Four MHHS students selected to all-star band

Outstanding music students from the six Northwest states (Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming) have received top honors by being selected to participate in the 41st biennial MENC All-Northwest Band, Orchestra, Treble Choir, Mixed Choir, Jazz Band and/ or Jazz Choir.

Four students, Heidi Peck, Sarah Hyde, Shannon Pollard and Zach Hall from Mountain Home High School will join nearly 1,000 other "outstanding" high school student musicians in the gala event.

The MENC All-Northwest band, orchestra, choirs and jazz groups will convene in Spokane, Wash., Feb. 12-15.

The finest high school musicians in each of those musical genres will rehearse under the direction of world-renowned conductors and present their final concerts in Spokane's INB Performing Arts Center.

The MENC All-Northwest musicians were selected through auditions to participate in this outstanding event, which is sponsored by the Northwest Division of MENC: The National Association for Music Education.

"Many professional musicians credit their honor group experience as crucial in their decision to choose music as a career. Thousands of others whose career paths took them in other directions have great memories of participating in this inspiring and motivating musical experience and claim that it was a life-changing experience for them," said MHHS band director Jerry Tippetts.

Well-known Northwesterners who have participated in past years' honor groups include world-renowned trumpeters Doc Severinson and Allen Vizzutti, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist David Horsey, 2008 National Teacher of the Year Andrea Peterson and jazz saxophonist Kenny G.