All Local, All The Time
All Local, All The Time
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When Tula Baker accepted the role as understudy for Princess Natalia Dragomiroff in Niwot High School's November 2024 production, "Murder on the Orient Express," she knew it would require her to perform with a Russian accent. An important character from the book by Agatha Christie, Dragomiroff is an elderly Russian aristocrat who fled to Europe from Russia with her husband. Baker's teacher, Amanda Foust, was impressed by the way Baker embraced the role. "Within weeks of being cast," Foust said,...
Niwot High senior Cora Lincoln is motivated by musicians, painters, family and social media to create her unique art. Recently, she has been inspired by graffiti artists such as Banksy and Keith Haring. "Their political voices are tremendous and speak a lot to the whole point of art - to make people think," Lincoln said. "They draw attention to issues in society and bring a voice to those that don't have one." Lincoln is also influenced by musicians such as Mommy Long Legs and Bikini Kill....
Grace Fisher developed an interest in mariachi music because both her mother and grandmother have a passion for it. "I thought it was a good opportunity to practice guitar more," Fisher said. Once she started, she thoroughly enjoyed playing the music and wanted to continue. Jason Watkins, who teaches technical theater, Career and Technical Education, jewelry, photography, and video making at Niwot High School, selected Fisher as Arts Student of the Week. "Grace is a quiet, unsung hero of the...
Niwot High School trumpet player Jannik Stranzenbach appreciates the peaceful feeling that settles over him when he plays music. "I would describe it as a passion that allows your mind to rest," Stranzenbach explained. "When playing music there is a lot to focus on, so any stress that you might be experiencing is relieved, because there is no time to think about it when you are playing." NHS Band Director Wade Hendricks selected Stranzenbach as Arts Student of the Week. "Jannik has progressed...
When Niwot High School sophomore Aidan Coble picks up her trumpet, her passion for the music is immediately evident, which is one reason NHS Director of Bands Wade Hendricks selected her as Arts Student of the Week. "She has a gorgeous tone and vibrancy that comes with experience, attention, and listening to other excellent players," Hendricks said. "She is one talented, dedicated Cougar." This talent has been nurtured all her life by those around her. Coble's entire family is music oriented....
Jazz saxophonist Sam Lindquist comes from a musical family. His father plays drums, and his mother plays piano and clarinet. Occasionally he plays duets with his mother. Lindquist's grandmother on his father's side, Jan Lindquist, was an exceptional organ player who served as the principal organist at Mount Olivet Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Lindquist took piano lessons from age four to ten, but his main interests are saxophone and guitar. He took up saxophone in elementary...
Audrey Owen's all-time favorite theater show is the coming-of-age musical "Bare" by Damon Intrabartolo. She performed in this show in the spring of 2023, playing the character Diane Lee, an actress who has trouble remembering her lines. "I have never been in a show so educating and heart wrenching," Owen said. The story follows a group of teenagers who reside at a Catholic boarding school in the early 2000s. "What makes this show so relatable is how similar the characters are to teenagers today,...
Every time Pali Sauer talks about the theater program at Niwot High School, she feels overwhelmed by the community and the way the students uplift each other on and off stage. "There is no other community that has been like this," Sauer said, "and I constantly turn to them for everything in my life." A junior at NHS, Sauer has been a part of the high school's theater program since she was a freshman, when she got a part in the fall play. She has been involved in every production since. NHS...
According to Niwot High School senior Jack Triplett, working in theater always comes with crazy stories. "One especially memorable saga," Triplett revealed, "was during the construction of 'Beauty and the Beast.' A group of techies and I had been tasked with creating the amazing wood-chopping machine that Belle's father drives around stage in the first act." The plan was simple: attach a foam axe to a simple cog on the back of a motorized mobility scooter and make it look old-timey. "But every...
Allisson Diaz Arredondo takes an emotional approach to her craft. In describing her interest in art, she said, "It really helps you. For example, when I feel sad, I paint something happy to make me happy. When I feel bored, I also paint." Her favorite artist is Frida Kahlo, and Arredondo herself also likes to paint using acrylics. One of her favorite art projects is a canvas she painted that includes her name and flowers that represent her. Arredondo looks back on middle school and the art class...
