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Newton High Schoolers say it is common to see students participating in multiple fine arts classes or extracurricular activities.
Senior Zane Munger is in wind ensemble, chamber choir, jazz choir and jazz band. Miles Soppe, junior, and Ian Alexander, sophomore, are also in wind ensemble, chamber choir and jazz choir, and they regularly participate in theater shows at the high school and are in group speech. They all know each other well.
Until now the fine arts student have had little opportunity to showcase their skills outside of performing a concert, acting or singing in a theater show, having their art displayed in the school hallways or or sampling baked goods with friends. Well, that’s all about to change next week with the introduction of Fine Arts Night.
Adam Kallal, the high school band director, is launching the inaugural event at 6 p.m. Feb. 3 at Newton High School. Art gallery displays and sewing projects will be on display as a gallery and then a concert will follow at 7 p.m. featuring speech musical theater, jazz band, wind ensemble and the chamber choir.
“I wanted to create something to celebrate all the real awesome, talented and creative people we have here at the high school,” Kallal said in a recent interview with Newton News. “…We really don’t have one pinnacle event for all the fine arts students. If we don’t tell our story, then nobody will know it.”
People may not know how many artists are cultivating their skills within the walls of the high school. They may not know how many young musicians are pushing themselves to do great things. They may not know what the high school’s speech program all entails or that students are creating menus of tasty food.
Fine Arts Night gives the town an opportunity to learn more about the creatives and their creations. For the fine arts students, it is a chance to show why they love being involved in fine arts. Soppe likes the sense of community that comes with fine arts and the friendships that have been built along the way.
“I spend so much time with all these people during regular classes, rehearsals and competitions,” she said. “Even people from other schools. You meet so many different people. At marching band competitions we’re all watching each other and cheering them on. It’s a very supportive environment.”
Alexander likes the variety in fine arts. He can sing, he can act, he can play an instrument. He can do so much to express himself.
“It’s also really fun to work with other people, especially people that you know from similar activities,” Alexander said.
Munger added, “You can kind of tie it into athletics with the way you kind of learn from each other and challenge each other and everything. At the same time, it’s also really cool because it’s different than athletics. In athletics it’s easy to think of it as a competition. In fine arts, it’s like, ‘What can we make together?’”
During the Fine Arts Night, Munger will be unveiling a piece he has been composing alongside his fellow students. Debuting original music is already scary enough, but Munger isn’t doing it alone. The student musicians are also taking part in something they haven’t done before.
It’s a new experience, but it’s exciting nonetheless.
“They’re playing music they’ve never really heard the style of before,” he said. “It’s not like I’m classically trained or anything, so it’s not a typical song. They have to go along with the idea of, ‘OK we haven’t seen this kind of thing before with the weird teenager writing music.’ But I think that’s cool.”
For Munger, the best part of Fine Arts Night is being able to share it with band students, choir students, art students and the like. Everyone gets to be involved for one event, and that doesn’t get to happen often. The wind ensemble and the choir get team up for a combined piece, and that never happens.
“We’ve never really done that before, and how cool is that to be able to combine both — choir kids and band kids unite,” Munger said. “And the same goes for art. I walk past the art (in the school) and I see it and I appreciate it, but I’ve never had an event to go and actually spectate the art and take it all in.”
Soppe is looking forward to the speech performances. It is not often those in speech get to showcase their skills outside of competitions. They don’t have public showing, and many times performances cannot be recorded. Fine Arts Night also lets students show the community what it is they do.
“I’m really excited to be able to show what we do in speech, especially since a lot of it isn’t actually giving a speech,” Soppe said. “…For group, we don’t do that at all. And I don’t think very many people actually know what we do for speech. So I’m really excited to show them.”
Alexander admitted even he didn’t know what all speech entails when he first joined the group. He expected many others in the community thought what he thought: It’s just a bunch of public speaking! Turns out speech is much more than that, and Alexander is all the more grateful for it.
“I didn’t know it was all this stuff!” he said. “It’s surprising that it’s kind of bundled under one thing, so it’s really cool we get to do that.”
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