New instruments pump up four county school bands

When the Discovery Middle School band strikes up the “El Gato” march in Vancouver’s Paddy Hough Parade on St. Patrick’s Day, there should be piccolo flutes to accentuate the right notes — at last.

With four new trombones, a small tuba and four new flutes, to boot.

With guidance from the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation — a spinoff from the namesake 1995 motion picture that featured young Vancouver musicians — the largesse of the Amphitheater at Clark County has supplied $150,000 of new instruments for Discovery and six other schools in the Vancouver-Portland area carefully chosen for need.

A shiny collection of 18 brass, woodwind and stringed instruments was unveiled Tuesday before a crowd of surprised music students and several school and civic leaders at Discovery.

Moments later, musicians fingered their keys, valves or strings and imagined anew.

“I’ve wanted to play (a piccolo) since sixth grade,” said Nicole Welsh, an eighth-grade flute player.

“It’s a better instrument. It looks more clean,” said eighth-grader Taylor Reagle, checking out a gleaming trombone that humbles his current model.

He ran the horn’s slide up and down, to demonstrate. “It’s nice and smooth. It’s kind of scratchy on mine,” he explained.

A similar windfall will boost musicians at Covington Middle School and Orchards Elementary School in the Evergreen district, Washougal’s Hathaway Elementary and three Portland schools.

It’s the first local assist from the Opus Foundation, which works to keep music programs healthy in America’s schools (backstory of the film that starred Richard Dreyfuss as a high school band teacher doomed by budget cuts), a spokeswoman said.

Time well spent

For that, musicians can thank the amphitheater group and Dan Braun, its chief executive officer.

“I started loving music, just like you did, when I was in school,” Braun told about 100 assembled students, including the concert band that performed two numbers for its guests.

“I got lucky; I got exposed to music in school, at an early age,” he said. Since then, he has staged performances for leading musicians at some of world’s top venues, he said. “It’s provided the beat to my life.”

Discovery band director Dave Conditt picked up Braun’s thread. He said studies show that student musicians usually excel in studies, get a leg up on college and thrive as adults.

“They’re just happier, too,” Conditt said. “Every second you spend on your instrument is worth it,” he told his charges.

But first, students need “a quality instrument,” he said.

With a threadbare school selection (barely half of Discovery band members own their instruments, which can cost thousands of dollars each), “they’re getting what’s available, rather than what they want to play,” he said.

That’s why Conditt was thrilled when informed about the gift, then helped to choose which instruments to add. They include two tenor saxophones, a pair of piccolos and five violas, including two upright models.

“I’ve known about this for months. But it’s still hitting me like a ton of bricks,” he said.

‘The instrument is your life’

Vancouver school Superintendent Steve Webb, Mayor Tim Leavitt and Clark County commissioners Steve Stuart and Marc Boldt spoke briefly. Each recalled their musical past, some quite successful, others not.

Webb said the Vancouver district and its patrons take pride in retaining strong arts and music programs that boost so many students. He once played trombone well enough to realize college dreams, he said.

o Fort Vancouver High School musicians appeared in a marching scene (set in 1966) in the film “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” shot in Portland’s St. Johns neighborhood in 1994. Many scenes were filmed at Portland’s Grant High School.

o In five years at Discovery Middle School, band teacher Dave Conditt has doubled participation to about 200 students. “He’s the Pied Piper of young musicians,” said Principal Chris Olsen.

“Music saved me. It was my path to higher education,” Webb said. “We believe in educating the whole person.”

Boldt, who played trumpet in his school band, said he went through several instruments. He told Discovery students to treat theirs well, and to aim high.

“You live for it; the instrument is your life,” Boldt said of dedicated musicians. “You will be playing (someday) in the amphitheater, we hope.”

Discovery orchestra teacher Sandra Edwards has a near-term goal. With the violas, she won’t have to replace one of four strings each on several school-owned violins with thicker ones, a makeshift fix to create similar rich tones, she said.

“It doesn’t really have the same sound. That’s why it’s great to have these violas,” Edwards said.

“Anybody who wants to play it, you want to have an instrument for them,” she said.

The Opus Foundation has funneled new and refurbished instruments to about 500,000 students and youths, including those in more than 1,000 underserved school or community programs, officials said.

Discovery’s new instruments came from Vancouver’s Beacock Music Co.

Howard Buck: 360-735-4515 or howard.buck@columbian.com.