Teen singer/composer to perform Saturday

Whether she is composing a song on the piano or playing the clarinet in pep band, Priscilla Perches feels compelled to share the music inside of her.

Perches, 16, has composed songs for several years. When she feels inspired by an emotion, the music starts to take form.

“It just happens like that,” she said.

The junior-to-be at Umatilla High School is finding more and more opportunities to share her talents. In May, she performed at the Hermiston Main Street Art Walk. On June 25, she will perform at Umatilla Landing Days for the third year in a row.

At the end of the 2010-11 school year, Perches received two awards from her school – the Director’s Award from the Umatilla Music Department and the Most Inspirational Musician Award as chosen by her peers. She was surprised and thrilled.

“She’s very mature for her age, and she’s made really good choices,” said Perches’ mother, Thelma.

Thelma Perches is very proud of her daughter and attends her performances whenever possible.

Although Perches excels musically, she tries to balance her life with other activities. She takes advanced math classes and runs cross country, and says she enjoys hanging out with friends.

Perches’ love for music began in elementary school. She wanted to learn to play the piano because she had heard her mother play the piano a little. While her mother was at work, Perches was at home with older siblings and searching for something to do.

“I just started messing around on the piano,” she said. “I remember playing it and just writing my emotions on it.”

When she was happy, she played a happy tune. When she was sad, the music would portray it. Perches’ first song is called “Number 9,” because she was 9 years old when she wrote it.

Teachers and classmates began to recognize Perches’ musical gifts when she was in the eighth  grade. She and her friends performed one of her songs for their eighth-grade graduation. Perches also received the Hope Scholarship that year, which will contribute  $500 toward her college education.

“Ever since then, I just started composing little by little,” she said.

Although Perches’ piano teacher, Theresa Collins, has taught for 40 years, she has had   only a handful of students who could compose.

“(Priscilla is) a natural,” Collins said. “She excites me as a teacher.”

Not only does Perches compose, but she has written her own arrangements of other musical pieces, such as Andrew Lloyd Webber’s "Phantom of the Opera.

Umatilla County School District Closes Only Alternative High ...

Alternative high schools which enroll at risk youths have a major impact on the education that troubled kids get. When a student creates numerous distractions, behaves violently or is found to have engaged in illegal activities outside of school, usually he or she is sent to an alternative school. Legally, children aged 16 years and older can be signed out of school by their parents. Although there are penalties for parents that do not force their children to attend school, rarely are the rules enforced.

In the case of Hilltop Junior-Senior High School in Umatilla County, Oregon, at risk high school students will probably not be able to graduate. Without a proper education, children that have had issues at home and school are more than three times as likely to commit crimes and be imprisoned as adults. In Hermiston, Oregon, life is simple, most adults go to work and the unemployment is on the low end when compared to national averages. The good news is that these alternative high school students will have the opportunity to resume learning in the fall, however, they may not be able to get the same level of individualized attention and care.

In a town where most residents are on a first name basis, these students have already been marked with the proverbial scarlet letter. It will be more difficult for them to get jobs in Hermiston as they have been associated with negative activities, and if they aren’t able to graduate and go on to college, their futures will be all but sealed.

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