Taking it on the road

Alora Rishko, a junior at H.H. Dow High School in Midland, Michigan, had anticipated the arrival of the University of Michigan’s Symphony Band statewide bus tour for months after her band director shared the news via email.

She told him: “Hey, I’d love to perform because it’s the U of M band … My thought process was if it’s the first time in 30 years that they’ve done this, then it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to perform with the U of M band as a high schooler.”

Rishko, who plays the clarinet in Dow High School’s symphonic band, said she did a ton of practice, particularly on her high notes.

“I was scared to mess up in front of such amazing musicians,” she said.

Tour de force

Alora Rishko, a junior at H. H. Dow High School, plays the clarinet. (Image credit: Jeremy Marble, Michigan News.)

The U-M Symphony Band toured the state in May, offering free clinics to high school students and performing in 11 communities from Belleville to Interlochen. In Midland, the band offered clinics to the Dow High School Chargers and Midland High School Chemics before performing a selection of songs to a packed gymnasium.

In all, as many as 1,500 student musicians received guidance by U-M band students and faculty in interactive, side-by-side clinics at regional high schools in Belleville, Troy, Fenton, Grand Blanc, Flint, Midland, Interlochen, Traverse City, Muskegon, and Allendale. Each visit concluded with a free, public performance.

Harmony and me

Led by Jason Fettig, director of University Bands and professor of music at the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance, 58 U-M student musicians volunteered for the tour, playing music composed by John Philip Sousa, Henry Fillmore, John Williams, George Walker, Gala Flagello, Jerry Bilik, and others.

U-M students, in black concert attire, are interspersed with high school students from two Midland high schools. (Image credit: Jeremy Marble, Michigan News.)

The tour also featured performances by faculty soloist David Jackson, who was also a soloist on the U-M Symphony Band tour in the ’90s as a student, and graduate conductors DaJuan Brooks and Kristina LaMarca.

For the Sousa march — “The Pride of the Wolverines” — the high school students joined the college students on stage after having practiced it during the clinic.

“I tell the audiences today, this wasn’t actually composed for the University of Michigan, it was written for the mayor of Detroit,” Fettig said. “The construction of this march has become what we think about when we think about an American march. If you know the ‘Stars and Stripes Forever,’ which is the most famous march, the construction and architecture is exactly the same.”

Community connections

Fettig’s experience as the former conductor of “The President’s Own” U.S. Marine Band, which toured quite a bit, made him perfect to lead the band tour for Michigan.

Fettig, who joined the U-M faculty in 2024, said the response from the communities has been fantastic.

Jason Fettig said one of the most important things a musician can do is share their music through live performance. (Image credit: Jeremy Marble, Michigan News.)

“We are such an important institution in the state. The University of Michigan has a national profile, international profile, and we want to make sure that we pay attention to our fellow citizens in the state of Michigan first,” he said. “And so what better way than through the arts to get out into the communities, share a concert that is simply just about enjoying music together and enjoying the spirit of what we have in the state.

“This is one of the reasons I put together a program that had so many connections to Michigan itself, so we could feel that pride in what we produce in the arts.”

The Midland performance included works by four composers with Michigan connections — Sousa, Bilik, Michael Daugherty, and Scott Boerma.

Everyone plays a part

Fettig praised the U-M Arts Initiative for funding the “State of the Arts” tour. He said he would like to give each undergraduate in the band the opportunity to tour at least once during their time at Michigan.

“The other benefit of this is ours. It’s for our collegiate students who are training to be professional musicians, training to be music educators,” he said. “They have a chance to get out into the real world, sit side-by-side with students, mentor them, inspire them, and exercise those muscles that they are going to use for the rest of their careers.”

Maja Pechanach, who recently graduated from U-M with a Bachelor of Music in Performance, Winds & Percussion and majored in clarinet performance, said the tour experience was gratifying for her, as she loves music education. (Image credit: Jeremy Marble, Michigan News.)

Maja Pechanach, who recently graduated from U-M with a Bachelor of Music in Performance, Winds & Percussion and majored in clarinet performance, said the tour experience was gratifying for her, as she loves music education.

“We get to give them some feedback, but also kind of collaborate as an ensemble, which I think is such a special experience,” she said.

Pechanach said the band has gotten some mixed reactions on the tour. Some of the students are very excited to talk with them, but others are quiet and nervous until the ice is broken. Then there’s the Wolverines and Spartans rivalry.

“We stopped in Belleville first, so it’s super close to Ann Arbor, and they’re all about Michigan, but we were in Grand Blanc a few days ago, and so many people in the audience I think were purposefully wearing MSU gear there, which was kind of funny,” she said. “I hope that the students take away a new sense of ensemble playing and being able to find joy in music.”

Fettig hopes the high school students are inspired to pursue higher education and that these visits might spark a greater commitment to their instrument. Local band directors share that vision.

“I believe any time that high school students can listen to, learn from, and perform next to musicians on the level of a collegiate ensemble is incredibly beneficial,” said Chad Mielens, director of bands at West Senior High in Traverse City, one of the stops on the U-M Symphony Band’s tour.

“We always try to promote lifelong involvement in music, and performing in a college ensemble is an excellent way for students to continue their artistic journey.”

Note for note

Jason Fettig, Stephen DeRees, music education teacher at H. H. Dow High School, and DaJuan Brooks, U-M doctoral student, with the combined college and high school student band. (Image credit: Jeremy Marble, Michigan News.)

More than 400 U-M alumni are now at the helm of hundreds of elementary, middle, and high school music classrooms across the state of Michigan. And their expertise has a ripple effect across the country.

“The state of Michigan has had a tremendous influence on school bands in America,” Mielens said. “Between the Interlochen Band Camp’s founding in 1928 and conductors like William Revelli and H. Robert Reynolds at the University of Michigan, our state has shaped the way high school and collegiate bands are structured around the country.”

Fettig said one of the most important things a musician can do is share their music through live performance.

“If our students come back having had a good time, having had a community experience, and feeling really inspired about their own work, then that, as a teacher here, is my main mission for them,” he said.

Working with high school students who are on the cusp of deciding which path to take with their lives is important, too.

Rishko, the Dow High School clarinet player, doesn’t plan to major in music in college and instead wants an engineering degree. But whatever she studies, music will always be there for her whether she plays in a community ensemble or something else.

“It definitely got me thinking about it because the director (Fettig) said, ‘It’s kind of like a hallway. You never know which door is going to open up to you.’ And I think that’s a really cool thought process to have when choosing what you’re going to do with your life.”
 
 
(Lead image credit: Jeremy Marble, Michigan News.)