Intermountain Opera Bozeman made a guest appearance at Springhill School in Belgrade to share Native American culture through classical music.
Wheels of Harmony is the performance that will visit more than 10 schools across Montana between April 3-14, sharing Indigenous culture and music with thousands of students in grades K through 12.
Edward Vryan, an 8th grader at Springhill, says he enjoyed learning about these different cultures.
"I thought was really cool experience," said Vryan. "It's cool to learn about these different tribes and hear some of their native music. I just learned like how they got together and how you create these songs and stuff.”
23-year-old Kate Morton from Oklahoma has been singing opera since she was 14. She is a member of the Cherokee Nation and part of the Bird Clan. She’s excited to spread her culture and passion for music with students across Montana through Wheels of Harmony.
“It just really makes my heart so happy to be able to do this, to be able to not only share my culture, but also share this other thing that I love, which is classical music,” said Morton. "We showed them a couple of Arias, many compositions were written by Native composers and songs that are sung in native languages.”
Morton says her goal is to teach young students what she wished she knew at a younger age.
“Whenever I first started in opera, I thought that these two worlds were completely separate," said Morton. "And I was like, I need to see Native stories told through classical music.”
She’s hopeful Wheels of Harmony will help preserve the Native language as well as inspire students to explore other cultures and music.
“We've been touring across the state of Montana to rural and public and tribal schools, not only talking about classical music but Native American involvement,” said Morton.
As for Vryan, this performance is one he’ll remember.
"Definitely going to remember it, it was definitely a cool experience," said Vryan.
