Posted: Mar 12, 2010 5:04 PM
Updated: Mar 12, 2010 5:15 PM
In the Helena valley, music brought three middle schools together in harmony this week.
The bands from Helena Middle School, C.R. Anderson, and East Valley Middle School joined forces for a music festival, with the 8th-grade students split up into two groups to practice sets of four pieces.
Triona Matheson, a percussionist, said, "We all play together as one big band, which you get to do it once a year in 7th and 8th grade so its pretty exciting."
And tubist Zach Begler commented on another aspect of the event: "To interact with people...get to know people, see who else plays the tuba."
Two guest conductors from Missoula, Cliff Goodman and John Schuberg, lead the musical event each years. Both are former middle school teachers who retired three years ago.
Schuberg now teaches band as an adjunct professor at the University of Montana, and Goodman, when he's not helping band students, drives a school bus.