Small schools, big music: County schools well-represented at KMEA event
When the Kansas Music Educators Association in-service workshop starts this week in Wichita, you can be sure of two things.
No. 1: Some of the state's best musicians will be there.
No. 2: Marion County will have a big part.
Several local musical groups will be performing this Friday and Saturday at the workshop. And a glance at the schedule shows that besides the Wichita and Kansas City areas, Marion County has some of the most groups at the workshop.
Start with the bands. Nine schools have been invited to perform with their own bands. Four of those are colleges: Wichita State, Kansas State, and Washburn. Two of those are middle schools. Just three are high schools — and one of those high schools is Goessel.
Who are those other two high school bands? Olathe and Blue Valley, both large 6A schools from the Kansas City area.
This is the first time the Goessel band has ever been selected to play at the KMEA workshop, according to band director Bud Meisel.
It's unusual for a school of Goessel's size to be selected too, he said. Usually 6A schools are chosen, not 1A schools.
"You feel honored that your kids did so well," Meisel said.
Meisel's students are happy to be playing, but they're also a little nervous, he said. They will play in the impressive Century II concert hall in front of musicians from across the state.
"We'll show them what a 1A school can do," Meisel said.
The 52-member Goessel band will play at 8 a.m. at the Century II concert hall. The group will perform "Semper Liberi" by Robert W. Smith, "Life Dances" by William Himes, and "Russian Christmas Music" by Alfred Reed.
On the choral side of things, Marion County has even more representation.
If it wasn't enough for Goessel to have its band chosen to play, Goessel's choir was also picked to perform.
The Goessel High School choir will sing on Friday at 11:15 a.m. at the Century II MJT Little Theatre. Some of its selections will include Distler's "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty," Orban's "Daemon Irrepit Callidus," and Robert Young's "Echo." The choir will perform, and then the school's Elbiata Singers will also perform several numbers as an ensemble.
Goessel joins two other high schools chosen to perform: Topeka High School and Marion High School. Yes, even more representation comes from the MHS Singers, who are set to perform Saturday morning at 8:30.
Goessel's choir was the only large-group high school choir selected this year. All other high school choral groups were small groups or ensembles.
The Tabor College concert choir will join Wichita State and Bethel as the only three colleges chosen to perform. Tabor is set to sing at 2:45 Friday afternoon.
Several county students were also selected individually to join several KMEA groups.
Goessel's Kelcy Voth will be the No.1 trumpet player in the state band, and GHS's John Wiens will sing in the tenor section of the state choir. In the state orchestra, Marion's Justin Brookens will be the No.1 trumpet, with Goessel's Ben Goering as an alternate for the snare drum.
