Great Falls Schools Prepare for Orchestra Festival

Great Falls Schools are preparing for the AA Orchestra Festival Concert which will be held at C.M. Russell High School. This concert will feature the Chamber Orchestras from both Great Falls High School, directed by Elizabeth Quinby, and C.M. Russell High School, directed by Steve Olson. Joining them this year will be the Billings Senior High Philharmonic, directed by Richele Sitton. "We bring in a clinician to work with students during the two day festival with the concert always being on the last day," explained Amber Dresen, Secretary of the music and arts of Great Falls Public Schools. The visiting director for AA Orchestra this year will be Dr. Kevin Hekmatpanah from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. Cellist Kevin Hekmatpanah is a native of Chicago, and has presented hundreds of solo and chamber performances throughout the country. He has won several competitions and awards, including prizes in the Beethoven Club Young Artists’ Competition, the Virginia Chapter of the National Society of Arts and Letters Competition, the Brentwood-Westwood Concerto Competition, the Fort Collins Concerto Competition, and the Montpelier Cultural Arts Solo Competition. Dr. Hekmatpanah is a Professor of Music at Gonzaga University, where he has taught since 1994. He recently received an Exemplary Faculty Award for his Academic Citizenship. He is currently a member of the Spokane Symphony Orchestra. He studied conducting with David Itkin while a Masters Student at Indiana University, and he attended the Conductors Institute of South Carolina, where he received coaching from Kirk Muspratt, Gisele Ben-Dor and Paul Vermel among others. Visit the C.M. Russell High School for this amazing concert of talented students on February 6th at 6:00 pm.