New era of K-M music program affords students more opportunities

Kent-Meridian High School music teachers hope to put their program on the map, and that starts with strong music programs at the lower-grade levels.

Adam Rupert, who is in his second year as Kent-Meridian’s band and orchestra director, and Heath Thompson, who is in his 10th year as K-M’s choir director, work closely with Mill Creek Middle School’s new music director, Tristan Roush, to get students excited about music.

That work seems to be paying off, as next school year Kent-Meridian will offer beginning and advanced choir, band and orchestra classes.

“Many students who enter my choir don’t have any knowledge or experience about what choir is as a class,” Thompson said. “Originally, the administration and I wanted to make choir easily accessible to all the students. We just had one base choir so that it was easy for the school to be in choir.

“Now we have a strong population of kids where I feel comfortable being able to have students in a model that allows students who have spent a couple years in choir to take it to the next step and do an advanced audition choir where they do more difficult literature, participate in music festivals and perform more often.”

Rupert said combined classes of newer and more experienced musicians aren’t ideal.

“It demotivates the upperclassmen,” he said. “It is too stringent for some of the younger kids.”

Students in the advance classes will have the option of taking the course for International Baccalaureate credit.

Rupert said students who choose to purse IB courses often drop music, but he hopes the possibility for IB credit will keep them in the music program.

“These kids are losing the opportunity to be in creative, artistic classes, nurturing their creativity and the team working skills, to be in academic classes,” he said.

Music students will have the chance to travel. The band, for example, will participate in four jazz festivals and will go to Central Washington University in Ellensburg, as well as to Tula’s Jazz Club and the Museum of Flight, both in Seattle.

There are also plans for a trip to Disneyland in 2017, Rupert said.

“These kids deserve to travel and get out of their community and perform just as much as any others,” Rupert said. “We are starting to forge a music program that is very similar to other music programs.”

Some changes have already been implemented in the music program.

Thompson teaches a music technology class, which gives students the opportunity to learn about audio recording and being a disc jockey, and three choir students will perform in the Rising Stars Project at The 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle in March

“The entire music department is going to go together to watch those students perform in the student show,” Thompson said.

This spring, the school’s band, choir and drama programs will collaborate to put on “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella.”

Rupert hopes the music program will continue to grow.

“We know we need to change the culture and the expectation of what a music program can be with the support of our colleagues, the administration, the parents,” he said. “There’s no reason it has to be the smallest music program in the district. Within five years, this will be the flagship music program in Kent.”

Kent-Meridian’s music programs have performed in recent weeks at Mill Creek to help create interest in pursing music in high school.

“We are 100 percent dependent upon the Mill Creek music program being supported, funded and nourished by Tristan so that it is a natural pathway up to here,” Rupert said. “Tristan is doing an absolutely fantastic job at getting those kids motivated and eager to make music a part of their life.”

Rupert said Roush focuses on drumming up interest in elementary students.

“We are all reaching down as far as we can go because we know in our region that the attrition rate of music kids, once they start in fifth grade the numbers only decrease,” Rupert said.

Thompson and Rupert said their administration’s support is another crucial factor in their program’s success.

Kent-Meridian principal Wade Barringer said he is pleased by the growth of the music programs.

“The diversity of music offerings at K-M really allows students with varying interest and experience levels to find something that intrigues and challenges themselves at the same time,” Barringer said in an email. “Heath and Adam have very high expectations for their students and programs. Therefore, when our students perform, whether in competition or social events, they are highly regarded and appreciated.”