Although Cormac Easter does not play instruments other than the violin, there are times that he wishes he could. He began learning the instrument about eleven years ago by taking private lessons, but he only began playing mariachi about two years ago. "I will admit, the first few years I played weren't my favorite," Easter said, "as the music I was learning to play was mostly classical, which I did not enjoy." Thankfully, his instructor was able to help him maintain his interest in the violin,...
Sara Taylor's explanation when people ask her about her work in technical theater is that she is "one of the backstage people, who does sets and lights and that sort of stuff." She is surprised how often she is asked to explain why she chooses to spend more than 200 additional hours at school a year, and although she is involved in theater, why she is not an actor. "The better, and more accurate answer, is that I work different jobs with a crew of people that create a space for actors to act...
On Wednesday, Aug. 28, internationally acclaimed author Peter Heller spoke to an audience of more than 50 people at Inkberry Books in Niwot. The temperature reached 91 degrees outside before cloud cover cooled things down, and it turned out to be a perfect summer evening to hear Heller read from his new novel, "Burn." He began the reading with the opening scene from the book, a novel about two lifelong friends who emerge from the woods of rural Maine to a dystopian country wracked by v...
"The ability to play a musical instrument gives people a way to express their feelings at a depth that goes beyond any words," said Arts Student of the Week Evan Green. "Music can fill you with excitement, sadness, anticipation, calmness, or any other emotion, which makes it exhilarating to play and listen to. Additionally, playing an instrument lets you sculpt the music into expressing what you want to express." As a student at Niwot High School, Green says his experience with music has been bo...
Karlien Dang-Lee has had an active musical life since the age of four, when she first started playing the violin. According to her mother, the young girl really wanted to learn violin, but all Dang-Lee remembers is crying because her fingers hurt. When she was seven, she switched to piano, which she played until she was fourteen. Playing piano provided her with a solid foundation for understanding notes and music theory. In fifth grade, she picked up the flute. "Because," she said, "my elementar...
Last year Drum Major Mark Rokhlenko and Drum Major Lily Sykes identified a major opportunity for the Niwot High School Marching Band. As section leaders in the band before becoming drum majors, they realized that drum majors are offered extensive training on how to lead. Niwot drum majors always attend Drum Major Academy at CU Boulder. But the section leaders of the marching band did not receive similar training. In response, Sykes and Rokhlenko spent more than eight hours planning a detailed schedule, making slideshows, and practicing...
Arts Student of the Week Mark Rokhlenko, Niwot High School Band's drum major, played the tenor trombone since the fourth grade, thanks to Sean Kemp, the music teacher at Flagstaff Academy but was uncertain if he wanted to continue in high school. He took a band class in his freshman year at NHS to earn his Fine Arts credit and intended to quit band after finishing that class. Freshman band camp completely changed his mind. "The people were incredibly welcoming, supportive, fun to be around, and...
Evan Pan never considered himself an 'artsy person,' but his experience in Niwot High School's fine arts program has given him an opportunity to express himself in new ways. "It was actually the first art class I took at Niwot, and I fell in love with the process of making art," Pan said. "And I still have my first assignments from freshman year. It was a self-portrait, and it is probably one of the most atrocious things you've ever seen." Growing up, Pan spent much of his time swimming and in...
Ben Rauschkolb has had an opportunity to contribute to Niwot High School (NHS) as an art student in a very special way. In his sophomore year, Rauschkolb had been taking photos of the school's athletics, clubs, and extracurricular activities for use in the Left Hand Valley Courier, as well as NHS's student run newspaper, The Green and Black, and the social media platforms of the individuals he photographs. "As far back as I can remember," Rauschkolb said, "I have been the one playing on the...
Fraternal twins Hunter and Chase Maasen have very different ideas about playing music. For Hunter, music is like a car. "It seems basic to most people," he said. "You move the stick shift and it drives. Nothing else to it. But to the engineers, it's a complex machine of moving parts having to do everything exactly right at the exact right time to create a movement forward. Music to me is like a car, complex, filled with melodies and harmonies, bass, emotions, soul, complexity, and people miss...
