The Goessel music department has 20 students who earned places in various statewide honor music ensembles this year.

Five GHS students were selected to the Kansas Music Educators Association (KMEA) statewide honor band or choir, and a sixth was selected as an alternate for the band.

Seven eighth and ninth grade students were chosen to the KMEA All-State Middle Level Choir. Eight students in grades six and seven were selected as members of the Kansas Choral Directors Association (KCDA) State Treble Choir.

Each of the groups will perform during the annual KMEA in-service workshop Feb. 26-28 in Wichita.

Selection to the prestigious ensembles is by audition. High school students, auditions are live, in front of a panel of at least three judges.

More than 11,000 students started in the audition process, with 900 earning places on the honor ensembles.

It will be the third year in a row for senior Amy Brubaker to go to state.

KMEA statewide honor band members are Brubaker and Laura Unruh, clarinet; Michelle Unruh, bass clarinet; Neal Brubaker, trombone; and Kristen Hoffman, French horn alternate.

Chrystiana Voth, alto, is a member of the KMEA statewide honor choir.

KMEA All-State Middle Level Choir members are Aimee Flaming, Georgia Thiesen, and D’Ambra Kruger, soprano; Jeff Hall and Drake Sterk, bass; Davis Cook, tenor; and Alex Hiebert, alto.

KCDA State Treble Choir members are Kara Schumaker, Hannah Miller, Erin Brubaker, Sarah Booth, Makayla King, Gentry Thiesen, Dane Krugher, and Nate Bray.

Goessel music students are under the direction of elementary music teacher Marcia Brubaker, band director Mike Connell, and vocal director Greg Bontrager.

Bontrager is president-elect of KCDA. He was named outstanding high school musical educator for the south central KMEA district. He is a finalist for the KMEA Outstanding Music Educator of the Year award.