Her wild, black hair jets out from underneath yellow barrettes holding her bangs in place. Glittered eyelids shine behind Harry Potter-style glasses. Bright colored patterns drape her mismatched wardrobe. A visitor to the school would never guess this woman isn’t a student, but the school’s music teacher.
To the music students at WHS, Kinikin reigns as diva supreme.
 J.J. HARRIER/ Frontiersman Honor choir students from Wasilla High School and other area schools practice for last Tuesday'€™s Mat-Su Borough School District Music Honor Festival, combining musical talents from Mat-Su choir and band students. Each eligible student auditioned in hopes to perform in the event. |
Kinikin and Pennington have inspired students who at one time may have possessed little interest in music into becoming career-bound professionals.
Kinikin has been teaching at WHS for three years, and her quirky style somehow puts her on the level of the teenagers. She talks how they talk, relates to how they act and teaches music with an iron fist.
“I love you, but this is ridiculous!” Kinikin exclaims while sitting at her class piano, teaching vocal stretches to her morning group of 30 teenage girls.
This past Tuesday, Kinikin and Pennington joined forces with other Mat-Su area middle and high school music directors with more than 250 students to showcase the Borough Music Honor Festival, where middle and high school students in the upper echelon of choir and band performed for friends and family in a concert.
“It’s the crème de la crème of the music performances locally,” Kinikin said. “Only the best play this event. The pieces are longer, usually, more difficult and ambitious.”
Honor concerts are treated as the Super Bowl of music at WHS, where once a year, ambitious choir and band students must submit a tape or CD of their talent on music provided by the Alaska School Activities Association (ASAA).
This year, each student had to perform “America the Beautiful,” which was then carefully analyzed by a panel of music directors, each listening for key elements that would hopefully grant them the right to perform on stage at both the Borough and state concert events.
For those possessing skills with an instrument, the chance to perform is important.
“It’s easier to get choir students to rehearse at the same level,” Kinikin said. “There’s a lot more individual responsibility for the band. They stand out as a single unit, so there’s more pressure.”
Held at WHS’ auditorium, 29 upper-level choir and band members from the school performed in the Borough Music Honor Festival with others in their league from the area.
“It gives them the opportunity to sing and perform as a balanced ensemble,” Pennington said. “They appreciate the in-depth approach.”
Pennington said the labor-intensive work that goes into preparing for the all-state and Borough choir and band performances is exhausting.
Linnea Holbrook, 16, is a sophomore at Wasilla High School and member of the honor choir. Her older sister showed interest in singing early on, so it was suggested she do the same. By the time Holbrook had entered Tanaina Elementary School, she had made music her passion.
“I decided it was actually kind of fun,” Holbrook said. “It opened up the opportunity to sing and allowed me to stay involved with something.”
Holbrook, like many of the other ambitious performers at WHS, wants to pursue music in college and as a career.
When the band or choir takes its show on the road, the students really excel, she said.
In April, members of the WHS jazz Band and jazz choir traveled to the University of Alaska Fairbanks to participate in the UAF Jazz Festival, an opportunity Kinikin said is a privilege as well as a lot of fun for students.
“They get to hang out with their peers and show off their skills, which is way cool for any kid,” Kinikin said.
Students typically show their school pride at out-of-town events by designing their own unique red, white and black T-shirts each year, with many donning body and face paint as if they were attending an important sporting event.
“They get way into it,” Kinikin said. “It’s like a total fellowship. We have one mother who knitted the students all hats once. That’s how involved this is.”
On Friday, in Pennington’s first period jazz class, students learned the complexities of Jeff Jarvis’ “Out on the Street,” a modern jazz standard. In the small over-lit classroom, four saxophones, four trombones, three trumpets, two bass players, a drummer, lead guitar and keyboardist perform the piece with seemingly endless energy. They harmonize their instruments to Pennington’s slow motion conducting. When finished, and with a nod, their music director gives credit where credit is due, but notes what should be improved.
“Ask yourself what needs to be fixed and then fix it,” Pennington chimes.
Ellen Parker, 17, put down the clarinet she was given in fifth grade, the same year she picked it up. She really didn’t want to, she had to. She got braces.
By eighth grade, when the metal came off, Parker picked up the woodwind instrument once more.
“I had to start completely over,” Parker said. “I forgot everything I learned. It was rough at first, I didn’t know what I was doing, but after awhile I realized I was learning pretty fast.”
A junior now, Parker rapidly advanced from third to second clarinet in Wasilla’s jazz band. She also contributes to the symphonic band and color guard. Her clarinet became her life.
“It was pretty random,” she said. “I ended up loving it. I was kind of glad it wasn’t the flute, actually.”
In the school’s renowned color guard, where students choreograph routines using multi-colored flags, Parker also feels at home.
Audiences are fixated on the eye-catching twirls, tosses and “tick-tocks,” a WHS basketball game tradition at half-time.
“We really work as a team,” Parker said. “In a way, we’re forming a family.”
At the end of the day, Parker takes her music home with her, receiving private lessons to increase her knowledge of the clarinet. Her teachers have noticed.
“Ellen’s my most anal musician,” Kinikin said. “She practices something like two-and-a-half hours a day. That’s determination.”
Parker said she would like to take her unique experience in high school and pursue a musical education in college. Recently, she was asked to pick up the trumpet in jazz class. Again, her confidence with instruments came alive.
“My teachers want me to find a school out of state, but I’m still looking into it,” she said.
Parker said she doesn’t really enjoy the popular teenage music of the day, preferring jazz and classical standards over punk and pop.
“My friends think it’s different,” she said. “I mean, I listen to Alicia Keys and like to hear what else is going on out there, but when it comes to band music, they’re lost. Our band knows how to have fun. Good, clean fun, not bad fun.”
Aaron Carpenter, 18, has been strumming on his guitar for five years. His looks are make him resemble the lead guitarist of a rock band, but are overshadowed by a quiet, shy demeanor.
Carpenter admits he started playing guitar to impress girls at school, but now he says it’s his passion.
“I kept playing because I like it,” Carpenter said. “I would have gave it up if I still had a shallow reason like that.”
Carpenter said he’s not closed minded about music. He enjoys the entire spectrum, especially classical and jazz. He and a friend became involved in choir to broaden their spectrum and his presence in the WHS jazz band is met with enthusiasm.
Parker takes the guitar seriously, enough so to apply at Berklee College of Music in Boston. First, he’ll have to audition in March like the rest of the hopeful freshman musicians.
“Hopefully, I’ll make a good first impression,” he said. “I’m a little nervous, but I’ll have a good support team there.”
Carpenter said he owes everything he knows about music to Wasilla High School’s music department, which has helped evolve his passion for music.
“Before this music program, I didn’t know anything,” he said.
Still, with band and choir students less socially accepting in high school as those involved in sports or other popular and visible areas, the interest level is high at WHS.
“I would encourage kids coming into this high school who want to be in band or choir to learn as much as you can,” Parker said. “It’s not as geeky as people think, plus you get to walk away with talent.”
Kinikin’s women’s choir class is ready to sing. The all-girls club belts out “Los Bilbilicos,” a tragic love song full of sad melodies.
“They really love this stuff,” Kinikin said. “Hopefully, they walk away with an understanding of what kind of musical range they possess. I think they do.”
Contact J.J. Harrier at valleylife@frontiersman.com, or 352-2269.
Comments
3 comment(s)Oh Puh-leeze.... wrote on Feb 9, 2008 12:28 PM:
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