Merrimack Valley High School senior Alison Lamontagne’s first foray into New Hampshire’s All-State Music Festival came not as a trumpeter, but rather as a vocalist.

“When I was in eighth grade, I was approached by my band director and he heard me sing a solo at a concert, and he said that I should really consider auditioning for something called All-State,” Lamontagne said.

At the time, Lamontagne hardly knew what the statewide music competition was. However, she dutifully followed her director’s advice and qualified to sing in the spring festival as a high school freshman.

The director, Mike Livernois, wasn’t done, though.

Lamontagne, who grew up in a musical family in Webster, had picked up the trumpet in fifth grade. Although she had yet to take it especially seriously, Livernois saw potential.

“He kept pushing me and he encouraged me to start taking trumpet lessons,” Lamontagne said.

As a freshman, she connected with James Boccia, the band director of Pinkerton Academy, who also moonlights as a private trumpet instructor.

Like Livernois, Boccia recognized quickly that Lamontagne had natural talent.

“Musically she had excellent ears,” Boccia said. “You need to be able to hear the pitch that you’re playing and the one that you’re moving to and her strong vocal background was able to help her a lot with that.”

Boccia also observed Lamontagne had a stronger work ethic than many high school musicians. Each lesson, the instructor would assign homework, and Lamontagne completed it each week.

“She just progressed very, very quickly,” Boccia recalled.

So quickly in fact that by sophomore year Lamontagne qualified for the All-State festival in trumpet.

As she became more adept at trumpet, Lamontagne also began to branch out to jazz, a style that requires improvisation and can challenge even seasoned musicians.

“It’s like a whole different language,” she said. “It’s kind of hard sometimes to switch back and forth quickly because you try to have it pretty ingrained for both.”

By junior year though, Lamontagne had mastered both the classical and jazz styles. At the All-State auditions last fall, she placed first in the state in both disciplines, an accomplishment that felt both thrilling and intimidating.

“It was exciting – definitely an honor,” she said. “It did feel a little scary because it kind of seemed like maybe a title that I had to live up to with my playing.”

But live up to it, she did: In the fall, as a senior, Lamontagne replicated her junior year performance, receiving top scores in both the classical and jazz auditions.

In an era of increased specialization, Lamontagne is the rare high school star who has maintained a breadth of activities even as she has ascended to being one of the top high school trumpeters in the state.

On any given weekday, you can find her in rehearsals for Merrimack Valley High’s concert, marching, or jazz bands, or for its vocal ensemble or musical theater productions. This spring, in addition to participating in the All-State Music Festival, she will act in the musical Into the Woods.

Next year, Lamontagne plans to pursue a college degree in music education. She hopes to ultimately become a high school music teacher or band director.

“High school is at least for me where I learned that I really wanted to be serious about music and it was because of the support that I got from my directors,” Lamontagne said. “So I just think it’s cool to be able to influence other people that way and help them figure out if music is something that they want to continue with.”

Jeremy Margolis can be contacted at jmargolis@cmonitor.com.