{"id":54316,"date":"2013-04-18T21:36:14","date_gmt":"2013-04-19T03:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sing-it-loud-sing-it-proud\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T16:16:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T16:16:19","slug":"sing-it-loud-sing-it-proud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sing-it-loud-sing-it-proud\/","title":{"rendered":"Sing it loud, sing it proud"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"KEMPER
KEMPER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL music teacher Curtis Storm believes music, opera in particular, expresses thoughts and emotions that spoken words cannot. Storm is performing several operatic pieces tonight at the Cortez Cultural Center.<\/span>Sam Green\/Cortez Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

It took opera singer Curtis Storm time to overcome his stage fright. Belting out powerful, emotion-laden melodies before an audience made him nervous and self-conscious. While still not fully at ease, he\u2019s making progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m naturally a reserved person but I\u2019m older and wiser now,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve learned to let go of my own fears, breaking through those worries of overdoing it or looking like a fool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Storm, 28, has been singing for about a dozen years. You wouldn\u2019t necessarily know it just by talking to the soft-spoken Kemper Elementary music teacher, but his voice packs a soaring punch. He\u2019ll show off his pipes at 7 p.m. tonight in a multi-song performance at the Cortez Cultural Center.<\/p>\n

The concert is trilingual: German, Russian and Italian. All the pieces revolve around love in some form or fashion.<\/p>\n

The first, a four-movement \u201ccycle\u201d by Gustav Mahler, delves into the depths of a vagabond\u2019s struggles with lost love. He lurches from sadness to fleeting optimism, to anger, and finally a subdued acceptance.<\/p>\n

The two Russian arias are by Sergei Rachmaninoff and Peter Tchaikovsky, respectively. Storm said people only familiar with Tchaikovsky\u2019s Nutracracker Suite might be caught off guard by the intensity of his other work. This particular piece, from the opera Eugene Onegin, is about a duel to the death between two close friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s dripping with emotion and a dark foreshadowing of demise. It hooks you in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll close out the set with a well-known aria by Giacomo Puccini, called \u201cNussen Dorman\u201d \u2014 in English \u201cNone Shall Sleep.\u201d In short, it involves a cruel princess, high-stakes riddles and threats of beheadings.<\/p>\n

Storm will be accompanied on the piano by Linda Mack, the Durango Choral Society\u2019s conductor and a retired Fort Lewis College professor.<\/p>\n

Raised in a musical household, Storm didn\u2019t take singing seriously until he joined the choir as a high school sophomore. An off-hand compliment from a stranger after a spring concert gave him confidence in his raw talent. Soon afterward he began lessons with a voice instructor who trained him for 10 years. During that time he earned a degree in music education from Rochester College, outside Detroit.<\/p>\n

Storm describes his road to Cortez as \u201cserendipitous.\u201d A lifelong Michigan resident, he found himself cobbling together part-time jobs after graduating college. Storm worked as a high school paraprofessional and as a home-health worker helping special-needs teenagers with social interaction. His wife, Nicole, is a kindred spirit \u2014 she\u2019s a music teacher too (at Mesa Elementary). But when she lost her job at a Detroit-area school in 2010, the couple found themselves in need of work. Fast.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was application blitzkrieg. We applied here, there, everywhere,\u201d Storm said. Despite their Michigan roots, they decided to look far and wide: Oklahoma, Kansas, Idaho, even Japan. It was late summer before Storm heard of Montezuma-Cortez School District Re-1. He applied for the Kemper job, having nothing to lose.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a phone interview, and a few days later they offered it to me. This all happened five days before the school year started. We packed up and moved 1,600 miles that weekend,\u201d he recalled, admitting the extent of his Cortez knowledge was an online photograph of Main Street and U.S. Census data showing a population of 8,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere we were, moving from the Detroit (metropolitan) area, with its four million people,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had no idea what to expect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Storm said the generosity of community members helped make settling in easier. A church friend helped them find an apartment on short notice, and Kemper staff put together a care package of groceries to stock their tiny kitchen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey overwhelmed us with kindness. Being so warmly received made the transition from living close to family, to having none nearby whatsoever, more bearable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This spring is a busy one for Storm, with five vocal performances upcoming. Some are solo, like tonight\u2019s concert, and others are part of a chorus.<\/p>\n

As a teacher, Storm hopes to instill in his students an appreciation of classical music. When he gives the kids a sample of his operatic talent in class, it usually prompts giggles. He knows they aren\u2019t laughing at him, per se, or because there\u2019s anything inherently comical about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just feel awkward because they don\u2019t know what to make of (this genre). They\u2019ve never heard it in person before, so they\u2019re embarrassed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For Storm, it isn\u2019t about perfection, for himself or the students. Unlike a recording studio, where the goal is to \u201cnail every note and rhythm,\u201d live singing is bound to include more flaws. He thinks that adds character and realism. And by encouraging his students not to be afraid of mistakes, he helps them come out of their shells.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you mess up, half the time no one will notice. And it looks and sounds far better if you\u2019re smiling and confident than if you\u2019re cowering in the corner.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven more than fundamentals, I want them to love participating in music. I want them to somehow keep music with them as they leave Kemper,\u201d he added. \u201cDon\u2019t just let everyone else make the music. Be part of it, in some way.\u201d<\/p>\n

lukeg@cortezjournal.com<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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