G-E-T alum hosts workshop for Red Hawk music students

As Ettrick native Clara Byom spoke in the Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau High School performing arts center last Friday, she wanted to educate students on music and show that a career in the arts might be more sustainable than some currently think.

Byom, a 2009 G-E-T High School graduate, returned to the school last week to host a musical workshop with the help of her bandmates from Dust City Opera, an alt-rock quintet from New Mexico that writes and performs music that ranges from “sweet folk” to “really loud heavy rock”.

Byom and her musical coworkers spoke to G-E-T band and choir students about songwriting, music careers and the process of working as an instrumentalist within a music group.

The band played songs for students and presented through Q&A and demonstrations.

While Dust City Opera has conducted similar musical workshops for kids across the country, Friday was Byom’s first time offering education to her alma mater.

Byom mentioned her former band teacher Brenda Gauchel, now the performing arts center director, and choir teacher Ryan Stuempges as people who helped her connect with music beyond a hobby.

“It’s a really great opportunity for me to give back to the community that was foundational for my music development. … it’s really great to be able to reconnect with folks who formed my musical development and help give back to their students and the communities that they are deeply engrained in.”

Gauchel said Byom’s return was welcomed, adding that students could note that music can persist beyond high school.

“It makes me very proud,” Gauchel said of Byom turning music into a career. “It’s nice that she will be able to show our students here that it is a possibility and it is a possibility outside of the traditional road she could have taken as far as she’s a clarinet player.”

Dust City Opera performed a concert at the school last Saturday as part of an ongoing tour to promote its new album, “Cold Hands”. The tour includes stops in St. Louis, Colorado, Minneapolis, Wisconsin and Kansas, where the band will offer more education for students.

Byom was raised on a dairy farm in Ettrick. She helped milk cows and watched classmates seek careers in education, the trades and farming. One of her brothers is a dairy farmer, and the other owns a construction company.

Byom hopes G-E-T students took note that music has become her career, an achievement that is possible for them and other students from small communities.

“Being able to talk to young students who might be considering careers in the arts and say, ‘There’s a lot of different ways to do this and make this beneficial for you. It will still be hard, but it’s possible.’ Growing up in rural areas it can be hard to understand how much of society is tied to entertainment and the arts,” Byom said.

“I think lots of people still have this understanding that the arts are out of reach or kind of magical, that you have to be some sort of wizard to make it work. I think anytime you get someone who’s living and working in the arts to come in and just be a real human around kids, it makes it feel more attainable and more accessible.”