Wellpinit Review

By John Craig
Staff writer
Spokesman-Review
5/22/2004

WELLPINIT, Wash. _ Students at the Wellpinit School prepared all week for something that's never happened before on the Spokane Indian Reservation: a concert by the Spokane Symphony...

..."That was pretty neat," junior Kyle Louie agreed.

He said he especially liked the piece "after the Beethoven," a last minute substitution featuring a marimba performance by Eastern Washington University music major Christopher Wilson. In fact, a lot of the 300 or so students, teachers and visitors in the audience were stirred by the fourth movement of Brazilian composer Ney Rosauro's "Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra."

The Latin rhythm as well as Wilson's fistfuls of flying mallets made an impression. The fact that Wilson was only a few years older than some of the students also drew attention.

"He's 21?" the 17-year-old Louie marveled. "Dang."

"When I saw him sitting over there, I thought he was here with them (the Symphony) to watch," said Louie's friend, Wade "Tiny" Moses.

Even eighth-grader Chris Cullooyah, who said she is "not a big fan of music," had to admit she was fascinated by Wilson's performance.

"Watch his hands," she wispered to classmates Bear Sherwood and Steven Ford. Pointing at her cheekbones, she added, "Watch his face."

To be sure, it was a fidgety crowd. Sherwood and Sulloyah weren't the only ones to whisper, and not all the whispering was about music. But there were amateur conductors everywhere.

Throughout much of the concert, sophomore Lainie Arnoux discreetly kept the beat with the medallion she earned in the school's Junior ROTC program for outstanding achievement and leadership ability. She was another who was moved by Wilson's marimba playing.

"That's kind of the hope: to pass the love on to another person," Wilson said of the possibility that students would be inspired by seeing another student performing with a symphony orchestra...