LTUSD music instructors making a name for themselves

Lake Tahoe Unified School District music teachers Casson Scowcroft and Linda Kurek have been honored in recent months by their fellow Northern California music teachers.

They were each selected as conductors for regional honor bands, an honor bestowed on only the finest conductors and music educators.

Scowcroft was asked to conduct the Region 5 Junior High Select Honor Band at North Tahoe Middle School last school year. This band included 72 music students from the Quincy/Chester area to North Tahoe. Students for these bands are selected by an audition process and then they gather for two days of rehearsal and a culminating concert. Scowcroft took South Tahoe High School senior, Nick Sullivan, along to act as percussion instructor for the junior high school students.

Scowcroft and Kurek are helping South Tahoe High and South Tahoe Middle school music students prepare for taped auditions for the Northern California All State and Western United States Region Honor Bands and Orchestras.

Kurek was invited to be the guest conductor for the Western Slopes Music Educators Association 7th and 8th Grade Honor Band last month. This is the third honor band in recent years Kurek has been invited to conduct. Eighty students from numerous schools on the West Slope were selected by live auditions to participate in this event which also involved two days of rehearsals and a concert for the parents.

STMS students Josh Kornbeck (baritone sax) and Mario Mangiaracini (tuba) participated in this event also.

Both instructors will be at tonight’s school board meeting to make a presentation. Students are expected to perform, too. The meeting starts at 6.