FORKS — The resurgent Forks school music program has continued to grow since its reinstatement in 2010 and is nearly ready for prime time, according to the band director.
For the first time since the music program was canceled in 2006, there is a band class made up entirely of Forks High School students.
“Honestly, this band is going to be fantastic,” said Matthew Kuka, band director for Forks junior high and high schools.
The 22-member band is young and inexperienced but has a lot of talent and dedication, Kuka said.
With more than 50 junior high school student musicians coming up through the system and half of the Forks Intermediate School students in band, the future of music in Forks is bright, he said.
The Quillayute Valley School District’s music program was canceled in 2006 due to a lack of funding.
Funding secured
In 2010, voters approved a two-year, $626,348 property tax levy, part of which was designated to fund the reinstatement of the district’s music program.
However, with four years of students having little or no music training, the district decided to start in 2010 with students in Forks Elementary School and work the music program back into the district from the bottom up.
While the district began music lessons for elementary school students, the new high school building, completed in 2012, was built with a dedicated music room ready and waiting for those young students to mature.
It remained empty as the new young musicians worked their way through middle school.
In 2013, a pioneering group of five high school students who wanted to play music — those who moved into the district with a music background or those who were taking private lessons — performed with Forks Middle School eighth-grade students at the middle school.
In September 2014, the middle school was converted to Forks Intermediate School for the fourth, fifth and sixth grades, and the new Forks Junior High School for seventh and eighth grades was opened in the former high school annex building, located between the high school and the intermediate school.
Also in September, the high school music room was finally populated with young musicians for the first time.
The newly minted high school band is made up mostly of freshmen, some sophomores and juniors, and one senior who, despite the program being canceled just as she began playing clarinet in elementary school, never gave up on her love for music, Kuka said.
The band plays a mix of classics with pieces that tie in with their classes, such as Civil War-era music that ties in with U.S. history lessons, he said.
The revitalization has come with challenges.
Athletics vs. band?
One of the biggest misconceptions among students and parents is that students must choose between the music program and athletics, Kuka said.
Band classes and jazz band take place before and during school, while sports are after school, he said.
However, having students in both sports and band programs has resulted in some conflict.
Kuka said that while the music program has broad support from the Forks community, there has been some disappointment that there is no marching band or pep band — a mainstay of the pre-2006 Forks music program.
While music class and formal concerts do not interfere with athletics, he said, music performances during athletic events are a challenge.
“Half of my students are on the basketball teams,” he said.
Competition-ready
The music program has also begun performing in competitions.
An audition-only jazz band meets before school and has members from both the high school and junior high.
The jazz band is open to any student in the district capable of reading and playing the more challenging music, Kuka said.
It was a difficult choice whether to send the mixed-grade band to the Viking Jazz Festival in Poulsbo or to allow a handful of band members to travel to Port Angeles to attend auditions to qualify for the state solo and ensemble competition, he said.
Both events took place Jan. 31.
Ultimately, the decision was to made to attend the festival, Kuka said, where the band competed in the junior high school division and earned a score equivalent to fifth place in their division.
Next year, students from Forks will probably vie for a spot in the state competition, he said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
