Daily Sitka Sentinel

College Professor Tutor for Sitka High Bands

By GARLAND KENNEDY

Sentinel Staff Writer

Sitka High School band students got lessons from a college music professor this week, part of a statewide program to step up interest in the arts.

Dr. Stephen Meyer, director of bands and assistant professor at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona, has previous experience working with Sitka’s musically inclined kids – he’s been coming to Sitka since 2018 to be an instructor at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp.

Northern Arizona University assistant professor Dr. Stephen Meyer snaps his fingers as he counts out a rhythm during Sitka High School symphonic band class Wednesday. Meyer is the artist-in-residence at the high school. He is helping to get band ensembles ready for the upcoming Southeast Music Festival in Ketchikan. (Sentinel Photo)

“I did the middle school camp and the high school camp teaching band, so I’ve been to Sitka before and I’m very familiar with many of the kids that are here,” Meyer told the Sentinel.

While he’s been involved in music for decades, Meyer said his favorite aspect of teaching revolves around the students.

“It’s watching the growth of the students and watching things click, challenging them to do something they didn’t think was possible, and meet a level of performance that maybe exceeds their age, I think it’s really exciting,” he said Wednesday as freshmen and sophomores left the band room following class. “Kids are amazing. And they have so much capability and possibility that it’s fun to be able to give them the tools to realize that.”

Meyer was interim director of bands at the State University of New York Crane School of Music and interim assistant band director at the University of South Carolina before his position in Arizona. He also has taught at the high school level.

At Sitka High this week he focused on jazz, symphonic and concert band instruction, as well as choir, vocal jazz and guitar.

In the concert band class for underclassmen, he gave detailed instruction – from technique to posture – to students on brass and woodwind instruments.

Freshman Jericka Arenial, who has played the flute since fifth grade, gave the visiting instructor high marks.  “He’s only been here less than a week and I’ve learned so much,” she said. “And the videos that he’s provided for me, I’m learning from them too.”

Taylor Cushing, another freshman, said she started playing the trombone in fifth grade, took a break during COVID, and only recently took up the trombone again. “I’ve been relearning my instrument after not playing for two years. So it’s been kind of a challenge, but I got the hang of it pretty fast,” she said.

With only six kids in the concert band class, she said, Meyer’s seminar-style instruction has been beneficial.

“It’s been fun having another teacher here. Especially in a small group, it’s helped a lot,” she said.

Sitka High music director Andrew Hames, who knew Meyer through his own work at the Fine Arts Camp, collaborated with his musical colleague in arranging the special week-long instruction, with a grant from the Artists in Schools project supported by the Alaska State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rasmuson Foundation.

Meyer said he hopes to prepare students for the Southeast Music Festival in Ketchikan next month.

“We’re just seeing where they are, where they want to go… There is an incredible history of performing arts at the school,” he said. “It’s really amazing what all of the music teachers and all of the performing arts are doing. I was really impressed by the level of students and the talent and their hard work and work ethic.

“Now it’s just finding out and getting them to the next level through different fundamentals as an individual, as an ensemble, kind of preparing their music, and working on their music for Music Fest, their upcoming performance.”