FROM PAGE ONE
THURSDAY, JUNE 24, 2021
MUSIC
Continued from Page 1A
Those teaching the
camp’s middle school
and high school students
include Doug Reneau, a
member of the Oregon
Symphony and an adjunct
Portland State University
professor. Reneau said the
instruction students are
receiving is more focused
than what they receive in
a middle or high school
setting.
“In school it is just one
of six classes in a day. Here
they are receiving six to
eight hours of instruction a
day. It is more intense,” he
said.
The sessions are being
taught in the middle of
Eastern’s campus where
instrumental sounds are
bouncing off Loso Hall, the
Hoke Union Building, East-
ern’s library, Ackerman
Hall and other buildings.
Reneau likes the acoustical
environment the setting
provides. He said the setting
makes it easier for students
to hear themselves.
“If you are in the middle
CONCERTS
Continued from Page 1A
it’s hard to make money
at that capacity,” Jennings
said. “It costs more to run a
show than it does to have a
show.”
One group HQ has
worked with to combat this
issue is the National Inde-
pendent Venue Association,
which was created in April
of 2020 with the goal of
helping concert venues stay
afl oat during the pandemic.
Reengaging the
community
To deal with the current
state of the COVID-19 pan-
demic, HQ is still enforcing
masks at live events. Guests
that are sitting or drinking
a beverage are allowed to
take off their mask while
inside the venue.
“I think people need to
be responsible for where
we’re at and it’s their job
now,” Jennings said. “We’re
advocates for getting vac-
DROUGHT
Continued from Page 1A
now, at least in terms of
the drought conditions and
how it projects onto wild-
fi re risk.”
As of Monday, The
S-503 Fire was the largest,
burning 6,201 acres near
the Warm Springs Reserva-
tion in Central Oregon. The
fi re started June 18, and was
10% contained. A cause has
not been determined.
In Southern Oregon, the
Cutoff Fire started June 19
and has burned 1,150 acres
on state forestland about
6 miles north of Bonanza.
It is 12% contained, and
the cause remains under
investigation.
Earlier this month, a pair
of lightning-sparked fi res
in northeast Oregon — the
Joseph Canyon and Dry
Creek fi res — torched 9,195
acres of timber and range-
land. Those two fi res were
mostly contained June 11.
Meg Krawchuk, an asso-
ciate professor at the Col-
lege of Forestry, said con-
ditions on the ground are
more characteristic of what
fi refi ghters might expect in
July, rather than June.
“When we have early
and longstanding drought,
we’re more likely to have
fi res burning,” Krawchuk
said.
According to the U.S.
Drought Monitor, all of
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
Trumpet student Raleigh Gessel plays during a practice ensemble
held at the Eastern Oregon University commons as a part of Music
Camps at Wallowa Lake Reimagined on Tuesday, June 22, 2021.
of a fi eld the sound disap-
pears,” he said.
Reneau said he and other
music instructors at the
camp have been enjoying
the opportunity to teach
students in person, some-
thing they have not been
able to do frequently during
the pandemic, since the
bulk of middle and high
school instruction has been
provided online. He said
music can be taught one-
on-one through video con-
ferencing but having stu-
dents try to play together
has its limits, mainly tech-
nology timing issues pre-
vent instrumental sounds
created in diff erent places
from being heard in sync.
cinated and the sooner
everyone does, the sooner
we can have a fully opera-
tional space.”
With live concerts seem-
ingly coming back into the
fold rather quickly across
the US, scheduling art-
ists is now the top priority
at HQ. The venue typi-
cally receives interest from
artists traveling between
Boise, Portland and Seattle,
with the Treefort Festival
in Boise being another big
draw for La Grande.
“As of right now the
intent is to do more shows,”
Cimone said. “Right now
it’s about once a month, but
we’ve got to do more than
that. I suspect that we’ll
have one or two next month
and alongside that we’re
starting open mic nights.”
Open mic nights are just
one of the many ways that
the HQ owners envision the
community using the space
following the pandemic.
The facility’s sound system,
digital video production
and live streaming capabil-
ities open doors for a wide
number of event possibili-
ties in the space.
Jennings, the director
and co-founder of the
Eastern Oregon Film Fes-
tival, also uses the space
for fi lm screenings and
fundraiser events. The HQ
owners are open to booking
small gatherings, improv,
theatre performances or any
other interested proposals.
HQ has been hosting
events for roughly three
years and has been the
home base for EOFF over
the last fi ve years. With the
pandemic bringing a halt
to much of the momentum
Jennings and Cimone were
able to build over the years,
the task now is to reengage
the community.
“I see it as a mandatory
piece to a thriving commu-
nity,” Jennings said. “It’s an
essential ingredient to how
we can thrive. I’m excited
for more of that to happen.”
Jennings and Cimone
plan on hosting open stage
nights for local musicians in
addition to the of concerts
coming this summer.
Oregon is listed in some
stage of drought, including
77% in “severe” drought,
36% in “extreme” drought
and a little under 5% in the
worst category of “excep-
tional” drought.
The driest conditions
are spread over Central
and Eastern Oregon, said
O’Neill, the state climatol-
ogist. Klamath, Deschutes,
Crook, Jeff erson and Wasco
counties all experienced
their driest or second-driest
spring on record, he said.
