Young talent wows Kalispell crowd

Humorous, articulate, thought-provoking, intense and talented are words to describe An Evening of Fine Arts on Monday.

Some of the Flathead Valley’s artistically accomplished and award-winning students were highlighted in a variety of acts at the fundraising event that benefits the Kalispell Education Foundation’s Great Opportunities Grants and Flathead Valley Community College art department.

Foundation director Mike Kofford said roughly $5,000 was raised Monday.

Artwork on display by Flathead and Glacier High School visual arts students was a feast for the eyes in the entryway of the conference room in the Arts and Technology building at the college. Guests sampled hors d’oeuvres and desserts provided by the college’s Culinary Institute of Montana.

After the crowd was revved up by the night’s opening act — the Flathead High School cheerleaders — Glacier High School senior Dani Crandell followed with a clarinet piece from Poulenc’s “Sonata for Clarinet and Piano.”

Other musical performances included a graceful rendition of “Arioso” by Flathead High School woodwind trio Barrie Sugarman, Emily Wilson and Emily Lapp as well as vocal talent — The Glacier Echoes’ upbeat choir performance of “Blue Skies.”

Theater was also well represented with Kalispell Middle School students singing “Human Stuff and Part of Your World” from their upcoming musical, “The Little Mermaid.”

Arms covered in white feathers, seventh-grader Brenden Anderson flapped his “wings” as the seagull Scuttle and sang about dinglehoppers and thingamajigs. Eighth-grader Mia Kluesner as Ariel followed up with a solo. Both have been in multiple musicals.

“I just love singing,” Kluesner said.    

Anderson added: “I like being out there having fun showing what I can do.”

Flathead theater students Dan Power and Persephone Shaefer acted a dramatic scene from “The Crucible.” Power said he played up his character John Proctor’s anger while Shaefer, as Abigail Williams, said she played up her character’s deviousness.

“I think we just kind of feed off of each other’s energy,” Shaefer said.

Speech students also gave strong performances ranging from humorous to serious.

Flathead speech duo Jake Wilson and Jesse Francis kept the crowd in good humor with their interpretation of “The Sword in the Stone.” Later, Glacier duo interpreters also performed a humorous piece based on the movie “Toy Story.”

Glacier senior Tanner Maroney’s commanding and state-winning dramatic interpretation of “R.F.K.” brought the crowd to its feet in applause.

The audience gave a second standing ovation after Flathead Valley Community College student Jessica Chon’s eloquent performance of composer Fritz Kreisler’s “Prelude and Allegro,” followed by violin performances by community college music instructor and master violinist Wai Mizutani.

Unique to this year’s Evening of Fine Arts was a lively dance performance of “The Waltz” by tap ensemble Feat x Feat with students hailing from Flathead, Glacier and Whitefish high schools. When their feet hit the floor, rebounding in a rhythmic energy back and forth across the stage, it was hard not to tap along.

Whitefish student Marlow Schulz, dressed in a classic tap-dance costume — black sequined jacket, tap shorts, black bow tie and top hat, has been tap dancing for about seven years.

“My mom was a tap dancer,” Schulz said. “It’s a nice creative outlet.”

Schulz said the evening is an important part of keeping everyone involved in the arts.

Spectator Susie Burch of Kalispell was impressed with the talent and said this is a great showcase of what is available to students.

“I love watching these kids perform. They’re great, they’re talented in so many different ways,” Burch said. “The arts are huge around here and this is the great way to introduce the kids to all that.”

Beneficiaries of Kalispell Education Foundation grants also were featured to show what kind of innovative classroom projects are being funded.

Brad Nikunen and Sean Kelly, Edgerton Elementary School fifth-grade teachers, talked about their grant-winning classroom project “Wii Learn On Any Surface.”

With $2,000, the teachers constructed two interactive desktops. The materials they used included PVC pipe, Plexiglas, a mirror, Wii remote, infrared pen, projector and free software called Smoothboard.

They discovered tutorials to construct the low-cost interactive surfaces online and adapted it for their classrooms. Kelly said the Plexiglas surface becomes “interactive” when the projector hits the mirror, which displays a computer program. Then students use the infrared pen, which communicates with the Wii remote to use different computer software.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.