Whitefish hosts jazz camp for local students
<p class="p1">Rob Tapper, director of Jazz Studies at the University of Montana in Missoula, teaches a group of local high school students during the Whitefish Jazz Camp on Tuesday.</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">During jazz camp, students had the chance to try a range of instruments. From left to right: Maybelline Green, Whitefish High School all-state violinist, tries bass guitar; and Max Puglielli, Glacier High School percussionist, demonstrates for Brendan Gibson, Whitefish High School oboe/saxophone player.</span></p>
<p class="p1">Whitefish band directorMark McCrady instructs Malia Van Dort, Whitefish High School vocalist, left, and Jacob Hohman, Columbia Falls High School tenor saxophone player.</p>
Many students around the Flathead Valley are focused on squeezing as much rest and relaxation as possible into the few remaining days of summer vacation. But in Whitefish, nearly 40 students have chosen to spend one of their final summer weeks at the Whitefish Jazz Camp from Aug. 17-21.
The camp, which includes middle and high school students from around the valley, is being held in Whitefish High School’s new Center for Applied Media Arts and Sciences. Groovetrail is hosting the week-long musical experience, led by Whitefish Band Director Mark McCrady and featuring instruction from University of Montana Director of Jazz Studies Rob Tapper, jazz professional Erica von Kleist, percussionist Don Caverly and vocalist Eric Michael Krop.
The camp includes five days of workshops, lectures, music theory exercises, group rehearsals and performances. Tonight the camp participants will perform at Whitefish High School at 7 p.m. The showcase is free and open to the public, but McCrady cautioned that seating is limited.
TAPPER SAID he enjoys the chance to participate in camps like this one, and has been traveling and teaching regionally through the summer, spreading jazz wherever he goes.
“It’s neat to go out and meet the kids and work with the directors,” Tapper said.
Tapper has been part of the University of Montana jazz program for the past four years. He said he is also classically trained, but “there’s something about jazz ... It opens people up as musicians.”
McCrady, who enters his 10th year teaching in Whitefish this fall, agreed.
“Jazz gives musicians freedom to interpret things,” McCrady said. “Improvising ... you have to draw on the left and right sides of the brain at the same time.
“On one hand you have to be spontaneous and artistic, but you also have to have the technical know-how to pull it off.”
McCrady said this is the first year he’s run a jazz camp for the high school age group, but the fifth year for middle schoolers. He said teaching jazz to students during their teenage years has more than just musical benefits.
“Playing jazz is really great training for life,” McCrady said. “In the future [the students] will be faced with situations where they will need to be able to stand and deliver confidently. Jazz is training them for that.”
Tapper said he hopes students can take what they learn this week and apply it not only to playing music, but to anything they may face in the future.
“I hope [the workshop] gives young musicians a better idea of what it takes to really do something,” Tapper said. “In music, in jazz, it’s not just this gift ... Anyone can work hard at it and be successful.”
RMI STRAUSER, 18, is one of the student participants this week. He is a Whitefish High School graduate who will head to the University of Montana this fall, planning to double major in music education and jazz studies.
Strauser said camp this week was a good way to get warmed up and have a chance to learn from Tapper, who will be one of his professors in Missoula. He said listening to the UM jazz bands during the Buddy DeFranco Jazz Festival in Missoula earlier this year is ultimately what inspired him to apply there.
“Music is my biggest passion,” Strauser said. “I love it more than anything else I do.”
Strauser performed this summer with the Alpine Theatre Project, and said one thing that stood out was how different it is playing for a theater orchestra versus playing in a jazz combo.
“Jazz in particular is really free music ... free expression,” Strauser said. “Jazz gives players the most freedom.”
Sponsors for the Whitefish Jazz Camp include the Crown of the Continent Guitar Foundation, Bonsai Brewing and Jazz at Lincoln Center. For more information on this camp and future related events, visit www.groovetrail.org.
Malia Van Dort, 16, is a vocalist and junior at Whitefish High School. This is the first time she’s attended a camp like this one.
“[Jazz camp] is a good opportunity for me to step out of my comfort zone,” Van Dort said. “It’s a chance to have a better understanding of music and connect with people, too.”
Even though camp has been a new experience for her, she said she wanted to attend because she connects with jazz in particular.
“In jazz you don’t have to conform to anything,” Van Dort said. “You have the opportunity to make it your own.”
Entertainment Editor Stefanie Thompson can be reached at 758-4439 or ThisWeek@dailyinterlake.com.