Sadie Warren has two complementary ideas about her future. She has wanted to own a bookstore since she was a little girl. Warren remembers playing a game she called "bookstore" where she would use her mother's bookshelves, had a small cash register, and her mother would buy books from her. She would also like to own a publishing company. Warren admits that books are her favorite things in the world. She loves to organize them in unusual ways. "I have a wall of books in my room that are in a...
When Yaretzi Martinez Prieto was younger, she enjoyed the way music sounded. Her father wanted her to play in the orchestra, but she decided to join the school band instead, playing alto sax when she entered Longs Peak Middle School. But Prieto remained interested in orchestra, and later she began to learn guitar, which led her on the path to mariachi. "Since mariachi is part of my culture," Prieto said, "my parents were very supportive of my interest in it, and they helped me get into the...
Niwot High School seniors Noah Wurth and Noah Hadders have been performing together since elementary school. They have performed duets at the Multiple Piano Festival for several years, and both attended the same piano studio. "We also played together in middle school band," Hadders said. And they both learned new instruments together: Hadders on trumpet and Wurth on saxophone. Throughout high school the two friends continued to play and perform together. Both musicians are members of NHS...
Currently enrolled in Drama 2 at Niwot High School, performing arts student Olivia Cesar Cipriani has an interest in both acting and technical theater, and she speaks thoughtfully about the difference between the two worlds. "As an actor," Cipriani said, "you get to become someone else for a performance, and forget about the real world. Theater techs create a whole new world onstage, and the actors become the people in it." According to NHS drama teacher Amanda Foust, who selected Cipriani as...
Although Niwot High School sophomore Lexi Adams does not yet have any firm plans regarding her future school and work, the one thing she knows for sure about what lies ahead is that she would like to dedicate herself to something artistic. Adams readily admits that art has always been present in her life. "I didn't practice it consistently until about six years ago," she said. "I enjoyed having a hobby that was unique in my family and friend group, and it quickly [changed] from a hobby to an asp...
When the curtain comes up on the Niwot High School spring show "Shrek the Musical" in April, senior Fred Zorgdrager will be front and center in the leading role. "It is a really big honor," Zorgdrager said. "I don't plan to do musical theater professionally but if I were to perform on Broadway 'Shrek' would be my dream role. It is super exciting to get the opportunity to do it now." Based on the 2001 DreamWorks Animation film "Shrek," "Shrek the Musical" is a show with music by Jeanine Tesori...
During his junior year, percussionist Owen Powers played his first homecoming game with the Niwot High School Marching Band, performing alongside the Niwot drumline. "There were hundreds of people lining the football field and all up the hill adjacent to it," Powers recalled. "It was surreal. And on top of that, it was pouring rain, so everyone was getting drenched. Nevertheless, that performance might have been my personal best, and will without a doubt be one that I remember and cherish for...
While Niwot High School students were sweeping the house before the preshow for "Beauty and the Beast," they learned that the show had sold out. For Marik Magginetti, a sophomore technical theater student involved in the production, it was one of his most memorable moments. "I remember actors running up the aisles and backstage to spread the news," Magginetti said. Another unforgettable moment occurred at the Bobby G awards, a state-wide high school musical theater program that recognizes...
Niwot High School Performing Arts student James Miller has a clear vision of his role in the world. "My interest in theater defines who I am as a person," Miller explained. "Most things about my personality come from my experiences and peers in the theater." His commitment to his craft was one reason his teacher, Amanda Foust, selected Miller as Arts Student of the Week. "James is a terrific actor!" Foust said. "He was in the high school's fall production of 'Puffs' and as his first production...
At the beginning of the 2023 school year, Niwot High School freshman Olivia "Liv" Raichart was working on a large landscape painting for a school project. She was in the hallway because the canvas was so big it would not fit in the classroom. Suddenly another young woman came out of the classroom crying, and Raichart wanted to help. So she invited the other student to paint with her, and immediately the tears stopped. "We just painted together," Raichart said. "And it made her feel better. It wa...
