2010 Great Lakes Music Festival draws 195
If Sharon Duke has her way, all nine of her children will have participated in the Great Lakes Music Festival at least once. The first time she attended, however, Duke arrived at Maranatha with no children at all.
“I was with my mom at a homeschooling conference when we saw a brochure about Great Lakes,” Duke recalled. “I said, ‘That sounds cool; let’s do it.’ I didn’t understand it was for teenagers, but I figured that out soon after we got there. Still, I was very excited about it, and I could hardly wait until my oldest could come.”
Duke brought four children to Maranatha on Friday for the 2010 edition of the Festival. There were 195 young musicians taking part, most of them homeschoolers or students from small Christian schools who have had little opportunity to rehearse and perform with a large vocal group or orchestra.
“I went to a small high school that didn’t have a big band,” recalled music professor Dr. Monty Budahl, who founded the Festival in 1992. “We did have the all-county band, however, and that was a big thing. It was very exciting. I wanted to do something similar for students from small schools.”
The students met Friday afternoon for an orientation session, then split into piano, band, string orchestra, men’s chorus and ladies’ chorus groups for rehearsals. More rehearsals followed in the evening, followed by an ice cream social and variety show.
Most of the young people stayed overnight in the college dormitories. Breakfast, devotions, and Saturday morning rehearsals were followed by a full concert at 1:30 p.m.
The music choices have varied over the years, Budahl said. One Festival concentrated on the works of Handel, another music from other countries. The skyrocketing cost of sheet music has led to an increased adoption of arrangements composed by members of Maranatha’s music faculty.
“We have usually tried to incorporate some American folk songs,” Budahl said. “We may know a lot of sacred music, but it seems like we don’t know the songs about our nation’s heritage.”
The unique opportunity has fostered an unusual degree of loyalty among parents and teachers. Budahl recalled that, one year, a raging blizzard occurred the night before the Festival. The next day, 182 of 185 registrants arrived despite lingering “fairly nasty” weather conditions.
Duke’s observations about the Festival, and the projected attendance of her nine children, demonstrate that loyalty.
“It’s certainly a musical challenge, a call to a higher standard of music,” Duke said. “But the bigger picture is the opportunity to be part of a larger group. That’s something you can really appreciate. I am blown away by the mass choir every year. To see something like that come together in 24 hours … there’s nothing like it.”
Duke spent some free time Friday with Tammy Meidam of Appleton, whose homeschooled daughter was attending for the first time.
“From a musical standpoint, she’s very unseasoned,” Meidam said. “It’s neat to see her singing with a big group again.”
That opportunity is exactly what Budahl had in mind in 1992.
“We emphasize that music is for ministry, not just for fun,” Budahl said. “For a lot of them, this is their first exposure to music as ministry, and that’s something that seems to really stay with them. That is the important part. The fun part is that, when I am out traveling, I meet a lot of people who tell me they were at Great Lakes when they were kids. I’m starting to run into them everywhere.”
---Posted Feb. 2, 2010
The Great Lakes Music Festival, designed for grades 8-12, is a two-day festival which takes place the last Friday and Saturday of every January and includes five music tracks:
- Band
- Orchestra
- Piano*
- Men’s Chorus and handbells
- Ladies’ Chorus and tone chimes
Each track is designed for many musical levels. However, if you are a beginning instrumentalist, you may find the band or orchestra challenging. In addition, you can participate in a mass choir. In one weekend, you have the opportunity to put together a professional concert,* performed at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday in the gym. Your parents, relatives, and friends are invited to attend the concert.
Between rehearsals, plan to meet other teens, fine arts faculty, and college students involved in fine arts. You'll love the the dessert extravaganza on Friday night. More Details.
Registration will be between 12:00 and 2:00 pm, Friday, January 29. Come to the gym lobby to sign in, pay the balance of what you owe, and pick up your welcome packet, name tag, and dorm assignment. Commuters staying in Watertown: check hotels.
*Piano track students participate in piano workshops, practice and perform with the mass choir and perform in Master Classes. Students giving excellent Master Class performances will be given the opportunity to perform for either the prelude to the concert or the concert on Saturday. All pianists perform with the choir. See piano track schedule for details..