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| Ken Noreen accepts the HEART award in front of an appreciate audience Photo by Mark McVeety |
At the Shoreline Lake Forest Park Arts Council Gala for the Arts on June 7, 2014 at the Shoreline Center, well-known local musician and educator Ken Noreen was surprised with the HEART Award for livelong contribution to the arts.
Ken said, "I am thrilled and honored by this award. This is my 50th year in teaching in Shoreline in the arts and I still love being involved. The Shoreline Arts Council which I help start is the strongest local arts agency in the country and we need to keep supporting their efforts.
"My short bio is that Shoreline has been my teaching home exclusively. In 1962 I started teaching summer school for the district, did my student teaching in 1964 in Shoreline and signed my teaching contract for the fall of 1964. I taught 30 years for the district, 25 of those being as the Director of Bands at Shorecrest.
"I was also the Music Coordinator for many years until my retirement in 1994. That’s when I assumed the directorship of the Shoreline Concert Band. This group had started years earlier in 1984 with some help from me. It is and always has been a combination of Shoreline Community College students and community members.
"Today the group of about 70 musicians is about one third students at SCC and two thirds community members who get a chance to keep playing their instruments after college. I am an associate professor at SCC and have been for the past twenty years. This is a model now replicated around the state and country that enables the colleges to have a quality concert band, while still offering the community members who play band instruments an opportunity to keep playing. As a side note, we are always looking for new members. We start again in September."
Congratulations, Mr. Noreen! I remember you well. I was a senior at Shoreline HS during your first year there, and my younger brother was part of your music program.
ReplyDeleteLinda (Bartholomew) Thomas
If I remember correctly, I was in your band the first year you were a full time teacher in the district. And, you and your band played at our wedding reception! Thanks for all you have done for so many!
ReplyDeleteMr. Noreen, you were a huge influence in my life and I've many times noted you as "the person who had the most influence on life growing up". Which is why I went on to be a band director and try to carry on the great experiences I got from my time at Shorecrest. You inspired me and LOTS of my peers. Dan Bentson.
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