India Carney visits with Bigfork music students

The music students of Bigfork Middle and High Schools enjoyed a first-week-of-school bonus last Wednesday when India Carney visited. India was in town for the Crown of the Continent Guitar Festival, where she performed in several evening events and taught a master class in stage presence and performance. India is well known to many as a top five finisher on last spring's run of NBC's The Voice. Only 22 years old, this recent UCLA graduate (from the opera department, no less!) has built up an impressive C. V.—with musical theater, dance, directing, a cappella groups, music videos, and much more to her credit. But her big dreams are pop music and Broadway, and the Bigfork music students, grades 6-12, were eager to learn from her. At 150 strong, they met India in the gymnasium and pelted her with questions: How did you get on The Voice? What is Christina Aguilera really like? Do you get nervous on stage? India answered all queries, and offered a few of her own, asking the students what music means to them. "It calms me." It excites me." "It's a safe place all my own." After much lively discussion, some of the students sang for India, and she coached them on improving their performances. The seventh-and-eighth grade choir also sang for India, before their time together was up. The event ended with enthusiastic cheers and a "mob shot" photograph that India promptly posted on Instagram. What a time we had at the school! What a blessing India has been to this community. Will she come back? She says she is eager to, and we plan to hold her to that promise.

—Lloyd and Faith Brynie, Bigfork