In addition, the USDA
reports that 80% of the
state’s cropland and live-
stock pastures are rated
as either “short” or “very
short” of soil moisture.
“That’s also very con-
cerning right now for a
lot of the agricultural and
livestock producers here,”
O’Neill said. “Things are
looking a little bit bleak.”
Oregon is already
coming off of a record
fi re season in 2020 during
which more than 1 million
acres burned, particularly
in Western Oregon, where
a series of post-Labor Day
confl agrations fanned by
strong easterly winds con-
sumed entire towns.
Lisa Ellsworth, an assis-
tant professor who studies
fi re behavior and rangeland
ecology at the College of
Agricultural Sciences, said
Oregon is not at the point
yet where fi re season lasts
year-round, as in California.
But the trend toward higher
temperatures and more
severe drought across the
West is having an impact.
“Twenty years ago, when
I fought wildland fi re, our
seasons looked nothing like
this,” she said.
Erica Fleishman,
director of the Oregon Cli-
mate Change Research
Institute, said it is impos-
sible to pin the trend
entirely on climate change,
but “the types of weather
patterns we’re seeing this
year are consistent with
what has been observed and
what is projected as climate
continues to change.”
“Climate change is a
factor,” Fleishman said.
“We cannot simply pin it all
on climate change, but it is
a factor.”
Hotter and drier weather
does not always necessarily
mean more fi res. There
must be a spark, in combi-
nation with the right condi-
tions, for wildfi re to spread.
Ellsworth said more than
80% of fi res in the West are
caused by humans, under-
scoring the need for people
to be careful outdoors.
“While we can’t do a
whole lot about the drought
conditions we are facing
right now, we can do a
whole lot about the ignition
sources ... managing people
and managing that poten-
tial for wildfi re as people
are out there recreating,”
she said.
Counselors help with
focus on teaching
The music camp pro-
gram has an abundance of
counselors which is a big
plus, according to instructor
JáTtik Clark, a member
of the Oregon Symphony
Orchestra and an adjunct
professor at Portland State
University and Oregon
State University. Clark
THE OBSERVER — 5A
said the counselors address
details that make it easier
for instructors to focus on
teaching. The counselors,
all musicians, also share
knowledge.
“Students learn at least
as much from them as from
the professors,” Clark said.
Many of the counselors
attended the program as
students when it was at
Wallowa Lake and now
are in college preparing to
pursue careers in music,
according to Kelly Hardy,
manager of the EOU camp.
She noted that her daughter,
Gracie Hardy, is among
the former camp students
who is now a counselor pre-
paring for a career in music.
Hardy said her daughter has
said she would not be pur-
suing a career in music if
not for the Music Camps
at Wallowa Lake camp
program.
The day camp being
conducted at EOU this
week is only half the story
of the Music Camps at Wal-
lowa Lake this summer.
The program will provide
another week of day camp
music instruction later this
summer in West Linn, 10
miles south of Portland.
The West Linn off ering
is being made to accom-
modate the many students
from Western Oregon who
have attended the music
camps before when they
were at Wallowa Lake.
Birnbaum said the move
will help the camp program
meet COVID-19 safety
guidelines. She explained
that it will prevent students
separated by great distances
from coming together to
attend the camps, reducing
the chance of the spread of
COVID-19.
“The state does not want
a lot of region intermin-
gling,” said Birnbaum, who
hopes the music camp pro-
gram can be returned to
Wallowa Lake in 2022.
Bringing students
together
The Music Camps at
Wallowa Lake program was
founded by Jim Howell,
now a retired La Grande
High School band teacher,
and Larry Johnson, a pro-
fessional musician from
Oregon City, in 1999.
Howell and Johnson wanted
students from throughout
the state to learn together at
a music camp.
“We wanted to bring
Oregon together,” said
Johnson, a teacher at this
week’s camp.
Johnson said Howell,
who now lives in Western
Oregon, has a special
understanding of how
important it is for students
to hone their musical skills
at camps in the summer if
they want to move forward.
He also has been adept at
inspiring students to do
this.
Many of the students
attending this week’s day
camp are doing so with help
from grants provided by the
Wildhorse Foundation and
the Leo Adler Foundation.
“Those grants have been
such a big help,” Johnson
said.
Day camp sessions at
EOU begin each day at
9 a.m. The majority of the
students attending are from
La Grande and many greet
the start of sessions with
plenty of exuberance.
“There are students
waiting here at 8:15 a.m.,”
Birnbaum said.
MOVIE
Continued from Page 1A
did visit La Grande in
late January 2019 to do
research for his part in
the movie.
A portion of the movie
focuses on Joe Bell’s walk,
when he gave a number of
talks in churches, schools
and other places on behalf
of his foundation. He
talked of the evils of bul-
lying and what can be
done to prevent it.
Jadin Bell’s family
members and friends
said bullying drove him
to suicide, and they later
launched an anti-bullying
The Observer, File
Before beginning his cross-country walk in 2013, Joe Bell embrac-
es his wife, Lola, beside the tiled palmprint of their late son Jadin
in a display made several years ago at Riverside Park.
campaign called Faces for
Change.
Joe Bell premiered at
the 2020 Toronto Interna-
tional Film Festival. It was
once titled Good Joe Bell,
according to the website
www.slashfi lm.com.
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