KAMTA presents 16th annual Scholarship Alumni Concert

The Kalispell Area Music Teachers Association will present the 16th annual Scholarship Alumni Concert on Friday, Jan. 5. The show will include musical selections of percussion, tuba and voice and feature KAMTA scholarship winners Paul Bruce, Nathan Connell, Alyssa Framness and Suzanne Rohrbach.

Bruce, a Glacier High School alum, currently plays among the top bass players at the University of Montana in the Celebration Brass Quintet and is studying music education with a focus on tuba. He also plays tuba for the university’s Symphonic Wind Ensemble under the direction of Dr. James Smart, and the sousaphone in the Grizzly Marching Band and the Grizzly Pep Band.

Connell is a double music major at Morehead State University who is studying percussion performance and vocal education. He is a member of the Concert Choir and Percussion Ensemble, he also serves as percussion section leader for the Symphony Band and as the student conductor for the Morehead State Concert Choir’s men’s chorus. Connell has performed with the Glacier Symphony as the principal percussionist and timpanist and at festivals outside Montana.

Framness is a junior at Glacier High School and sings in the GHS Concert Choir and Glacier Echoes, and is the featured singer with the Jazz Band. For the past two years, Framness participated in District Music Festival and State Music Festival, receiving superior ratings. She was also selected to be part of All-State Choir for the past two years and has been selected to be a member of the prestigious All Northwest Choir in Spring of 2018. In addition to her singing talents, Framness plays the French horn and has acted in several plays and attended the Missoula Children’s Theatre Performing Arts Camp.

Rohrbach attended Flathead High School and later graduated from the University of Montana in with a music degree in Vocal Performance. During her college years, her notable performances were as the soprano soloist in the Mozart Vesperae Solennes de Confessore and in the operas La Serva Padrona and Gianni Schicci, as well as the musicals H.M.S. Pinafore and Fiddler On The Roof. Rohrbach now has her own voice studio and has been teaching for 25 years.

Proceeds from the show will benefit the KAMTA Scholarship Fund which has awarded more than 270 scholarships totaling well over $150,000 over the past 30 years. KAMTA scholarships help music students cover the cost of tuition and summer music camps. Scholarship winners are selected by the KAMTA Scholarship Committee based on their excellence in a recorded musical audition and a written application. KAMTA, begun in 1977, is an organization of music educators throughout the Flathead Valley who meet regularly in order to provide mutual professional support for each other and to promote music through their various programs and activities.