ROOM TO GROW GRANADA HILLS HIGH OPENS EXPANDED MUSIC REHEARSAL STUDIO.

Byline: Mark Kellam Valley News Writer

The music department at Granada Hills Charter High School has something to sing about - and it's ready to toot its own horn.

The school recently dedicated a new music rehearsal studio, large enough to handle its increasingly large bands and choirs.

The approximately 3,500-square-foot studio includes a large space with hardwood floors and walls that are acoustically designed. There are also five private rehearsal rooms on the second level. Each room has double-pane windows and specially treated drywall, making them almost soundproof, said assistant band director Ken Mengel.

The existing band room, which measures less than 2,000 square feet, can hold about 50 musicians, much too small to hold the school's 125-piece marching band or 130-piece concert band.

``We outgrew that room about 15 years ago,'' Mengel said. For rehearsals, all the extra furnishings, TVs and some percussion instruments had to be taken outside. The musicians played elbow to elbow in the room and some of them sat outside the door and practiced ``as best they could,'' Mendel said.

The structure previously housed the school's metal shop. However, enrollment in the metal shop courses dwindled in recent years, making the shop available for other uses.

Mengel said the school's charter status made it eligible for funding to refurbish the shop into a rehearsal studio. The project cost $???????????. (to be added in layout)

Granada Hills High became a charter school in the fall of 2004. ``If we were still part of the (L.A. Unified School District), funds like this wouldn't have been available,'' Mengel said.

The music department will present a concert at 7 p.m. Friday in Highlander Hall on the school's campus, 10535 Zelzah Ave. Many of the school's music groups are scheduled to perform including the string orchestra, concert band, wind ensemble, wind symphony, concert choir, honor choir and jazz band.

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2 photos

Photo:

(1) Ken Mengel, assistant music director at Granada Hills Charter High School, works with the string orchestra in the school's new rehearsal studio that opened recently.

(2) Violinists Esther Lin, Elizabeth Lee and Inji Yoon rehearse a song for an upcoming concert.