This year Big Sky’s orchestra has a new teacher.
After the former orchestra teacher Kira Lee left for district reasons, according to office staff, Angelica Kalasz took the job teaching orchestra here at Big Sky.
Even though this is her first year teaching high school orchestra, Kalasz has been working for Missoula County Public Schools full-time for four years. She also taught for nine years in the D.C. area before she came to Missoula.
On a recent morning between classes, Mrs. Kalasz talked about how she’s taught just middle and elementary school students, and said she taught orchestra at seven different schools in Missoula last year.
“This year is OK because I only have to go between three schools,” Kalasz said. Those schools are Franklin Elementary, Hawthorn Elementary, and Big Sky.
Kalasz says she’s moving between schools because her orchestra position is part-time but she has a full-time contract. Lee did the same thing when she was teaching at Big Sky.
Since this year is not only her first year at Big Sky but in a high school too, Kalasz said, “it’s a lot different, but in a good way.”
She went on to say that at Big Sky, there are not any intermediate classes for orchestra, but that all of the orchestra students have some experience with their instruments.
In addition, Kalasz said music can be a path into college. There are some music scholarships available for interested students, and being in a music class looks good on a college application.
For information on orchestra concerts and other music program performance, visit the Big Sky High School website.
