More Eastern Iowa students sharing stage with professional performers

Kaytlyn Christner wasn't even born when Foreigner's famed power ballad “I Want to Know What Love Is” was recorded. And yet, almost 30 years after the band released the single, there she and her fellow members of Washington High School's choir were performing it with the musicians at Riverside Casino.

“It was a little nerve wracking going up there and seeing all those people,” she said, reflecting on the sold-out Sept. 28 performance. “It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I was glad to be part of it.”

But it's not just Washington's show choir. Opera singer Simon Estes is set to perform with students from each of Iowa's 99 counties, forming the Iowa Students Care Choir, at Iowa State University's Hilton Coliseum at 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 15.

The chance to perform with professionals is not exclusive to vocalists. The Corridor Jazz Project, an educational initiative sponsored by Kirkwood Community College's KCCK radio station, has connected student musicians and seasoned players for seven years.

Dennis Green, general manager of KCCK, said that the project began out of conversations with band directors who desired “more opportunities to expose their students to professional players.” He estimated that 2,000 students have gone through the program since its start.

“Jazz can be taught, but jazz is best learned by watching and interacting with another player,” said Green, who called that exposure “critical.” “Any jazz player will tell you where you really learn is by watching and listening to someone play the music.”

The Corridor Jazz Project pairs a performer with a band for the year, and together they rehearse and record a track. Each school's song goes on an album that the students can have or sell as a fundraiser. The project culminates with a concert in which the bands and their musical mentors perform together. This school year's event is scheduled for March 31, 2014 and participants are set to include Xavier, Prairie, Kennedy, Cedar Rapids Washington, Jefferson, Marion, Iowa City and Iowa City West, Linn-Mar, Solon and Lisbon high schools.

Dan Terrell, the band director at Linn-Mar High School, was on the project's board during its first year and is in his seventh year of having his students participate in what he called “outstanding” experiences.

“I think, just to hear a master on their instrument but also in the style of music that they're studying, it's a chance for them to hear the level that they're aspiring to,” said Terrell, whose band is working with jazz trombonist Wycliffe Gordon this year via the project. “In their time here they not only perform with us but give some feedback to the students about how to develop their skills.”

Those skills include learning to play a piece without sheet music, improving stage presence and getting the chance to play a different genre of music; three things Natalie Brown's orchestra performers got to experience when they shared the stage with world music outfit Matuto at CSPS Hall earlier this year.

“It's just letting the kids experience that they can play any style on these instruments,” said Brown, orchestra director at Washington High School in Cedar Rapids. “It's about them finding an individual voice on their instruments.”

Aside from the actual skills gleaned, the vocal and instrumental music directors listed another benefit to having students perform with professionals: longevity. In essence, it shows students that the curtain on their musical experiences doesn't close when they graduate.

During the bus ride back from the Foreigner performance, Michael Jewell, vocal music teacher and show choir director at Washington High School in Washington, Iowa, overheard students talking about their goals: becoming session musicians, songwriters, background vocalists and owning recording studios among them.

“I hope our students will continue to use those gifts, those talents, as they go on with the rest of their lives,” he said. “You can sing or play an instrument all your life if you choose to, to write or compose a song or whatever. It's just a matter of making time in your schedule and living somewhere where you can choose to do those things … It's not impossible.”