Music School Keeps Growing

Violin teacher Michael Sporre was so impressed with the musical mission of North Valley Music School that he moved across the country to be part of it.

"I love the goals of what this school is striving to do," Sporre said. "They want to bring music to anyone and everyone, with a high caliber of instruction in a small place."

Sporre, who moved here from Pennsylvania and who has a master's degree in violin performance from Butler University in Indianapolis, recently was recruited to join the faculty of the school, the only nonprofit community music school in Montana.

He specializes in the Suzuki method of instruction, and, he hopes, in making music fun.

"We're generating a future audience for what we do as artists," Sporre said. "It's a big part of what I think is so great about bringing music to kids."

North Valley Music School is celebrating its 10th anniversary of bringing music to children as well as adults. The idea for the school came from a conversation at the Whitefish post office between local musicians Betsy Kohnstamm and Betty Lou Wambeke.

They rounded up some support from local donors and began humbly in 1998, with a few lessons in what was then the basement of the Whitefish United Methodist Church. A decade later, the school is looking for a space large enough to accommodate the 400-plus students who circulate through the school each week.

For six years the school has been located at 432 Spokane Ave. in Whitefish, in a house that was once a bed and breakfast. The 14 faculty members offer instruction in harp, piano, voice, violin, cello, viola, guitar, mandolin, banjo and fiddle.

Special programs include summer camps, such as "Rock Band" or a country music "Little Wranglers" session, a children's choir and an intergenerational community orchestra.

The school just started offering classes at a satellite location in Columbia Falls and last year launched classes for students and the public at a Kalispell Montessori School.

Keeping all the students moving through the various entities of the school in an orderly fashion is the job of office manager Janet Funk. She started out six years ago as a three-hour-a-week bookkeeper; now she said she's paid not quite for full time, "but I'm here a lot."

Funk organizes the roughly 300 private lessons each week, keeping track of each student's lesson time and teacher through a three-ring notebook she calls "the bible." She also does everything from counseling mothers whose children are reluctant to practice, to matching students with the best teachers for their style of learning and personality.

It's one of the benefits of a place such as North Valley to have a large roster of teachers available; students pay the same tuition no matter who they are studying with.

"I have to know the teachers' styles," Funk said. "When I'm scheduling new students, I'll ask about their personalities and their expectations, and that way I can get a good match."

Her services are invaluable to teachers, which is one of the reasons North Valley has been able to secure instructors with stellar credentials and experience.

Sam Taylor, concertmaster with the Glacier Symphony, comes up from his home in Missoula to teach violin each week. He could give private lessons in Missoula and charge more per lesson than he makes here, but having a full slate of students - and a good support system - makes the commute worthwhile.

"Janet is worth her weight in gold," Taylor said. "I can make one phone call if I run into trouble and she'll take care of the rest. The infrastructure here is an advantage to me."

Ensuring that the teachers are of the highest quality is crucial to the success of the school, Cameron Blake, the school's executive director, said. She said the school's goal is to hire teachers with a degree in their principal instrument, with teaching and professional performance experience.

"The parents don't have to check out the teachers," Blake said. "As a school, we've already done that."

Performance chances for the students are numerous. Student ensembles will play for the Whitefish Christmas stroll, in a monthly fiddle group or at local assisted living centers. The North Valley Music School children's choir performed with the Glacier Symphony in its production of the opera "Carmen" last year."

And the school sponsored a chamber music camp that ran concurrently with the Glacier Symphony and Chorale's Festival Amadeus in August.

The young musicians attended the rehearsals and developed a relationship with the festival musicians.

"They didn't have to, but almost every one of the 18 kids in the camp went to every single concert," Blake said. "They wanted to see their friends on stage."

A local family recently gave the school $8,250 to purchase computers that students can use to record and engineer their own music.

"It will provide college-level knowledge and skills," Blake said.

A grant of that amount is indicative of the changes in the school, Blake said.

"Five years ago, to get a grant for $250 was amazing," she said.

The school, which served around 600 students last year, gets about 20 percent of its operating budget from fundraising. Generous donors have helped the school in its mission as well. For example, a donor provided free airline miles to bring Sporre in from Pennsylvania to visit the school.

Another supporter, Bill Montgomery, is sponsoring a fundraising concert with Ian Tyson, a Canadian cowboy music legend, on Wednesday at the O'Shaughnessy Center in Whitefish. Montgomery owns Stillwater Landing, a music venue on the lake west of Whitefish.

The school will need continued support as it works on finding a new home. The current facility is about 3,000 square feet, and the layout of an old house is not designed for the needs of musicians.

"We can't have loud instruments, like drums," Blake said.

Blake said they're looking to move into a facility with around 8,000 square feet and would like a space that holds at least 100 audience members for recitals.

"There's usually more demand than we can meet," Blake said. "We just keep growing and growing. We're bursting at the seams."

Ian Tyson, a Canadian cowboy singer-songwriter and multiple award winner, will perform at The O'Shaughnessy Center in Whitefish on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.

Tyson holds a lengthy list of honors - from the Order of Canada to platinum records, Juno Awards and Canadian Country Music Awards. All proceeds will benefit the North Valley Music School's scholarship fund. The scholarship fund is expected to help 25 music students in the coming year attend private lessons, group classes and summer camps.

Tickets are $40 with reserved seating. A limited number of tickets, which include a pre-concert reception backstage with the artist and premier seating, are available for $100. Tickets can be purchased through the O'Shaughnessy Center box office at 862-5371.

Reporter Heidi Gaiser may be reached at 758-4431 or by e-mail at hgaiser@dailyinterlake.com