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Steamboat Springs — For the past 1 1/2 months, about 30 students from Routt and Moffat counties have been getting ready for their main stage debut.

On May 15, hours of rehearsing will end in a performance of George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" at the Strings Music Pavilion - professional pianist Alpin Hong and Moffat County High School clarinetist Sarah Bolton are featured soloists.

"They're excited," John Bolton, band director at MCHS, said about the ensemble members. "It's a hard piece of music, and they've been working on it. They've really enjoyed Mr. Hong's performance here, and they're really excited to be able to play a piece of this caliber with him."

Hong has toured Northwest Colorado schools with his "Movies to Games, Classically Trained" program during the past two winters as part of Strings Music Festival's youth outreach program. During a tour of Yampa Valley schools in January, he suggested tapping local musicians for a concert.

"These kids are the future audience, and I think this would be a good way to feature as many of them as possible," Hong said during his tour here in January. "This is the audience of the future, and if we don't invest in the audience of the future, then we're just going to be playing with ourselves."

More than 225 students will work with Hong on music that crosses the line between classical tradition and pop culture - choirs, orchestras and bands from Steamboat Springs, South Routt County and Moffat County will take part in a series of workshops at the Strings Music Pavilion on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Strings has been doing youth outreach concerts in local schools for about 10 years, said Jennifer Shea, marketing and development director for the organization. Most of those programs have been geared toward young listeners.

"This program was conceived as a way to reach other students - not just the music students, but as a way to reach the whole student body," Shea said. Bringing Hong into the schools was a chance to reach an older audience that shares some of his interests, she said.

"He's a snowboarder, a skateboarder; he's very energetic, and in his programs he's able to link together how moods are created with classical music, movie music and video game music," she said.

Bolton said he hopes the collaboration between his music students and Steamboat bands will continue. The "Rhapsody in Blue" performance offers young musicians a chance to break the high school band mold, he said.

"It's just fresh to get out of that and play hard and do a good job and strive for something more than we get in a general band experience," he said.