On Wednesday, May 8, 45 sixth-grade beginning band students from Grangeville Elementary Middle School traveled to Lewiston to participate in the District II Beginning Music Festival for Choirs and Bands. The festival is unrated but Grangeville came away with rave reviews from the three University of Idaho adjudicators. Pictured here in the percussion workshop, professor Spencer Martin works with GEMS students, teaching a rhythm routine on chairs designed to teach percussion fundamentals while capturing their imagination with rhythms. While critiquing the GEMS band, professor Martin stated, “when a judge sets his pencil down to just sit back and listen, you know something extraordinary is happening. That just doesn’t happen at the beginning level.”
