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Santa Monica Daily Press MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 2015
Volume 14 Issue 250
MY WRITE SEE PAGE 4
Samohi wind ensemble tapped for special concert STUDENTS TO PLAY AT STATE MUSIC CONFERENCE IN SAN JOSE
BY JEFFREY I. GOODMAN Daily Press Staff Writer
SAMOHI The Santa Monica High wind ensemble seized the
opportunity of a lifetime when it was chosen to play at Carnegie Hall this past April as part of an international music festival. And that performance is still resonating. The group was recently chosen to give a concert in February in San Jose during the California All-State Music Education Conference, and it’s thanks in part to a live recording of the New York show that Samohi band director Kevin McKeown entered for consideration. “I submitted it and thought, ‘What if?’” said McKeown, who shares a name with Santa Monica’s mayor. “I had no
expectations. Now I’ve gone from excitement for our kids to, ‘Oh my god, we have a lot of work ahead of us.’ But that’s what we do. Whether it’s Carnegie Hall or Chicago Symphony Center, we have to put our program on the map.” McKeown said he was humbled by the selection of Samohi’s wind ensemble, which won the prestigious San Jose gig through a competitive application process administered by the California Music Educators Association. His students have been asked to demonstrate the potential of a high school music program for an audience of music teachers from around the state, who will listen to them play music from Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass” and Mason Bates’ “Mothership.” “[The educators] want to see what it sounds like when you have a really fun ensemble,” McKeown said. “What’s capable? What’s possible? We have that responsibility to show other communities and other teachers in the state of
California what we have in Santa Monica and why it needs to be supported in the community. It’s pretty awesome.” The Samohi musicians will have the help of McKeown and several guest conductors, including Thomas Lee, Travis Cross and Michael Stone. Lee was a longtime faculty member in UCLA’s music department, Cross has served as a professor and vice chair in the same department and Stone is currently the president of the state music educators association. McKeown, who graduated from Samohi in 1992, developed his music skills under Stone when the latter was a student teacher at the local high school. When McKeown took students to Carnegie Hall last spring, they played music from “Aurora Awakes” by John Mackey and “O Magnum Mysterium” as well as the Arthur SEE ENSEMBLE PAGE 3
Greywater keeps lawn green BY NICHOLAS SALAZAR Daily Press Intern
CITYEWIDE As lawns citywide turn brown or are
COLLEGE SOCCER Photos by Morgan Genser
Pierce College beat Santa Monica College in a non-league soccer match on Aug. 28 2-1. This was the first game of the season for SMC, so with the loss their record falls to 0-1. Pictured are SMC player Brittany Chow locking up with Alexis Aguinaga and SMC player Cindy Michel kicking the ball past Abigail Chavez.
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replaced with drought tolerant alternatives, Andy Lauer’s plush green lawn stands out. The front yard has flourished despite being untouched by a hose or a sprinkler for over a decade. The secret behind its healthy appearance? The entire lawn is grown in sand. This may surprise any passersby because the grass is indistinguishable from a traditional yard. Looking closely, a thin rubber liner separating the grass from the surrounding concrete can be seen. This liner is one of the only visible components of an underground greywater recycling system that supports all of Lauer’s landscaping through a technique known as sand hydroponics. With proponents claiming it uses 75 percent less water than conventional watering practices, this systems represents the future of water conservation and redemption for lawn-lovers in the face of a worsening drought. The impetus for this innovative system came from Lauer’s wife Melisa who wanted a big backyard for their young children. At the time, their own yard was full of dirt and rocks, so Lauer began to look for help to salvage his yard and avoid moving. He discovered grants available in Santa Monica for those willing to employ stringent water saving techniques. Lauer hired Kevin Poffenbarger, an engineer at EPD Consultants/Construction, who proposed a system that used recycled water. This proposal was initially met with opposition from city and county officials due to safety concerns. “In the 70s and 80s people were recycling their
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water in unsafe ways,” said Lauer, who remembered that, “there was quite a bit of opposition based only on the city codes.” However, the officials “weren’t opposed to it as an idea,” recalled Lauer, whose plan finally gained approval at a meeting between Santa Monica City, Los Angeles City, and LA County officials. Lauer worked over the next two years to install the greywater system, which recycled water from showers, sinks and the laundry machine. “Everything except toilet and kitchen sinks is diverted to a holding tank, and when the garden is ready for water it signals the holding tank to send water down,” explained Lauer, who expanded the system soon after. “It was working so well that ... three years later I installed the same system in the front yard,” Lauer said. “It turned out there was so much good usable greywater being sent right back to the sewer system.” With the installation complete, Lauer’s home became the site of the first legally permitted greywater system in Santa Monica. This system was developed by Tomas Sapilla and his father Jonas Sapilla, who install sand hydroponics on residential and commercial properties through their company ECS. Sand hydroponic systems reduce significant amounts of water by combining innovative infrastructure with the ingenious natural properties of sand, plants and gravity. Water from rainwater spouts, greywater or other sources is mixed with nutrients and piped into a series of underground holding plastic troughs that are placed upside down. The sides of the troughs are lined with holes to allow SEE LAWN PAGE 6
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