Wind Ensemble goes to KMEA

The Road To KMEA

Wind Ensemble Represents the Falcons in Wichita

The Wind Ensemble traveled to Wichita, Kansas on February 28 to participate in the esteemed Kansas Music Educators Association (KMEA) festival. “We submitted some songs last year, then we got chosen for this year,” senior Mitchell Reno said. “[And] ever since marching band, we have been working on this music.” Pieces as challenging as these require an extended amount of attention, which is why the ensemble started work on their set list in November. They prepared five pieces for this prestigious event: Traveling the Three Trails (Turning West Towards Olathe) by Richard Saucedo, Afterlife by Rossano Galante, Panhandle Prelude by Jack Stamp, Four Scottish Dances by Malcom Arnold and arranged by John P. Painter, and they ended with Exultation by Philip Sparke. Traveling the Three Trails (Turning West Towards Olathe) was commissioned in a joint project with Frontier Trail Middle School and Olathe Northwest High School. The United Sound, a program that was created to involve special education students with music, was also involved in this project as they traveled to Wichita to play the piece with the Wind Ensemble. The Falcon bands are the first in Kansas to adopt the program, followed by Northwest. Preparing for this prestigious event was no easy feat. Freshman Susan Bilderback is experiencing not only her first time going to KMEA but also her first year in high

school band. “The most challenging part is all the difficult pieces and all the pressure for everything to sound good,” Bilderback said. She also wants to be respectful to the band students that came before her. “I am worried about messing up all the work that everyone did last year,” Bilderback said. Sophomore Larissa Coughlin has also struggled with working the music up to perfection. “Four Scottish Dances [is] really hard to perfect,”

Coughlin said. Coughlin had many oboe solos in Four Scottish Dances and Afterlife. The Wind Ensemble participated in a send-off concert at Olathe Northwest on February 25. In the concert program notes, the ensemble revealed that the students and directors dedicated their piece, “Afterlife,” to the members of the Olathe South Falcon Bands family that they lost over the years. After KMEA, all of the Falcon Bands will be preparing for contest season.