Busy month for KHS performing arts students

KELLOGG — February has been a busy month for Kellogg High School music and performing arts teacher Adam Ream.

Ream, along with his Jazz Band and Select Choir students, recently attended the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival (LHJF) in Moscow where they brought home some impressive honors.

More than 400 student performances, as well as a dozen world-class jazz artists and nearly 100 workshops make up the festival — which includes team and individual competition and scoring.

“Looking at our score. We beat a lot of other schools that weren’t in our division,” Ream said.

In the division they were competing in, the KHS Jazz band won first place performing classic songs such as “It Had to Be You” and “Hit the Bricks,” and Select Choir winning third singing songs like “Blue Skies,” “Mac the Knife” and "Tuxedo Junction."

More than 30 student performers got specific instruction from Ream to prepare them for attending the LHJF, a staple of the University of Idaho since the 1960s and one of the world's largest and oldest educational Jazz festivals.

The high school musicians competed against students from British Columbia, Alaska, Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Students not only took part in competitions but also were able to attend the different workshops that were offered.

“The students also got to attend some educational classes at U of I,” Ream said. “Some of them picked classes such as ‘practicing without fear’ but there were also dance classes like swing dance, or hip hop.”

Students also were able to see massive concerts from world-famous jazz musicians like Dee Dee Bridgewater, Chris Potter, and the New York Lionel Hampton Big Band.

March doesn’t have Ream slowing down, with students planning for Choir Solo and Ensemble competition on March 12, where 14 students are preparing to compete.

Earlier this month, Ream traveled to Northwest Nazarene University (NNU) with Paige Carlson, who was selected to participate in the All-State Treble Choir.

The All-State Treble Choir is made from the top 150 singers from all around the state.

Starting in October, audition material was sent out to every choir room in the state.

Each auditioner was asked to send recordings of themselves singing scales, warm-ups, as well as the first stanza of America the Beautiful — more than 1,000 singers submitted audition tapes to create the 150-singer ensemble. Carlson was then chosen to sing as a Soprano 1.

Carlson traveled to NNU and spent three days on the campus meeting singers from across Idaho and learning under the direction of Lori Marie Rios, a choral director at College of the Canyons in California. After three days of training with the world-renowned educator, Carlson performed with the ensemble in front of nearly 1,000 members.