Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
P.J. Glisson/Daily Globe HANNAH PEACE sings a solo during Thursday's Evening of the Arts at Ewen-Trout Creek School. Her father, James Peace of Bergland, accompanied her on the guitar. The concert directed by Brad Besonen was in the school gym.
P.J. Glisson/Daily Globe CHECKING OUT a variety of student work displayed at Thursday's Evening of the Arts at Ewen-Trout Creek School are Tim and Donna LaBonte. Tim is the transportation supervisor for the school. The show was set up in the cafeteria.
EWEN - A Thursday Evening of the Arts at Ewen-Trout Creek School welcomed an appreciative audience, starting with a highly colorful art show and ending with a concert encore and a standing ovation.
"Every student that I see has an art work here tonight," said K-12 art teacher Nina Fiorucci. Drawings and paintings were set up on divider walls in the room normally used as a cafeteria. Additional displays of ceramics and other projects were displayed on round tables.
Younger students' artwork also lined the walls of the hallway next to the cafeteria.
The evening's concert was led by Brad Besonen, K-12 band and vocal teacher.
Fifth and sixth grade students performed first as band members and then also as vocalists. They also sang in accompaniment to third and fourth-graders playing ukuleles while Besonen guided them on his own ukulele for the songs "Old Town Road" and "The Best Day of My Life."
Junior high and high school students also played in a combined band with Besonen, sometimes accompanying them on trombone, as during the song "The Mask of Zorro."
The older students also sang several songs acapella, including moving renditions of "Sound of Silence" and "Amazing Grace." Besonen said those students also compose the school's acapella choir, which includes a smaller traveling group with rotating members.
Hannah Peace was the night's featured soloist, singing while her father, James Peace of Bergland, accompanied her on guitar. Other students sang short solos during various numbers.
Besonen also recognized the senior students who will graduate this year. They are Hannah Peace, Michael Nordang and Elise Besonen. The music director said that Elise was his first child to graduate from high school and gave her an emotional hug.
The students sang "Blinding Light" as an encore, after which Patti Witt, K-12 principal, congratulated them on the show, remarking that it brought tears to her eyes.
The evening also included an "Empty Bowls" fundraiser, selling bowls made by the school's art students. A soup supper normally offered as part of the event was dropped due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fiorucci said the students chose DOVE in Ironwood as the recipient of some of the fundraiser profits. The school's art clay program also will benefit.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, last year's Evening of the Arts had been canceled.
