Vistamar's Stick & Stones Concerts Benefit the Community

While many budding teen-age singers are dreaming of making it onto “American Idol” or “The Voice,” Chloe Katerndahl and Adrian Calderon took their considerable talents on a community service trip to Nicaragua.

The two Vistamar high school seniors who play blues, rock and roll and punk music with their band, The Stick & Stones, spent 10 days in the Central American country over their spring break. They are an inspiring story of young creative talent. Check them out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnDtZHRmucU.

All Vistamar students must complete 80 hours of community service by graduation. They are also required to take a year of fine or performing arts. Chloe and Adrian, an unlikely pairing, met in freshman music class – Adrian, a 17-year-old Hawthorne resident, is a classically trained pianist, and Chloe, a 17-year-old Manhattan Beach resident, is a tall, thin girl (the “stick”) with long blond hair and no formal music training.

An independent private high school located in El Segundo, Vistamar School provides an engaging academic program, emphasizing global perspectives (including four years of Mandarin Chinese and Heritage Spanish). Small class size creates a family feel and allows faculty to be involved with all their students. It’s the kind of campus where a classically trained musician can join together with a self-taught singer songwriter and generate an impressive array of music.

The Stick & Stones just finished recording eight songs for their debut album. As winners of the 2011 House of Blues Student Battle of the Bands contest (see their performance at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATqLkbZkV80&feature=player_embedded), they were awarded 12 hours of recording time at a music studio in Santa Monica. See http://www.facebook.com/thestickandstones.

It all started in that first music class.

“I’d always loved to sing but it wasn’t until I started thinking of my voice as an instrument that I gained control over it,” Chloe explains.

Adrian started playing piano at age 6 and spent seven years taking lessons at the Colburn Performing Arts School.

He helps Chloe with scales and music theory. “She’s not the most technical on the guitar, but is a great songwriter and has an awesome voice, really putting the emotion, and meaning into the lyrics,” says Adrian.

They have put together many benefit shows around town, asking people to donate canned food or clothes for the homeless. Last week they made a huge pot of chili from the beans they collected from a recent show, and dished up hot bowls to the homeless population in downtown L.A. They also handed out clothes to grateful individuals.

Chloe’s senior project is a documentary about the benefit shows, and Adrian’s is to teach music to schoolchildren in Costa Rica, where he has family. Both Adrian and Chloe are planning on college and pursuing their music. Adrian will attend the classical music program at St. Olaf in Minnesota, and Chloe will attend the songwriting program at Belmont University in Nashville.

“Fame is not my goal,” says Chloe, “inspiring others with music is my mission.”

The Stick & Stones will be performing this Saturday, May 19, at 5 p.m., for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life® fundraiser on the Mira Costa High School football field.

When Adrian returns from his senior trip to Costa Rica, he and Chloe and The Stick & Stones will continue their benefit concerts in various venues around town, until the two accomplished musicians depart in the fall to each pursue their freshmen year of college and prepare to set the rest of the world on fire with their music.