Madison Middle School teacher Clark Bathum shares news of a big achievement by one of his students: 12-year-old Lauren Estep, a seventh-grade violist, represented Madison by playing with the All-Northwest Junior Orchestra at the National Association for Music Education’s Northwest Division Conference in Bellevue this weekend. He shared this story with quotes from the young musician and her mom before the big event:
“This is a good moment for Lauren as a viola player,” says Alison Estep, Lauren’s mother. “I think she’s really going to enjoy playing with gung-ho instrumentalists coming from all over. It’s exciting for her. I really credit Lauren’s private teacher Laura Martin and her Madison orchestra teacher Mr. Bathum for supporting her completely and making this happen. She’s fortunate to be growing up as a musician with such devoted, kind, and talented teachers in her life. Sure, it’s been a lot of work for her to prepare for the audition and learn all the music but my hunch is she’ll get there and think it’s all been incredibly worthwhile.”
“I’m really excited. I’ve been counting the days,” says Lauren. “I feel kind of honored and it’s taken a lot of practicing to get ready for it because there’s so much music. Mr. Bathum and Mike Watson have really helped me. They’re the reason I got into this. Hopefully some other kids will try and have the opportunity next year at Madison.”
The All-Northwest Junior Orchestra is made up of top middle-school musicians from Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming. This is a major honor for Madison. The orchestra is a very tight group and the other orchestra students here are really proud of Lauren’s accomplishment.
We have a lot of talented and hard working musicians in the Madison music program. Hopefully Lauren’s success will help show others in the band and orchestra program to realize that they are on par with the best young musicians around. Congratulations, Lauren.
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