Niwot High School senior Drew Moore has many talents, but he is particularly proud of the fact that he once built a guitar with Legos. "I took the fretboard from a real guitar. And all the hardware. And it worked for a moment, but the nut wouldn't stay on the plastic," he said. "Legos are so much fun. You build whatever you want." Moore developed a love for music when he was about three years old, playing piano and xylophone. At the age of seven his parents got him his first guitar. He remembers...
Niwot High School senior Anna Enssle has the rare privilege among young musicians to say that she has performed at Carnegie Hall, twice. During her junior year, Enssle auditioned for and was accepted into an honor choir in New York, where students from across the country met together to rehearse for a few days and then perform in the Hall. "It was such a surreal and wonderful experience," Enssle said. "I got to meet so many talented people who shared a deep love for creating music. I got to...
When Victor Valdez-Aguero was a young boy, his father was a big car enthusiast. "He owned a few dozen cars imported from Japan," Valdez-Aguero said. "A few Ford Mustangs--Shelby GT 500s. He owned muscle cars like Corvettes. C3s from 1981, a 1979 Pontiac Firebird, and a couple of Mitsubishi Lancer Evos." Initially, Valdez-Aguero thought that learning about cars was too complex and he didn't pay much attention to them, but in his early teens he started asking to help his father work on them. At...
When Merrick Blondeau was in elementary school, his sister Ana's friends were percussionists. Blondeau thought they were cool, so in sixth grade he joined the band at Sunset Middle School. Since then, he has simply loved making music and getting lost in music. Blondeau enjoys listening to classical music, "But," he said, "not often enough to be able to pick a favorite." One piece he does appreciate listening to is "The Planets," a seven-movement orchestral suite by the English composer Gustav...
When Staci Pencis walked into the Garden Gate Cafe two years ago to borrow a cane, she had no idea she would be leaving the Café with a job. Pencis' son, Sy, was putting together a costume for Senior Day at Skyline High School, and he needed a cane to complete his outfit. "He had a hospital gown and an adult diaper," Pencis said. "And he needed a cane." She placed a message on Facebook and soon heard back from Dawn Dunlap, manager of the Cafe, who offered to lend them one. When Pencis came to...
Niwot High School 2014 graduate Madison Bounds has many stories to tell, and he delivers them with the clarity and the detailed eye of an ardent historian. Ranging from topics as diverse as men's basketball at the University of Kentucky to German immigration, Bounds has documented the lives of teachers, painters, and sports figures on film. And even though LIfeStory Films, the company he founded in 2022, is based in New York, Bounds has strong ties to the Niwot community. In 2001, when Bounds...
Niwot High School junior Kennah Brackett has been selected to participate in the Colorado All State Jazz Choir (ASJC), which is open to students in the 11th and 12th grades. Brackett is the first NHS student to be chosen for this honor. According to Laura Walters, Choral Music Director at NHS, Brackett worked hard to prepare herself for the initial audition. "She had to prepare two solos as well as several scales," Walters said, "all performed in a swung/jazz style. For one of the solos, she...
Although jazz guitarist Alex Fick has a busy schedule, with classes and performances in Marching Band, Advanced Jazz Band, Tenor/Bass Choir, and Drama, he still finds time to pursue a wide variety of other interests that engage his attention to detail and his passion to create. At the moment, he is inventing a card game. In addition, he is a volunteer gargoyle for Niwot's Rock & Rails summer concert series, and he recently made his own guitar. Over the summer. Fick built the guitar from...
Niwot High School student Rae Sweeney has been an outstanding leader of the Niwot High School Color Guard for the last two seasons. The Color Guard performs with the marching band at football halftime shows, in parades, and at competitions, using a combination of flags, sabers, mock rifles, and other equipment, as well as dance and other interpretive movements. Its main purpose is to interpret the music that is being played by the band through dance and synchronized movements. Sweeney remembers...
When Niwot High School music students traveled to Europe for two weeks last summer, visiting Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland, one of the highlights of the trip for violinist Ian Springsteen was the visit to the Sibelius Academy and the Jean Sibelius house in Finland. Sibelius, who is widely known for his symphonies and tone poems, especially "Finlandia," now ranks among Springsteen's favorite composers. It was an inspirational trip. Springsteen remembers that their group performed in...
