The All County Music Festival comes to the Van Duzer

Students from around Northern California and Oregon gathered to perform in the All County Music Festival at Cal Poly Humboldt this weekend. We went behind the scenes to see why music is so important in the lives of students.

Collin Kirkwood, president of the North Coast section of the California Music Educators Association, said that playing music can play a part in academic performance.

“We can’t 100% determine causation but there’s a huge correlation between doing music and higher test scores or student outcomes,” Kirkwood said.

Jenny Bent, the guest conductor for the senior choir, said that music can help students learn more than just rhythm.

“It helps students in other areas as well,” Bent said. “There’s so many ways that you can teach other skills through music.”

We all have a connection to music somehow. Audrey McCombs, senior band guest conductor, said that connection is actually physical.

“The first thing we have is rhythm, right here. Boom boom, boom boom, boom boom,” McCombs said, imitating a heartbeat. “It’s in everybody.”

Kirkwood noted that music is a global phenomenon.

“It’s one of the few things that is truly ubiquitous across all human cultures,” Kirkwood said. “Not every culture has something that they may necessarily call music, but they have something that is musical and people can express themselves in that way.”