Hi-Line Living - Music festival returns to Havre

District 7 Music Festival time is an exciting and busy time for Havre High School students and music teachers, as music is not taken lightly in Havre.

"We take our music program seriously," first-year band teacher James Mepham said.

With the sounds of a tolling xylophone on the other side of his closed office door, Mepham talked about the festival.

The music festival will bring 11 regional schools totaling about 300 students today and Saturday. Today's events will be for large groups, bands and large choirs. Individual students and small groups will perform Saturday, Mepham said.

All the events are adjudicated, meaning the students are not competing against each other, but for their own score, and they are offered tips and assistance on improvements.

The festival is not only something he will be hosting this year, but an event he has been part of as student since his time at Lincoln County High School in Eureka.

"In high school, I participated in it constantly. As a top music student, that's kind of an expectation, that you participate in this," he said.

Senior Randi Ruhkamp is a choir student who said she wants to major in music education and plans on being a choir teacher. She has been part of the festival for the past three years. She said she has been pleased, disappointed and everything in between.

Students are rated, usually by retired music instructors or current college music instructors, on a scale of 1 through 5, with 1 being superior. Those who receive a 1 go to the state music festival in Missoula.

Ruhkamp said she has received superior scores.

"It's really exciting when you find out you can go to state," she said, adding that's the most rewarding part of the experience.

Ruhkamp said she remembers a less pleasing, albeit funny, experience during the festival.

"One year I forgot all the words to my solo, so I like made up words," she said, laughing. "It was really bad."

The adjudicators knew she made the words up, Ruhkamp said. The song was in French, and she doesn't speak French. Since she forgot the few French words in the song she had learned, she invented new ones.

"I don't know. It just didn't make any sense. It wasn't any real words," she said.

French horn player Lari Linguist said music festival time is vital.

"It's about the most important part of the year. I feel like, for everybody - like everything that we work up towards goes into festival," she said.

Linguist said she plans on majoring in music performance at University of Montana and she has worked hard and plans on playing a solo, a duet and couple of quintets during Saturday's portion of the festival. This will be her third year in the festival, she said.

Like Ruhkamp, she said state is the goal, and there is some pressure.

"It's kind of scary. It's usually college professors that score you. It's a little intimidating but they're awesome, too," she said, adding the experience is very informative.

Choir teacher Danielle Stoll, who is also in her first year teaching at Havre High, said superior ratings can take students a long way.

"If they can say 'I did a solo at District Music Festival, got a one, went to state music festival, got a one' - that definitely shows the colleges they're interested and can pull their part as a soloist, that they're polished and disciplined enough to get a one in state," Stoll said.

Students have been preparing for the festival and, she said, she uses any means to help them, including technology.

"Some of them, I've said, 'If you don't have the piano skills for this, just bring your phone and record me playing your part, and then you can run it over and over at home.' And some of them have taken me up on that," Stoll said.

Aylan Pratt, a trumpet player, and Dakota Acorn, who sings bass in choir, talked about the less serious aspects of the festival.

"The district festival is always a great atmosphere because you meet so many different people from different schools that have almost the exact same interests as you do," Pratt said. "You meet people that play the same instrument from different towns and you make friends.

"Yeah, we all talk trumpet. We all talk smack - 'I'm better than you -  maybe,'" he said.

Acorn said he likes singing and he likes music and it's all a lot of fun. While talking, the choir was warming last Friday afternoon to the Bee Gees' "Staying Alive."

That's how they warm up on Fridays, he said.

Acorn said many people stress out over the festival, but he just has fun. A senior, he said he has been to state all three years and he's confident this year won't be any different.

Senior Logan Gardner is the lone tuba player in the band. He picked it up last year, after being asked by former band instructor Dave Johnke if he'd like to.

"Last year, when we were about to go to D.C., Mr. Johnke asked if I'd like to play the tuba so he can have more marching bass instruments, and I went for it," Gardner said.

Gardner, who said he wants to be a music educator, said he likes being the only tuba player.