PHS musically gifted junior full of hope virus will pass

Meet Adam Mattson

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By Steven Law
Special to the Chronicle

PAGE – With the schools closed due to the coronavirus, Adam Mattson is staying at home, like everybody else. Many of his teachers have sent him lesson material to work on from home.


He’s also occupying his time by practicing his music, mainly his voice.


Mattson is in honors choir and a percussionist in the high school band. He also takes voice lessons from Lynda Nolan, and during the school closures Mattson and Nolan are communicating through internet video.


Mattson is a junior at Page High School, and this school year his musical abilities have really started to stand out and get noticed.


In February, Mattson was chosen to be a soloist at the 3A Northwest Regional Choir, and he delivered a very noteworthy performance.


“Being selected to be part of the regional choir is itself a very high accomplishment and being selected to be a soloist at the regional level even more so,” said Nancy Guymon, who taught Mattson in Honors Choir.


“He’s a very bright person,” Guymon said. “Besides having a great voice, he’s gifted in all musical aspects. He could have a promising musical career if he chooses to.  I’m hoping to see him continue in that direction.”
Mattson’s band teacher, David Johnson, agrees wholeheartedly with Guymon.


“He’s a percussionist in the band and one of my best,” Johnson said. “But he’s much more than a percussionist. He’s a very versatile musician. He has a great aptitude for music, and he can play just about any instrument or sing any music that’s put in front of him.”


The perfect example of that came last December at the Christmas concert.


“I needed a drummer,” Johnson said. “Adam had never played the piece before, but he looked over the music, sat down at the drums and played it near-perfectly on his first try.”


Mattson has shared his musical abilities on a few other occasions this year. He’s also part of an A Capella quartet, along with Calla Smith, Carlee Oman and Emily Kidman. The group, called the 21st Quartet, performed a beautiful, harmonized version of the National Anthem at one of this year’s high school basketball games.


Twenty-First Quartet was started by Calla Smith, who has sung the National Anthem in Navajo before Sand Devils basketball games numerous times this year.


Before the schools closed due to the coronavirus, Mattson was also cast to play “Sir Harry,” a narcissistic knight, in the high school’s spring performance of “Once Upon a Mattress."


Once Upon a Mattress is a retelling of the “Princess and the Pea” story. In the musical, Mattson has two duets singing with Emily Kidman.  


Once Upon a Mattress was scheduled to run in April. Mattson is still hopeful that the coronavirus will pass, and schools reopen, in time to move forward with the play. Lynda Nolan, and the cast of the musical are still preparing to perform the musical, as much as they can in isolation.


Mattson discovered his love for singing and choir quite by accident when he took a choir class in seventh grade. “I took the class because I needed to, but I ended up loving it and wanted to pursue it further,” he said.


When Mattson graduates in May and then goes to college, he plans to study musical theater, as well as biology or another science-related field. “I like science and grasp it pretty easily,” he said.

Mattson added he plans to continue with music, particularly musical theater, throughout his adult life.