shiningstar Creighton Urban

Age: 17 years. Grade/School: I am a Junior at Southeast Valley Hometown: My hometown is Callender, Iowa.

How do you think the arts will be in your life 25 years from now?

Hopefully, I would like to be directing a band or choir in a high school or college. Again, I still would like to be performing in churches and throughout my community. If I do end up teaching at a high school, I would also like to help direct the school’s musical and/or play.

What are some of your accomplishments?

1 ratings at the district level. I am one of the captains for my school’s robotics team, and last year, our team went on to the state level. This year’s season is currently ongoing, and we hope to make it to the state level again. This year, I have also been nominated as a Dean’s List semi-finalist in the state for robotics.

What is your earliest musical memory?

you involved in?

Some of the activities I am in are musical, play, choir, jazz choir, band, jazz band, marching band, pep band, large group speech, robotics, student council, and national honor society.

What do you most enjoy about being involved in band and choir?

One of the biggest reasons I like band and choir is because it puts me around people who have the same musical interests as me. These people have gone on to be some of my best friends. Band and choir have also provided me with many opportunities to improve on my musical skills, as well as help other students grow theirs. Being involved in band and choir have also provided me with outside experiences, such as this coming summer, I will be headed to Europe to perform for two weeks with the Iowa Ambassadors of Music band.

Do you plan to pursue the arts after high school? If so, in what way?

I do plan to pursue the arts after high school. For a start, I would like to join concert, jazz, pep, and marching band in college, and would also like to sing with a choir. I would also like to keep playing/performing in my church and throughout my community. Further down the road, I am considering majoring in music education.

Musically, I have been selected as my school’s drum major this year. I have also been awarded the outstanding soloist award at the Triton Jazz Festival. I have been selected for numerous honor bands throughout the years, I have auditioned for the All-State band for the past three years, and have been awarded multiple Division I ratings for my solo in the solo/ensemble contest. I have also performed in the school’s musical for the past three years, this year being the role of George Banks in Mary Poppins. I have done the spring play for the last two years, and in last year’s play I had the lead role of François LaRoache in the play “Château La Roach.” I participate in an improv team in our school’s large group speech program. My team has gone on to the state competition after receiving

My earliest musical memory would have to be back in elementary school. We learned how to play recorders. Alongside the recorders, we also played with boomwhackers, which helped us learn rhythm, and the very basis of harmony.

Talk us through a typical day in the life of Creighton Urban.

A typical day for me would start with jazz band, jazz choir, or student council. After this, I go throughout my school day, spending any free time I have working on the robot in the robotics lab. Every day, my final class is band and choir, doing about 45 minutes of each. After school, I either have more robotics practice or speech practice. Depending on the day of the week and time of the year I either have jazz band practice, play or musical rehearsal, or we perform pep band or marching band. On top of all of this, I still manage to squeeze in time for individual instrument practice.