by Luna Sandoval
There are many benefits of going to a school that has fewer than 200 kids, including being able to enjoy music and art from visiting artists. Having the opportunity to interact with them is a great way to dive further and spark interests for students and teachers. Many look forward to spending an afternoon in the Abrams Performing Arts Center, better known as the APAC, and meeting new people who come all the way to Ouray to perform just for the students.
The Ivalas Quartet from Boulder traveled to Ouray to perform at The Wright Opera House on Thursday December 9 and stopped by Ouray School for the afternoon. Middle and high school students were fortunate enough to spend some time with them and ask questions that sparked their interest after the quartet performed.
The quartet shared their mission about how they believed there is too little diversity within classical music. Composers that are female or of color are not as often recognized. The quartet makes a point to perform music from these composers.
The students were able to interact with the quartet. They asked students to suggest emotions, and then the musicians would play a piece of music with those feelings showing both in their faces and in the sounds that they were creating. The emotions varied: disgust, anger, sadness and many more.
Many students were inspired by the quartet to continue playing or to start playing new instruments. 6th grader Josue Wallace loved being introduced to new instruments and would eventually like to try out a string instrument. “It seems very challenging,” he said, “but I think it will be worth it.”