by Benjamin Chase
of the Plainsman
HURON –– The Miss South Dakota website has a counter on the front page, counting down the moments to the end of Huron native Jamee Kattner’s time with the crown. With just four weeks left in her reign, Kattner’s looking toward her next chapter, but not before she follows in the footsteps of her grandmother in coordinating Huron’s celebration of the National Federated Music Clubs’ National Music Week, May 3-9.
Kattner’s grandmother, Barb Valer, was the driving force behind the Huron activities for National Music Week before her passing last November, and now Jamee is able to continue her legacy, passing on this year’s theme, “Music is our constant companion”.
During her time as Miss South Dakota, Kattner has performed music in dozens of venues, from packed arenas to senior home lobbies with a handful of people in attendance and everything in between to encourage her community service initiative, “Music’s power to inspire.”
“It has been really special,” Kattner reflected. The biggest part of what it’s given me is a new sense of these classic songs that I’ve been singing over and over in my life. “What I have noticed is that I have been more intentional in how I have used music,” she continued. “I pick different songs for where I’m going to make the most impact. If I’m going to a senior care facility and there is a memory care unit, I will purposefully pick songs from when the audience was young. Most of the time, you will see them tapping their feet or tapping their hands. You’ll even hear people singing who don’t typically speak.
“Those little moments like that at the beginning of my year changed my perspective from this is a job, yes, but what an amazing job to get to do!” She concluded, “So that’s what I’ve seen on myself – that switch from being very professional about music from my education, but I felt like I could use that knowledge to get back to that space where I was as a kid where I was singing because I loved it.”
Kattner reflected that she often uses music to reflect utilizing one’s gifts to their fullest, whatever those gifts may be.
“When I go to speak with high schoolers and middle schoolers, I encourage them to find what they do best and to share that with others,” she explained. “They’re asking me, ‘how do I become you?’ and I encourage them that it’s not about becoming me, but it’s about becoming the best you for you and the community.”
The year was not just spent performing music, though. Music was a present companion with Kattner as she did the most time-consuming part of her job as Miss South Dakota, travel from one engagement to the next.
“I traveled this entire state. I spend half my time in the car. Guess what’s playing in my car? Music!” she laughed.
“It can be the same songs. I can listen to the same songs over and over. I feel that companionship with music that I’m familiar with and know well,” Kattner remarked. “It’s kind of kept me sane this year, to get into that car space, turn on the radio and drive.”
As she looks toward this week and what is going on in Huron, Kattner mentioned multiple recitals from instructors in town along with the high school music awards on Monday evening and the annual POPS concert on Thursday and Friday.
“The way the community has rallied around me this year has been great, but the community has rallied around National Music Week as well,” Kattner stated. “But I think my grandma was such a force for this week that people really want to keep it going in her memory, and people have been so willing to do what they can to help.”
While Kattner’s year-long job as Miss South Dakota ends at the end of the month, she has already lined up her next adventure, teaching music for elementary students in Mitchell. She will join a legacy of music educators in her family, with her grandmother and mother both working as educators and teaching music, and many in her family involved in music or teaching music as well who aren’t in the education field.
“Music class is one of those spaces where every kid who comes in can feel welcomed and can feel like they have a place in that room,” Kattner noted. “Any student who comes in at any ability level can enjoy it. That’s what I’m most looking forward to – having that space, but having it be MY space that I’m cultivating to allow music to find its way to them.”
“Music has had such an impact on my life,” she continued. “I want to enjoy those beginning experiences of music for children.”
She emphasized that her grandmother passed on to her that music is for everyone and should be accesible to everyone. “She would have taught everyone in town, if they were interested,” she laughed.
Reflecting on her grandmother, Kattner says that Barb embodied music as her constant companion.
“She would go out for a walk, and she’d hear the cicadas and the wind and the other noises in nature, and she’d just start waving her arms like she was conducting,” Kattner smiled. “We made fun of her for it sometimes, but that is exactly what this week is about – hearing that music around us and in us all the time.”
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