5/15/2011 Lincoln High School Concert Choir with Robert Robinson and Darnell Davis

 On May 15, 2011, the Lincoln High School Choirs had their Spring Concert featuring Robert Robinson, members of the Twin Cities Community Gospel Choir, and Darnell Davis.  We have been performing with Mr. Robinson and TCGC for several years.  Each show is inspirational and deeply moving.  I can't express how much fun I have participating in these shows.  I have so much respect and thanks for Mrs. Darcy Reese, our teacher/ conductor, and of course, I can't offer enough thanks to Robert Robinson for all his help in learning more about gospel music. 

Mr. Robinson also had me come accompany him at his church in Minneapolis, MN a few months ago, and the link to that post is here and the video is below.

Marcia M. Knuttila Piano Recital, May 9, 2011, Thief River Falls, MN

On May 9, 2011 I performed in the Marcia M. Knuttila 38th Annual Piano Concert Series.  This recital is absolutely amazing.  All of Miss K's students perform and it is open to the public.  Over the years, lots of well-known pianists have performed for her recitals including Miss Minnesota 2001 Kari Knuttila, Miss Minnesota 2010 Kathryn Knuttila, and Miss Minnesota Outstanding Teen 2007 Chantal MB Wilson.  The recital boasts students of all ages.  This year I believe the youngest performer was 5.  Many years she has 3 year olds.  Everything from 5 finger melodies to concertos are played.  This year I performed in:

Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken...............................................F. J. Haydn, I. Newton, Arr. B. Greer

Taylor Blaine, Brayden, Brianna, and Brett Drevlow

Aaron Fagerstrom, and Nicholas Wilson

Take Me Out to the Ball Game…………………….............………………...….A. Von Tilzer, Arr. Faber

Brayden, Brett, Brianna, Brielle, Brigham, and Brock Drevlow

Brynn, Jodi, and Joe Drevlow, Laura Rivera Sierra

Estampes, No. 1, Pagodes……………………………………..........……………...………..C. Debussy

Brianna Drevlow

Concerto in Db Major, Op. 10, No. 1, First Movement…………............…………………...S. Prokofiev

Brianna Drevlow, Soloist, and Brett Drevlow, Accompanist

Another fun note about this recital is that Miss K arranges for lots of pianos to be available.  "Glorious Things" was performed as a triple duo on six concert grand pianos.  "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" was a family duo performed on 6 concert grands and 2 uprights-  Brynn played with my mother and I played with Laura, my cousin.   

Easter performances with Kathryn Knuttila, Aja Majkrzak, and Kaylah Dockter, Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Frazee, MN

  

I spent Easter weekend this year (April 22-24, 2011), with my good friend and mentor, Miss Minnesota, Kathryn Knuttila, at her parents home in Detroit Lakes, MN.  A little known fact is that Kathryn and I take piano lessons at the same piano studio in Thief River Falls.  We both study with Marcia M. Knuttila, Kathryn's aunt and my neighbor!  I have had the opportunity to play in recitals with Kathryn as far back as 2000 when I began lessons.

Being the oldest of 10 kids in my family, Kathryn has kind of been a big sister for me.  She has helped foster a desire to play piano and she has been a great role model for me through out my piano career-  from learning proper practice proceedure to competing in concerto contests.  She even has taught me a bit about teaching piano as we are both MMTA teachers;  of course, she has done it longer.   She inspired me to compete in piano concerto contests, too.  Several years ago, I was able to watch her amazing version of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" concerto.  She is truly an amazing pianist.  It inspired me to go on and do concertos, too.  I have now done a Schumann concerto (9th grade), I accompanied LeeAnn Szeto for a Saint-Saens concerto (10th grade), I did a Prokofiev concerto last year, and this year am doing a Tchaikovsky and a cello concerto. 

The weekend I spent with Kathryn was a lot of fun.  We were providing special music for her church, Sacred Heart Catholic Church, in Frazee, MN.  She introduced me to two of her friends that also came to her parents home for the weekend, Kaylah Dockter, Miss Capital City 2010; and Aja Majkrzak, Miss Capital City 2011.  Kayla and Aja are amazing musicians.  Aja plays violin and Kaylah performs opera!  We had a great time spending the weekend arranging pieces to suit our talents.  I played cello with Aja on violin, Aja and I played our strings together while Kathryn played piano, I did some piano duets with Kathryn, and we also have pieces arranged for me on cello, Aja on violin, Kathryn on piano, and Kaylah soloing with the church choir!  We had a great time at church, and I'd like to say thank you to these amazing young women for including me in their plans.  I'd also like to say a special thank you to Kathryn's parents, Steve and JoAnn Knuttila for hosting me!  Thank you!

Goltermann Cello Concerto in G Major, No. 4, Op. 65, Third Movement

On April 17, 2011 I performed in the Naomi Welsh Cello Studio recital in Grand Forks, ND.  Here is a video of the Goltermann Cello Concerto in G Major, No. 4, Op. 65, Third Movement, that I played in the recital.  Naomi teaches cello in Grand Forks at the University of North Dakota.

I began playing cello in 5th grade.  At the same time, my brothers Brett and Brayden began their orchestral instruments.  Brett played Bass and was in third grade at the time.  Brayden began Violin and was a first grader back then.  We would get up at 6 AM every morning and practice together for an hour.  It didn't sound too pretty at first, but lots of practice has made all three of us much better musicians.  We now all hold first chair positions in our high school orchestra and are all member of the Bemidji Symphony Orchestra.  Come check out one of our concerts!  And remember-  practice, practice, practice!

