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Polson student attends prestigious music festival

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POLSON — Austin Martinez plays many musical instruments, but it was his bass clarinet that he took with him to the Northwest Band Festival held in Spokane, Washington, Feb. 12 to 15.   

Martinez is the first Polson High School band member to qualify for the prestigious festival during Rich Sawyer’s decade-long tenure as PHS band director. 

“Austin’s great, very dedicated,” Sawyer said. “He works hard for the (music) program.”

Austin, a senior, has been playing since sixth grade at Polson Middle School, where he began his musical career playing the clarinet. In eighth grade PMS band teacher Bob Mazurek taught him to play the tenor saxophone, and Austin learned to coax music from other saxophones as well. Sawyer introduced Austin to the bass clarinet in his freshman year. 

The music is Austin’s favorite part of performing.

“Music is all about feeling,” he said. “When you’re playing a great piece, you like to practice it and play it a lot.” 

The festival brings outstanding high school music students together — bands, orchestras and choirs — from Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming and adds guest conductors. The conductors teach the students how to develop “the special, unique factors” of each song, according to Austin. 

It won’t be all work, though. Austin said the host concert at the festival would be the well-known group “Canadian Brass.”

As well as being a musician, Austin enjoys his economics class — “about supply and demand, money and business,” he said.

Austin has already chosen to attend Montana State University-Bozeman this fall and will be majoring in business administration with a minor in musical performance.

 

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