TEEN ROCKS WITH CLASSICS

CLASSICAL TRAINING: Tyler Dixon with theyouth orchestra (File photo).

- JEFF PETERSEN

- Staff Writer

Stringed instruments have never been more in vogue among youth.

The only problem is, the stringed instrument of choice is the guitar, and the musical venue of choice is the rock 'n' roll band.

Tyler Dixon hopes that will change someday. The 17-year-old cellist is among the performers in the Grande Ronde Youth Orchestra, which will be in concert at 7 p.m. April 17 at the Elgin Opera House and at 6:30 p.m. April 24 at Wildflower Lodge.

"Everybody wants to play guitar and have a rock 'n' roll band," he says.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

But Dixon, who is graduating from La Grande High School this spring, worries about how the youth orchestra has been shrinking in numbers in his seven years with the group. He says he hopes music education will become a bigger part of school budgets and more kids will have an opportunity to get hooked on performing classical music.

Dixon, the son of Teresa and Craig Smith-Dixon, also plays cello in the Grande Ronde Symphony Orchestra and trombone in the Monday Night Community Band and the LHS Wind Ensemble and Jazz Band.

He was the drum major for the LHS marching band for two years and will study music education, with a special emphasis on the trombone, at the University of Idaho beginning this fall.

Dixon started piano lessons as a third-grader and cello lessons as a fifth-grader. The very next year he joined the youth orchestra. It was intimidating at first, he admits, as he was the only cellist. But then-conductor Ken Woods asked some college cellists to join the orchestra, and Dixon says he learned a lot by observing them and seeing how they went about their business.

"I'd recommend the youth orchestra to any musician wanting to learn and get better," he says. "They need more members if they are going to continue."

In middle school he began playing the trombone. At first he thought he wanted to play trumpet but found his mouth not a good fit with the mouthpiece. His cello teacher, Swannee Herrmann, came to the rescue, offering to loan him a trombone.

It was a good choice, given that both the cello and trombone music read in the bass clef.

"You're dealing with the same notes, really," Dixon says.

He progressed enough on trombone to march with the high school band his freshman and sophomore years. Then he decided to try out for drum major and went to drum major camp at Boise State University on a LHS scholarship.

Dixon has since led the marchers at such varied venues as the Pendleton Round-Up and

La Grande Veterans Day parades and LHS football games.

"Mr. (Jim) Howell (the band director) writes the shows, and out on the field we direct the show," Dixon says.

Another learning experience for drum majors occurs at the LHS marching band camp, which takes place the week before school starts. There, new players and returnees alike are put through the paces to prepare for the coming year.

Now Dixon is getting ready to head for Moscow, Idaho, and the University of Idaho. He chose the school, in part, because the LHS band goes there at least twice a year for seminars and competitions. The main events are the Band Fest in January and the Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival in February.

"All the music professors I've met are nice and easy to work with," he says.

With a music education career on the horizon, and his wish for the youth orchestra to thrive, Dixon is hoping trends go in cycles.

He might get his wish. Some people thought the crewcut would never come back into fashion, but it did. Sideburns and goatees, too, made a comeback, and some cars on the road today are built with new components but designs from the distant past.

The same might be true of brass bands and orchestras. The style was all the rage in the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s, when band leaders such as Woody Herman, Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey were household names, dance bands were big and swing was king.

Maybe the same will be true in the third, fourth and fifth decades of the 21st century — or sooner. That would be harmony to Dixon's ears.