On The Mark: Enjoying the sweet sounds at music contest

Buses loaded with high schoolers disgorged their passengers and teachers in front of the Univeristy of Minnesota Duluth's Weber Music Hall. Eager and nervous, the students retrieved their instruments from trailers in tow. Youth from Carlton and St. Louis counties streamed the halls, finding practice and performance rooms. Piling coats onto desks in temporary homerooms, the students warmed up their voices, horns and woodwinds. Pianists limbered up fingers and paired off with singers in tiny and ill-equipped practice rooms. Finding the right buildings and rooms challenged navigation skills.

The Minnesota State High School League's Music Contest is an annual March event. Choral and band directors spend months working with each student's skills and challenges, choosing optimal numbers for each and coaching them one-on-one as well as blending them in waves of sound.

I've watched Cromwell's MaryRose Varo for two years now, honored to be an imperfect piano backdrop for student solos and choir pieces. When a young pianist, I trembled at the keys in an unfamiliar and enormous auditorium, clutching up and having to start over. I accompanied my Catholic high school classmates, some 100 of us, singing the national anthem before convocations.

I played hooky from a contest at age 16. I believed I'd be insulting Bach if I tried to hammer my way through a prelude I hadn't mastered. So I just drove around for three hours and suffered the inevitable disappointment of my mother and piano teacher.

Being a high school music teacher is an incredibly challenging job. I've come through two seasons of Contest awed by their expertise and dedication. How they must tune into every voice, every instrument, every student's strengths and challenges. And how to help them work with each other to create powerful and beautiful sounds.

Our Cromwell-Wright students did exceptionally well this year. Alaina Lind sang the lovely "All Through the Night." Siblings Daniel and Awna Belden sang the duet, "Poor Wayfaring Stranger," with grace and power. In Italian, Andrea Pocernich delivered a slow and heartfelt "Caro Mio Ben," to the sweet piano of Lisa Vasile, our Italian exchange student. We rushed through the corridors to hear the Cromwell-Wright Ensemble singing "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing." Because the piano accompaniment was quite plodding, MaryRose decided to play the guitar instead. Conferring a superior rating, the judge praised the ensemble's voices, harmony, vigor, pace and energetic movements.

Returning to solos and duets, Katherine Libbon and Andrea Pocernich lifted their voices in an lovely "Amazing Grace," moving from softer tones to powerful phrases and back. The piano role was light and airy. Lisa Vasile sang a dreamy "Santa Lucia." Our judge in that room was delighted.

Around midday, our choir performed in the lovely, wood-paneled Weber Hall. They first sang Andrea Ramsey's "Cover Me with the Night," weaving soprano, alto, tenor and bass voices into a joyful rhythmic prayer. Challenging for me, because it is written in B-sharp, using every black key on the piano. To master the rhythm, I subjected myself to hours of YouTube high school choir versions

For their second piece, the choir presented Marta Keen's pensive, floating "Homeward Bound." It sounded perfect to me. The judge was so energized that she mounted the stage and led the choir through exercises to deepen the wistful sentiment of the piece.

After Weber, we returned to Humanities 170 for the final four soloists. Sierra King sang the wrenching "Johnny's Gone for a Soldier" with lovely mood changes. Daniel Belden's "All My Trials" requires tremendous range and modulation, beginning with a powerful rendition of the lines "If religion was a thing that money could buy, the rich would live and the poor would die." The judge, longtime Cloquet High School choral director Beth Wilson, deepened these dynamics with him during feedback. Skylar Yenna sang the American folk song, "He's Gone Away," lifting her voice up to the high F-sharp and ranging from soft to loud and back to super-soft, earning an "Excellent" rating. Later, I accompanied Skyler on her flute for James Lewallen's "Andantino," a playful, wordless romp.

Our sessions ended with Katherine Libbon singing, in Italian, the operatic "Vittorio, Mio Core" ("Victorious, My Heart Is") by the 17th-century composer Giacomo Carissimi. I loved working with her on this piece, thankfully in the key of C and so rhythmic in its three-quarter time, a waltz beat. It requires long quarter-note riffs running four measures, soft and sweet ("dolce") stretches, and multiple crescendos. Working with Katherine was a unique experience, watching her command of the pitches evolve and her expression deepen. Our vocalists received high marks from the judges, all "Superior" or "Excellent."

It's also heartening that so many of our Cromwell-Wright athletes are simultaneously pursuing music. Basketball players Katherine Libbon, Andrea Pocernich, Taya Hakamaki, Shaily Hakamaki, Cassandra Ward, Josie and Jordan Jokinen, Alaina Martin and Amber Collman participate in choir and/or band, performing at Contest and going to state in basketball. Micah Pocernich, Daniel Belden, Damion Warren, Michael Zoeller, Louis Switzer, Garrett Allen and Liam Schoenberg are among the basketball players who sing and/or play instruments. The school makes it possible for them to participate in both throughout the year.