Robart a crucial part of Flathead, Glacier music departments

Her professional background as a lawyer and a nonprofit manager — and even her college training as a musician and music educator — didn’t completely prepare Nina Robart for her current position as accompanist and general music aide for Flathead and Glacier high schools.

She should have been doing a lot of sewing.

Robart, the woman often heard playing flawless accompaniment for the choirs and orchestras at both Kalispell high schools, is responsible for so much more than what people see on stage.

Along with her classroom and concert music contributions, one of Robart’s biggest jobs is ensuring that each student in the choir, band and orchestra programs at both schools has a properly fitting stage outfit for every performance.

It’s a job that is especially time-consuming during the first months of school.

It includes hemming and fitting dresses, jackets, pants, tuxedos and choir robes for the student musicians and singers in almost every musical group.

When she first began working at Flathead in fall 2006 after moving to Kalispell in 2003 to help out her mother, orchestra was the only program requiring her sewing skills, which she says are adequate but lacking in artistic merit.

Then marching band uniforms were added to her responsibilities, then Glacier opened and she took on the same role for their music program. And this year, the total number of students in the music programs at the two schools increased by about 50.

“I get so tired by the end of the first semester that going into Christmas I’m exhausted,” she said.

Her seamstress work, done both at the schools and at home in front of a good movie, isn’t exactly her pride and joy; it is done in a fashion she calls “down and dirty. I don’t have time to do proper hemming.”

But Robart, 68, does excel where it’s most important, in her music-related responsibilities. And she loves working with the students.

“They make all of the uniform and filing issues worthwhile. They are so generous and thankful and creative and involved,” she said. “They keep me young.”

Flathead choir Director Kevin Allen-Schmid said the students are just as fond of Robart.

“She never balks at anything, she always has a smile and a laugh,” he said. “She also has great fashion sense, always some great outfit on. The kids love to see what she’s wearing.”

He is especially appreciative of her professional contribution to the music department.

“She coaches kids individually and in small groups, she plays piano, she adds depth, she’s a great sight-reader and plays by ear and jumps in without any forewarning,” Allen-Schmid said.

Sandee Sauer, choir director at Glacier, is similarly full of praise for Robart.

“Nina is a gifted musician who can play any song, any time,” she said. “The students love her and greet her with genuine enthusiasm and appreciation every time they see her. I don’t know what GHS would do without this dynamic, energetic, talented lady.”

Robart said that accompanying is quite different from solo playing; it takes an ability and an attitude that can elude even the most skilled pianists.

“You have to follow someone else, and it doesn’t matter what you do, right or wrong,” she said. “You are going with the flow; you can’t stop for anything.”

She said choir music can be technically demanding or very easy, often ranging from one end to the other on the scale of difficulty within just one piece.

Her music training began at a young age. She was an accompanist through high school and college and she ended up with a bachelor’s degree in music education and a minor in piano from the University of Idaho.

Though she had her music degrees in hand, she decided she didn’t want to teach. When someone later suggested she attend law school, she said she found it an “amusing” idea.

“I had always despised government and contemporary history classes,” she said.

But she took the Law School Admission Test anyway, and after scoring well, attended law school at Lewis & Clark in Portland and ended up practicing law there for 20 years.

“What I liked about law were the stories that came in the door of the office,” she said.

She started out in criminal law, working for a district attorney’s office for four years, then moved into general practice law. During her life in Portland, she took some time off from her law practice, working for the Oregon Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse and the Oregon Coalition to Reduce Underage Drinking, both nonprofit organizations.

She also spent a year traveling throughout Africa while she was in her late 40s. With all she carried in one backpack, she traveled from village to village.

“It was an absolutely fantastic experience,” she said. “At the time I wanted to find out what I wanted to do with myself. I didn’t, but it was a shot of self-confidence.”

She didn’t speak any of the languages going into the trip, but said she learned enough to get by in each region.

“I found out you can get along pretty well without much of anything, and you can get by without things,” she said. “What was in my backpack was more than most people I met had in their house.”

It’s obvious that people are what Robart values most. Allen-Schmid said she’s completely devoted to the music programs and the students.

“She plugs away, I’ve seen her in here Friday, Saturday, Sunday nights. She’s taken it on as a calling,” he said.

Robart’s work also includes organization of the extensive music libraries for the music programs, grant-writing, record-keeping and a little of everything that involves making sure students are where they are supposed to be. She helps students pick out music and plays for solos and ensembles for district and state music festivals; she also teaches piano privately after school.

“I’ve managed offices and learned that what you see is only the tip of the iceberg,” she said.

Robart also plays for the Good Times Chorus, a group that focuses on music of the 1930s and ’40s, the Swingin’ on High big band, and is on the praise team at her church.

She was playing for the vocal group Off the Record, but after this year’s First Night performance, turned in her music because she said she just couldn’t swing one more thing.

When she signed on with the schools, she never anticipated that the position would be so consuming. But without question, working with the students makes it all worthwhile.

“I was looking around the room as they all sat just before the last concert, and I could see the growth in many of them whom I have known for three and four years now,” she said. “What a privilege it is to work with them.”

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