Children's Miracle Network Cares for Kids Radiothon at Sanford Children's Hospital, Fargo, ND

On February 17, 2011 I took part of the Cares for Kids Radiothon put on by Children's Miracle Network and Sanford Children's Hospital in Fargo, ND.  For this event, CMN and Sanford partner with 3 local radio stations to do a radiothon all day long.  The 3 participating stations were Y94, Popster 104.7, and BOB 95.  I was there taking phone pledges for about six hours and my station raised about $3000.  I'm told the event raised something like $140,000 so it was wonderful to be involved in helping raise funds to help children in need of life-saving medical care.   Through out the day the radio personalities and their mascots would visit with us and broadcast live to check out the amount raised.  They also interviewed kids that were receiving care at Sanford so I was able to visit with many patients and their families, including my special friend!

 

State Speech Meet!

I participated in the State Class A speech tournament on April 15, 2011.  I compete in Humorous Interpretation and I have been doing a piece called "Pippi Goes to School," from Astrid Lindgren's "Pippi Longstocking."  I had a wonderful experience at the meet and ended the day in a 3 way tie for 8th place.  The top 8 speakers move on to finals, however, I lost the tie breaker and ended up officially in 9th place.   It was a great end to a super speech season.

One of the neat things about the state speech meet is that speakers get to see friends from across the state that they rarely see.  Last summer I attended the Gustavus Adolphus College Summer Speech Institute run by their head coach, Kris Kracht.  This camp boasts that 55% of their participants qualify for the state meet.  I attended camp with my 3 oldest brothers and of the four of us, three made it to state, so we are very thankful for his help and the skills that his camp brought to us. 

We ran into lots of speakers and coaches from other schools that we don't often see year round so that was an added bonus.  We got to visit with coaches such as Jill Lofald (Duluth), Travis Hill (Duluth), Stuart Wilson (Walker), Tom Lucas (Bemidji), Kristine and Sam Gruenberg (East Grand Forks), Jason Olson (Adrian), Travis Rother (Chanhassen), ShellRae Vedbraaten (Melrose), and many more.  I caught up with lots of speech friends, too, such as Kenzi Kovar (Perham), Cade Shelton (Fairmont), Lexi Randall (East Grand Forks), Ruben Flores (East Grand Forks), Brent Gulbranson (East Grand Forks), Cody Knutson (East Grand Forks), Jason Dennis (Park Rapids), Luke Swenson (Park Rapids), Sara Schultz (Park Rapids), Krysten Nelson (Roseau), Jon Tsen (Park Christian- Moorhead), Matthew Jedlicka (Blackduck), Ian Anderson (Blackduck), Carl Cronin (Milaca), Laramie Jackson (Eagle Valley-Eagle Bend), and many, many more.  I also ran into several former speech competitors who came back to watch the meet and connect with friends, such as Jon Dahl (Roseau), Amanda Fredrickson (Roseau), Antonia Perez (Roseau), McKenna Jones (East Grand Forks) and others.  Its also very cool to watch the other talented speakers perform and pick up many new techniques and skills.  That goes a long way towards preparing for next year....  Hope to be here again!

Just for flavor, here is a video of my "Pippi" Humorous Interp. that I used for practice with my coaches.

Girl Scouts Dakota Horizons Award Ceremony Keynote Speaker!

On April 9, 2011 I spoke to the Girl Scouts Dakota Horizons District Awards assembly as their keynote speaker.  I spoke as both a Girl Scout Gold Award recipient and Miss Red River Valley Outstanding Teen.  This speaking opportunity allowed me to show other girl scouts how they could take an idea and lead others to make the dream become a reality.  In this case, my dream was to create a Junior Ranger program for the City of Thief River Falls' Riverwalk Trail.  For those of you that are unfamiliar with this amazing trail system, in about 1986 the GFWC (Greater Federation of Women's Clubs) Zehlians of Thief River Falls created a historical themed trail along the Thief and Red Lake Rivers in Thief River Falls.  This trail linked several city parks together as it passed through the city, but more importantly, it created displays, or pictographs, along the trail to tell the history of our community.  It starts in the Northland Community and Technical College woods showing the history of the area and the Native Americans that lived here.  It points next to the history of the first bridges in the area, the fur trade, ice cutting on the river, saw mills, power dams, and even a tuberculosis sanitarium.  In all, there are 14 pictographs along the 7.2 mile trail, although the bulk of the pictographs are in a 2.5 mile section.  I took their hard work and added a Junior Ranger program to it.   My program asks participants to walk the trail and read the pictographs.  I incorporate several "games" into the program, such as word finds, cryptograms, coloring, anagrams, etc.  The answers to all he games are found on the pictographs.  The city was very grateful for this program, as was the local convention and visitor's bureau, which featured my program in their "Visit Thief River Falls" publication sent all over the region including distant states and Canada!  To participate in the Junior Ranger program, participants only need to stop at any local motel, ask for a FREE copy of the Junior Ranger booklet, hike the trail and complete the booklet, and then bring the completed booklet back to any local motel and receive a FREE Junior Ranger badge!  I also spoke about my Miss Minnesota Outstanding Teen experience and my platform, "Explore Your Backyard:  Visit Your Minnesota State Parks and Trails!"  I encourage every young girl to get out and explore.  Don't be afraid to chase your dreams and become tomorrow's leader!