visiting symphony director at Garden City Community College and listened to the advice he offered on the song the group was performing.

"Use a pencil. Look at measure 134," Ken Hakoda, Salina Symphony Conductor, told about 20 students on Tuesday afternoon. "B Sharp, right?"

After the students marked the note on the paper, the group went back to rehearsing.

"Nice job. It's going to be awesome," Hakoda told the group after the hour-long rehearsal.

Two orchestra groups of about 20 young musicians will present a free public concert at 7 p.m. Thursday to conclude the 2009 Southwest Kansas Music Academy Summer String Music Camp going on now at Garden City Community College.

The camp is a three-day camp for musicians in grades seven through 12.

There are several visiting orchestra directors and professors helping with the camp, including Hakoda, who is directing the symphony orchestra and also leads the Kansas Wesleyan University choral music program.

The camp was started by Doug Beyer, who directs the GCCC-based academy and string music program at GCCC.

Beyer said he started the camp last year to emphasize string instruments in southwest Kansas. He said the area has been neglected in the past. Before now, he said, there's never been a district orchestra for high school students.

This year, there will be district orchestra, though, which will allow the students to qualify for a state orchestra. There are also district band and choir at the high school level in the state.

The students attending the camp this week practice from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at GCCC. They start off with symphony rehearsal, then symphony sectionals, where students who play the same instruments rehearse together. The students then go to music literature class, theory class, another symphony rehearsal, all-state clinics and then chamber rehearsal.

The top students in the symphony orchestra also will play in the chamber orchestra alongside the visiting faculty from other universities and other symphonies, Beyer said.

Students Vanessa Perez, a senior at Dodge City High school, and Caleb Austin, a Dodge City freshman, said Tuesday afternoon they already had improved by being at the camp for day one.

"It's helped tremendously," said Austin, who plays viola. "I need the instruction that this camp offers."

Perez said she decided to attend the camp because it offered help with all-state music.

"It's a fun experience for summer," Perez, who plays violin, said. "I wanted to make friends and work with different people."

Other visiting orchestra directors and professors include: Tami Lee Hughes, University of Kansas violin professor; Hannah and Sarah Bartel, Ingalls, Kansas State University music graduates; Sarah Baxter, Newman University string music instructor; Summer Miller, Garden City High School orchestra director; Wendy Mickey, Dodge City High School orchestra director; and Karen Health, Ulysses school system string music director.

On the Web:

Southwest Kansas Music Academy: http://www.gcccks.edu/artsperform/musicdept/acad.html

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Camp spotlights string music

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