When Allison Gundmundson was in elementary school, she learned that Candlelight Dinner Playhouse hosted acting classes that included children. Whenever she could find the time, Gundmundson would join in. Her theater repertoire expanded quickly, with roles in the junior production of "Mary Poppins," and roles in "The Aristocats," and "Beauty and the Beast." She also worked in two junior shows at Longmont's Jesters Dinner Theatre, including "Alice in Wonderland" and "Snow White and the Seven...
According to his teacher Laura Walters, River Osgood has been one of the most dedicated choir students at Niwot High School during his four-year tenure. Currently he is in three of the NHS choirs, and is a lead in the fall play, "Puffs." Theater and music have played a large role in Osgood's life. His parents met during one of their high school performances together. His sister was interested in theater, his older brother experimented with guitar, and his twin brother played the violin for a...
"When I was a freshman at Niwot High School," Sara Hallock said, "it was all online learning because of Covid. We had to learn everything through books and articles. Once we got to in-person learning, I was shown the sound board and almost immediately fell in love with it. As the years went on, I learned more and more about being a sound engineer and how good I was at it." In the intervening years, Hallock has perfected her craft as a sound engineer. Jason Watkins, who selected Hallock as Arts S...
“Music,” Abby White says, “is important to so many aspects of life. It uses so many different parts of your brain in different ways than you would get from academics. And that has really helped me in my academic success. And I think it’s just good for your soul. “Music makes us happier. And it’s something that you can really work hard on. It’s difficult, but it gives you such a sense of accomplishment when you’re able to perform something at a high-level or like get through a hard passage....
Niwot High School senior Hayden Baldwin performs in the NHS Marching Band and two of the high school choirs: Tenor/Bass Choir and Evenstar. “Out of the two,” Baldwin said, “by far my favorite has been Tenor/Bass choir.” Baldwin, Arts Student of the Week, appreciates the community he has found at the high school. “Despite not being an advanced group,” he said, “the community in that class is amazing and super fun to be around. The community and people in Orchestra and for the most part the band...
This week's Arts Student of the Week, Natalie Fitches, is a percussionist who started out playing mallets and auxiliary instruments in her middle school band. Fitches joined the band in seventh grade, which put her a year behind her middle school peers. Although she found it very challenging, she took private lessons and had lots of help and support from her director. When Fitches moved to Niwot High School she joined the world of drumline. It was a big learning curve, she said, "But it felt...
On Aug 19, singer, songwriter, and teacher Martin Marks, music director at The Niwot Gig (https://theniwotgig.com/), released his new music video and single, "All The Dad She Has." Working with producer Chris Laney, who lives in Sweden, Marks has been coordinating the mastering and mixing of the single long-distance. Laney, a childhood friend and fellow musician, reached out to Marks after hearing an audiobook recording of a podcast Marks produced. The podcast charts Marks' adventures in...
According to Kalah Jackson, the Arts Student of the Week, when she got her first jewelry commission it opened a new world of possibilities for her future. Jackson saw creating jewelry as a potential way to earn money once she becomes an adult, and that will be helpful, she says, given that she is not interested in typically high paying careers. Jackson's art has been shown at the St. Vrain School District Art Show for the last two years, and last year she was also able to show her work from a...
Ash Kissinger, a sophomore at Niwot High School, got involved in theater almost by accident. "I never really intended on getting into it seriously, it just kind of happened," Kissinger said. Now, he admits that it is the thing that gets him out of bed in the morning and the thing he wants to pursue for the rest of his life. "It has introduced me to the best people in my life and I wouldn't trade it for the world," he said. Since the age of nine, Kissinger has been involved in theater with the...
"Street Life City View," the new exhibit by photographer Kenneth Wajda, opens at Inkberry Books on Friday, Sept. 1. According to Wajda, the images in the exhibit are representative of a genre called "Street Photography." "When I'm between assignments in cities across the U.S.," Wajda said, "I take to the street and look for stories that are waiting to be found, lives that need to be documented, and pictures that need to be made. There's something satisfying about going out with no photograph in...
