Chinook High students 'blown away' by Chinook Winds Quintet

Chinook Junior and Senior High recently hosted a performance by the Chinook Winds Quintet, a Great Falls-based musical group. The five members of the quintet are all principal players with the Great Falls Symphony, meaning they are five of the nine salaried musicians who make up the core, first chair players of the symphony. The quintet was invited through efforts of Student Council President Elizabeth Hodgson.

Asked why she invited the quintet to perform, Elizabeth Hodgson said, "I wanted to bring some culture to the students. I take violin lessons from Melanie Pozdol, the quintet's oboist, and she helped me make the connections to schedule the group for Chinook's students." Pozdol travels to Havre every two weeks to teach private lessons to area musicians.

Not your father's classical performance

Like me, most students were expecting to hear some classical music numbers and maybe some information about each instrument. What the quintet presented was, well, pretty exciting and geared to getting students involved in the music. The Chinook Winds Quintet was obviously familiar with what works to keep students' attention. Later, the bassoonist, commented, "We do a lot of school performances. In the fall we travelled three days along the Hi-Line and visited 13 schools."

The quintet opened with some brief demonstrations of each instrument-to show how the instrument is played and the types of sounds that could be created. The flute player made sound effects, including "singing while playing" the flute. The flute sounds and effects were unusual, to say the least.

Then the musical ensemble began with a medley of American folk songs, played on symphonic instruments, from "Oh Susanna" to "Old Folks at Home" (Swanee River). An arrangement of a popular Taylor Swift song really got the students' attention and by the time the quintet began playing themes from the Mario video game, the theme from Monday Night Football and the "Star Wars" opener, the audience was totally into the music. When the group ended with their arrangement of "Don't Stop Believin,'" the students were singing along.

Chinook Winds did sneak in one classical piece, the overture from the "Magic Flute," a 1790's opera written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Elizabeth Crawford, the bassoonist, explained that while teens can now enjoy music through many different media, back in the 1700's, "You either went to a concert or played an instrument yourself to hear music." Then the quintet played the overture and each musician would stand when they were playing the theme Mozart used throughout the piece. It was both an audio and visual demonstration of the theme repeated during the overture.

Life for a professional musician in Montana

After the performance, Melanie Pozdol took a few minutes to explain what it means to be a musician with a Montana symphony. She used a baseball analogy, noting, "We are players for a farm team, not yet in the big leagues. Some of us aspire to the big leagues, some are happy to be in a less intense setting and pursue our musical interests." While these five musicians are salaried, they are also expected to teach private music lessons as well as perform with other groups and in the Chinook Winds Quintet. Pay for the lessons and touring go to the musicians.

Pozdol said, "I will soon be taking another job with a group that does professional fundraising for artistic groups. I'm hoping to learn about that segment of the performing world, then use my musical background and fundraising skills to work for a major symphony." To use the baseball example, she aspires to work in the front office of a big league symphony and let others play on the field.

She added, "It's a rigorous auditioning process, even at this level, to be hired by a symphony." On the Great Falls Symphony's hiring website, there was a position opening for "principal oboe." The basics for the position were: salary of $19,500 plus private studio income; master's degree preferred; performance and travel with the Chinook Winds Quintet. An ideal candidate would also be able to double on the English Horn (switch hitter, to use a baseball term?).

Mike Nelson, the French horn player, said another helpful skill was to be able to arrange music. He noted, "Composers seldom arrange music of popular songs for classical quintets. We have to rewrite the music for our group. I happen to be a big fan of the "Star Wars" movies so arranging the music was a project I gladly took on." All the popular songs the quintet played were arranged by some member of the group.

The Chinook Winds had played earlier in Box Elder the day they were at CHS. One musician explained, "We have to be able to present music, in an interesting way, to students of all ages. When we are performing before an entire K-12 student body it can be challenging to engage all the students." On the website announcing the oboist position, in addition to performing a long list of classical selections, the last audition requirement was: "Be prepared to present a 5-minute instrument demo appropriate for 4th graders." No surprise all these musicians were so adept at performing before a student audience, that was one of the requirements at the "tryouts."

For musicians doing traveling performances, there are the normal slings and arrows of life on the road. The bassoonist, packing up her instrument, told her fellow performers, "Let's hit the road. I have to get home and prepare dinner." The artistic-side was temporarily suspended while the mom-side kicked in.