West Iron County concert celebrates Star Wars Day with student musicians

The West Iron County Music Department turned its spring concert into a schoolwide Star Wars Day gathering at The Windsor Center in Iron River, where students in grades 7 through 12 took the stage at 6 p.m. for an evening built around familiar music, local pride and a full-house finale.

The concert, titled May the 4th Be With You, gave the district’s younger players the first spotlight. The middle school band opened with Starsplitter Fanfare, Dark Star and Dark Adventure, selections that matched the space-themed program while giving students a chance to show timing, tone and ensemble discipline. The middle school orchestra followed with Storm, Dark Magic and Beyond the Thunder, adding a darker, more dramatic thread to the program.

The night’s biggest crowd moment came at the end, when every music student in grades 7 through 12 joined together for the main theme from Star Wars. That finale tied the concert back to the Star Wars Day theme and brought the district’s youngest and oldest musicians into one shared performance, a rare crossover that turned a routine spring concert into a visible statement of how much of the school’s music program has been built on participation across grade levels.

The high school symphony closed the program with a broader cinematic set that included The Hanging Tree, music from Game of Thrones, themes from The Mandalorian, Warrior Legacy and Would You Fall in Love with Me Again. The lineup gave the evening a pops-style feel, with selections that reached beyond a single franchise while still keeping the focus on crowd-friendly music that could pull in students, parents and grandparents alike.

The concert also carried an important milestone for the district. It included a special senior recognition for graduating musicians and honored Tammie Carr as she marked her 30th year teaching in the district. Carr’s name has become closely tied to West Iron County’s music program, which has recently included Solo and Ensemble participation and a cultural and educational trip to Canada during the 2024-25 school year.

The setting added its own weight to the night. The Windsor Center’s restored 550-seat auditorium sits in the former Iron River Public Schools building, which was constructed in 1928. West Iron County Public Schools moved out of the building in June 2009 because of declining enrollment and budget constraints, and the site now serves as a community and recreation center for the district that spans more than 560 square miles in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.