RUMFORD – Five guys from a rural high school walked away with the top award from the New England School of Communications Audio Challenge last week, beating out nine other urban and rural schools in the process.
For their efforts, Mountain Valley High School will receive a complete digital Mackie recording studio to be installed in the music department and used by music teacher Mike Prescott to teach the fine art of recording.
“It will be a teaching tool, a resource,” Prescott said Wednesday afternoon.
“It was pretty overwhelming,” said Rumford junior Nathan Mills, keyboard player and composer, of the award. “We heard what the other schools had for equipment and I thought, oh wow, they have better equipment.”
On top of that, this was the first time students from MVHS competed in the New England-wide competition.
The competition called for creating a student-based audio recording, from lyric and music, including engineering and techniques, to the final CD product, as well as to produce a press kit and other associated materials related to the recording process.
The young men worked for several months on the project.
The hook, or basic tune, came to Mills when he was playing music and hanging out. Then the other students worked on the lyrics and melody. Michael Dubendris served as chief engineer, the first time he had done such a thing.
“It came pretty easy,” said the senior student from Mexico who plans to attend Rochester Institute of Technology in computer science in the fall. “I have an aptitude for this.”
Aaron Cayer, a Rumford junior, provided the vocals, something he’s been doing all his life.
Hearing the results of the CD was a little surprising.
He sang the lyrics and the backup in one closet-sized studio at the school while the other guys played their instruments in another closet-sized studio.
When he heard that the group had won, he couldn’t believe it.
“I said, what? No!” he said.
He’s thinking he might try out for the television show “American Idol.”
While music is important to him, he’s thinking he might major in architecture when he gets to college in a year or so.
Ben Hornsby, a senior from Mexico, played the bass guitar, an instrument he taught himself only 18 months ago. He plans to major in video game design at Champlain College in Vermont in the fall.
He was pretty psyched when he heard word of the award, as was Byron Glaus, the group’s drummer from Rumford who graduates next week.
“I’m proud for the school and for the whole area,” he said.
He plans to attend Emmanuel College in Boston in the fall majoring in psychology, but he also plans to stick with music, particularly since the Berkeley School of Music is close by. He plans to take a few classes in music theory at Emmanuel, then perhaps a few other music-related courses at Berkeley.
The group played their signature tune for the school at last week’s assembly and people clapped, they said. No one booed.
Competitors played jazz and rap as well as pop. Madison High School came in second, and Falmouth High School, third.
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