Sharing the arts: Moses Lake couple spreads love of music, theater in hometown
Michael and Emily Duvall smile together in the front yard of their home outside Moses Lake on Monday evening.
Casey McCarthy/Columbia Basin Herald
Michael Duvall plays the piano inside his living room at home in Moses Lake on Monday evening.
Michael Duvall holds up a ukulele, singing "My dog has fleas" as he teaches his music students at North Elementary School on Tuesday about the ukulele.
Michael Duvall walks around his classroom at North Elementary School on Tuesday morning during ukulele lessons in his music class.
Emily Duvall smiles watching her husband Michael Duvall play her a tune on his ukulele in their living room outside of Moses Lake on Monday evening.
MOSES LAKE — Emily and Michael Duvall found their passion for the arts, music and theater growing up in Moses Lake. Since coming back after college, the couple has become active in sharing that passion for the arts with the next generation.
Michael Duvall is an elementary music teacher at North Elementary School in Moses Lake and gives voice lessons on the side. Emily Duvall has been active with Basin Community Theatre since 2012 and has helped with some of the Moses Lake High School drama productions in recent years.
The couple met in school at a young age and were friends for a long time. While Emily Duvall was home from a mission in Brazil in 2012 and Michael was home from studying music at Brigham Young University-Idaho for student teaching, the pair decided to try being more than friends. The Duvalls were married in 2013.
Now that they’re back in town, they’ve found themselves in the mix of the arts and theater community that helped spark their own interests at a young age.
“It kind of feels good to give back to the people who gave to us,” Emily Duvall said. “I’m just thankful we can be that influence like we had as a kid. Mike’s a rare breed. He knew what he wanted to do in high school and made it happen.”
Michael Duvall said he took choir classes in school because it was just something he felt comfortable doing. In high school, he said he started to look forward to choir class more and more.
He met a lot of his friends in that class and had a lot of fun just singing songs, something he gets to do every day now as a teacher. He said it’s been a fun experience moving from performing with choirs in school to teaching students.
“It’s so fun to bring music to the young kids that I teach, and it’s pretty awesome because I get to work with the other elementary teachers like Melody Evenson who was my elementary teacher. Now, she’s my colleague and we talk about lessons and what we do to teach.”
Emily Duvall said she wasn’t a “sporty person” in high school and decided to find something she excelled at. In the arts community, she said she found people who lifted her up, encouraged her, which was key. She said it’s been a blessing to continue to perform.
She’s done musicals with Basin Community Theatre every year since becoming involved in 2012. She’s volunteered with the Moses Lake High School drama program for a few productions, including “Grease” and “Footloose,” and hopes to continue working with them.
Since the pandemic, Emily Duvall said she’s fed her entertainment bug through TikTok videos she’s made. She said she’s readying for rehearsals with her jazz band “Swing Shift” this month and hopes to perform this summer.
“We need the arts, we need those things, they help us through life,” Emily Duvall said. “They put a mirror up in front of our faces and help us understand things better and see how things are that are hard for us to see.”
The arts offer an escape that helps people better understand one another, she said. She also mentioned she heard a saying that people can’t be upset with one another when they’re rhythmically in sync.
With a choir, she said every part has to be in sync. It’s that team effort to create something beautiful that makes the arts special, Emily Duvall said.
Emily Duvall said small towns like Moses Lake need artists, too, and not everyone has to run off to Nashville or Los Angeles to capture that dream. She said there’s a lot of fulfillment in blossoming where you were planted as a performer.
She said she’d love to see Moses Lake have more venues for live performances because she believes people underestimate just how much talent there is in this small Washington town.
“Every time we do a show, we’re always blown away by people that show up like, ‘Where have you been all our lives?’” Emily Duvall said. “I hope to one day have our own theater in town, like Soap Lake has Masquers. I think we have the talent to fill that stage with and I think we have the people that want to see that happen.”
Until then, the couple will continue to perform and share their love for the arts with the community, hopefully inspiring the next generation to follow in their footsteps.
