Coombs kids strum their stuff Friday at Walk Hall – JH News&Guide
Grand Teton Music Festival, Coombs Outdoors join forces for ukulele club
A baker’s dozen of third, fourth and fifth graders will show off the fruits of a season’s worth of music lessons and practice sessions when the Coombs Ukulele Club performs outside Walk Festival Hall in Teton Village on Friday.
A collaboration between the Grand Teton Music Festival and nonprofit Coombs Outdoors, the ukesters will convene for a 6:30 p.m. program for friends, family and supporters on the north side of the Music Festival’s home venue.
“We started working with the music festival I think three years ago,” said Jenny Wolfrom Holladay, executive director of Coombs Outdoors.
That first year, Meaghan Heinrich, the Music Festival’s curator of education who has led dozens of outreach and educational programs around the valley this summer, visited with Coombs summer camp groups to lead hourlong introductions to music fundamentals and bucket-drumming.
“And then, last summer, they wanted to do something more organized,” Holladay said, “something more progressive, so they could see themselves getting better, really learn a skill rather than just one-offs.”
So Heinrich, who teaches music in Milwaukee-area public schools the rest of the year, including a ukulele group for fifth graders, launched a summerlong series.
“I fell in love with the organization and what they were doing two years ago,” Heinrich said of Coombs Outdoors. “I saw their commitment to providing everyone a great outdoor experience in Jackson Hole, to kids whose families didn’t have access or resources for hiking, mountain biking, paddling, getting out into outdoor spaces.”