From Montezuma Creek to Logan – Whitehorse High School Band Students Make Music

Music students from Whitehorse High School, an all-Navajo school in Montezuma Creek, Utah, traveled to Logan to spend March 30 working with faculty and students from Utah State University’s Department of Music.   

 

Whitehorse students spent the day in the Chase Fine Arts Center working in clinic sessions with music department faculty members and university students from the Caine Chamber ensembles. Service organizations Kappa Kappa Psi, Tua Beta Sigma and the Native American Student Council also assisted students throughout the day.  

 

The day-long session helped advance the music skills of Whitehorse students, while giving them, and Utah State students, a chance to work with a population to which they normally wouldn’t be exposed.

 

Nicholas Morrison, a professor in Utah State’s music department who planned this event, said he and a colleague had visited Whitehorse High School over the past three years. They noticed that music students from the school, at the time of graduation, had the skills to continue to play music at an institution for higher education.  

 

"We wanted to help these students realize they all are potential university students and that they have the skills to continue their music career at a university level," said Morrison.

 

Few music students from Whitehorse High School continue playing music at a university level, although they have the ability to do so, said Kim Schaefer, band director at Whitehorse High School. “We want to change that.

 

“By bringing my students to Utah State and other university settings, they get exposed to a level of music education that would never be available at our school,” said Schaefer. “My students get a better idea of the style and dynamic of music by working with students and faculty at a university level. They learn ways to play their instrument better and they get to work with people they look up to.”

 

Whitehorse students visited the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art during the day, where they studied the work of artist Emerson Woelffer, who was also a drummer in a jazz band. Students were taught about the ways artists and musicians are similar in the ways they think when creating their work.

 

“Many of these students had never visited an art museum before,” said Nadra Haffar-Peragallo, education coordinator at the Harrison Museum of Art. “We were delighted to give them the opportunity to visit and to teach them a little about the creative link between artists and musicians.”

 

Whitehorse students also worked with Utah State’s jazz band and wind ensemble. Students also got the opportunity to work one-on-one with students from the music department.

 

Schaefer said it is important to expose students to music at a young age because it requires a level of perfection that no other subject in school does.

 

“There is no other subject in school that requires the perfection that music does,” Schaefer said. “In a music ensemble, if any one person is playing off key or playing the wrong note, the sound of the music can get thrown off.”

 

Whitehorse students Lydell Benn, Charmaine Norton and Mia Jones said they enjoy being a part of their high school band because of the trips they take, usually two or three times a year. This was the first time Whitehorse music students have traveled to Utah State.

 

“Playing with the Utah State jazz band was the best part of my day,” said Norton. “We all got to play a song together that we learned just earlier today.”

 

After spending a day at Utah State, Whitehorse students performed at Thomas Edison Charter School in North Logan and then traveled to Vernal, Utah to perform.

 

Contact: Nicholas Morrison, (435) 797-3506, nicholas.morrison@usu.edu