About this page Each week, Hawaii's teenage reporters and photographers tell us about their high school. This week's school is Kauai High School.
PHOTO BY CAROL KIMURA / KAUAI HIGH SCHOOL
The Kauai High School Jazz Band performed earlier this month at the Veterans Day Parade in Kapaa.
On a normal day, classes at Kauai High School start at 8:30 a.m. and end at 2 p.m. But band students get to school at 7 a.m., and then go back at 6:30 p.m. for more practice. The chorus practices after school, and the performing arts classes begin at 2:45 p.m. Music resonates
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By Bill Wright and Amber Ellamar
Kauai High SchoolAs high school music programs slowly dwindle nationwide, KHS shows an impressive dedication to and pride in the performing arts, especially music.
Three men at the school make teaching music the focus of their professional lives, and 350 students participate in classes that build their musical skills and challenge them to perform.
Dennis McGraw is the director of the Kauai Performing Arts Program, which is offered to all students in the district and is counted as a seventh-period class. Students audition in singing, acting and dancing, and focus on Broadway musical productions such as "Oklahoma!" presented in the spring of 2002, and "Brigadoon," scheduled for May.
McGraw believes music enriches students' lives. "It gives them joy. It makes them feel better about themselves."
His students agree. "I really love to sing, and it's a rush to wear a costume and be on stage," said sophomore Paris Mackey.
McGraw would like to see KHS' music programs stay on the same path as they are now and hopes that none of them are discontinued.
"I'd like to give students even more opportunities to perform," McGraw said.
David Conrad is the chorus director for KHS, and his mission is to "enable students to create music and to appreciate music as art: music purely for the sake of art."
Conrad feels aesthetics education is a necessary and extremely important part of students' curriculum. Without this type of education, he said, "we will create a generation of individuals who cannot appreciate beauty or understanding any depth of feeling."
In his 12 years at KHS, Conrad has directed many special student performances, such as the Kauai Hospice Annual Community Candle Lighting Memorial Service, and gathered many awards, including an "Excellence in Choral Direction" award presented by the Hawaii Alliance for Art Education & State Foundation on Culture and the Arts in 1998.
Choral students have participated in the Hawaii All-State High School Honor Choir for 11 years and in recent years have comprised 10 percent of the All-State Chorus. Recently, Conrad was able to equip a state-of-the-art piano lab with $30,000 raised from private citizens and the Kauai community.
Conrad would like to see KHS become a magnet school for the performing arts on Kauai. In addition to ukulele, piano, chorus and advanced audition chorus that he offers now, Conrad would like to develop a voice class for students who wish to sing solo, and would like the school to establish a string orchestra program. He also would like to provide another section of piano and separate chorus classes for freshmen and the upper grades.
Aaron Albers, a sophomore in chorus, said, "Music has helped me express myself, and it gives me an appreciation for all the arts, especially singing."
Band director Larry McIntosh has been teaching at Kauai High School for more than 30 years. He has led the band program to countless first-place trophies and an enormous amount of respect throughout the state. KHS' Jazz Band is particularly well-known and in high demand to perform at public events.
Recently, 14 of McIntosh's students were invited to join the newly created Hawaii All-State Marching Band and will march at the Rose Bowl Parade on New Year's Day.
Many band students feel that band has changed their lives.
"Music helps (me) interpret things better," sophomore Ryo Shintani said. He also said he can work better on team or group activities and that music has given him a new sense of respect for his art. It helps him relax after a stressful day and makes life a just a "little bit easier."
When asked about his musical accomplishments, Shintani said he has learned to play the saxophone, but "the most important accomplishment is how music has improved my relationship with people."
"It has introduced me to new and different people, and I have learned to accept all the unique traits," he said.
Shintani hopes to gain a scholarship and become a famous composer. He practices every day for about an hour.
"I wouldn't give up music for anything," he said. "After four years (including middle school), I have gained so much."
Students Angela Soto, Jennifer Schad and Haley Shell contributed to this report.
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Address: 3577 Lala Road, Lihue, HI 96766 Eagle facts
Phone: 274-3160
Principal: Linda Smith
Philosophy: Kauai High School believes that schools are established for students as a place to develop academically, aesthetically and socially.
Mascot: Eagle
Students: 1,243
Newspaper: Making Waves
Editor: Jennifer Schad
Faculty adviser: Lindsay Kamm
Compiled by Brandi Texeira, Shauna Tachibana and Jake Taitano.
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