Thursday’s Whitefish High School jazz band performance in the new multipurpose room of the Center for Applied Media Arts & Sciences wing was music to the ears of director Mark McCrady.

The sounds of Charlie Parker, Herbie Hancock and George Gershwin compositions resonated throughout the space in the first public performance in the room, which features retractable seating, a stage and an acoustical treatment that involved donated labor and materials.

“It’s our chance to test the space and have an audience in there,” Whitefish Principal Kerry Drown said Wednesday.

With a good portion of “bass resonance” and “slap echo” eliminated, musicians are now able to more clearly hear one another, McCrady said.

“It transformed the space where music can be made optimal for choir and band,” McCrady said. “It allows us to hear music more accurately and for students to hear one another and just be able to create art.”

Drown said there is some fine-tuning yet to be done related to the stage and lighting. The rooms are also wired for future technologies such as recording equipment if funding becomes available and needs arise.

“Imagine what could happen in these spaces,” McCrady said. “We’re thankful for what we have and what our community has provided for us.”

The room also serves as a black box theater, which the school didn’t have prior to construction.

While large high school productions will continue to be held at the Whitefish Performing Arts Center, the black box theater will provide an intimate setting for drama students to perform and learn in on a daily basis. Teacher Kelliann Blackburn said drama students have already performed for a small student audience this year.

“This real-life drama space provides a preparation and performance opportunity most of my students would never have outside their school day,” Blackburn said.

“The Drama Club also uses this space for rehearsals after school, and it has been amazing. We finally have a space of our own. We aren’t trying to rehearse a show surrounded by instruments like we did in the old building. We also have a storage room right outside the black box so we can gather our props, costumes and set pieces on site, rather than driving to a storage unit.”

The multipurpose room is just one of many in the wing to receive special acoustical treatment. The wing includes five other practice rooms, a choir room and instrumental room.

Design, creation and installation of the acoustical treatment throughout the wing represents more than 500 hours of volunteered time and about $35,000 of donated labor, materials and technical support from experts and businesses both local and out-of-state, according to physics teacher Todd Spangler.

“Owens Corning donated the large acousi acoustic panels for the theater,” Spangler said. “Jim and Kyle Archer at Archer Excavating organized mounting of the panels in the music and choir rooms.”

Acoustical engineers such as Brett Allen of Snowghost Music, based in Whitefish, helped the project take flight by working with physics students on testing, placement and design. From there, music, woods, media, art students and community members provided additional research and input. Woods students then constructed acoustic panel frames.

Orchestra director Jenanne Solberg said the new wing has given the music program room to grow.

“We have the largest enrollments in band and orchestra that we have seen in years, and our numbers are slated to increase,” Solberg. “The addition of several acoustically sound practice rooms has afforded us the opportunity to have breakout sessions, whether for small ensemble preparation, individual practice, tutoring or sectionals. The practice rooms can be used even while the large ensemble is rehearsing, which means there is no need for down time.”

As far as the acoustical treatment, Solberg said student musicians can now rehearse in the instrumental room and practice rooms at the same time without disturbing each other.

“In our previous instrumental music space, and in this space prior to the acoustical treatments, we were unable to use practice rooms while a large group was rehearsing. Many practice rooms were simply used for storage, and rehearsal areas were ‘wasted’ because they were not acoustically sound,” Solberg said. “We suffered from things such as sound bleed-through and slap echo which are now addressed.

“Bottom line is that we have a space which is truly a cutting-edge-designed professional-quality environment for music rehearsal, study and (eventually) recording. The students recognize this, and reap the rewards daily as they have been provided the opportunity to work at the highest possible level.”

Hilary Matheson is a reporter for The Daily Inter Lake. She may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.