One stage, four high schools: What to know about South Bend's new music festival

SOUTH BEND — The South Bend Community School Corp. aims to make local history April 15: the first combined concert by all four of the city's public high schools — Adams, Clay, Riley and Washington.

By the numbers, the South Bend High School Music Festival will feature:

■ More than 275 students

■ 20 music ensembles, including bands, choirs, orchestras and jazz ensembles

■ Approximately 2½ hours of music

“This is a unique opportunity that many had never had before,” Morris Performing Arts Center Public Arts Coordinator Marvin Curtis said. “I want the kids to have this experience.”

To Curtis, the Morris is the "Carnegie Hall" of South Bend, and he wants to provide students with the opportunity to perform on its historic stage.

Ambitions are high as Curtis hopes to fill 2,400 seats in the historic 101-year-old theater. He’s been working to create what he hopes to be “the first of many festivals to showcase the music of South Bend schools,” he said, wanting the South Bend High School Music Festival to grow into an annual tradition.

“For Jane (Moore) and I, it’s about access and opportunity,” he said. The goal is to see all city concerts performed at the Morris. He said South Bend Venues Parks & Arts Department Foundation is enthusiastic and in support of the high school festival.

Curtis credited Jane Moore, the Morris’ director of booking and event services, with coming up with the idea years ago and bringing him on board.

“I was a choir/theater kid in school, too,” Moore said. “The idea that they get to perform on this stage is inspiring. It’s different from performing in your gym or home auditorium. It might inspire kids to say, ‘Maybe I should pursue a career in the arts.’”

Curtis wants to make the Morris available as an open space for community use.

“I want this to be where the kids come and know that they can perform on this stage. As long as we can do that, I’m all for it,” Curtis said as he gathered band directors from South Bend’s high schools on March 15 to discuss the event. “You do have an advocate in us to get you back in this building,” he told teachers.

When the educators met, logistics posed the biggest challenge. Band directors discussed the length of performances and transition times — everything necessary to pull off a show this size.

Kevin Graham, the band director at Adams, referenced a “collage concert,” transitioning from act to act “as fast as the change of a soundtrack,” he said.

Curtis discussed having smaller groups perform in the Morris’ box suites. “A round-robin performance,” he said.

For South Bend high schools’ band directors, this opportunity is unlike any other.

Schools will get less performance time compared to their individual showcases, but Riley’s assistant band director, Larry Vanore, said the collaborative performance provides a greater benefit for audiences to see a more spread out concert.

“You get to see a greater breadth of groups, rather than just bands, orchestras and choirs,” he said. “You also get to see smaller ensembles.”

“It goes beyond the audience members,” Graham said. “It’s the students as well.”

South Bend high schools often have concerts around the same time, so they haven’t been able to hear each other play. Additionally, Graham said, some students grew up together and then separated to different high schools. This performance will be a reunion for them.

Riley’s band director, Kyle Vogele, hopes to collaborate with the other schools for a combined performance, but at the time of the March meeting, his students didn’t know about the festival yet.

Adams’ students are excited. “They don’t have very many details, but they are excited to play at the Morris,” Graham said.

As for Clay High School, which offer SBCSC’s Visual and Performing Arts Magnet Program and is completing its last school year, this won’t be the students' last performance.

“This is an amazing opportunity for our students,” Clay Fine Arts Magnet Facilitator Meghan Beard said of the collaborative concert. “We’re so glad South Bend arts are being showcased.”

For Clay, which just concluded its final dance performance, the students have a few more performances scheduled before their doors close, including an orchestral performance in May and a stage performance of "Urinetown" from at 7 p.m. April 18 to 20.

Beard called the play "very funny and rambunctious," saying, "we want to go out laughing."

In concert

■ What: The South Bend High School Music Festival

■ When: 7 p.m. Monday, April 15

■ Where: Morris Performing Arts Center, 211 N. Michigan St., South Bend

■ Cost: Free, but tickets are required and available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

■ For more information: Call 574-235-9190 or visit morriscenter.org.

Email Tribune staff writer Camille Sarabia at csarabia@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend high schools unite to perform in free Morris concert