December 2024
Happy Holidays Kansas Music Educators! I trust that you have had a fulfilling semester sharing the joy of music with all of your students. We are diligently planning the 2025 KMEA In-Service Workshop. February 27-March 1 we will all be together in Wichita at Century II to grow and learn and reconnect. The ISW will feature 44 Kansas music groups who were selected to perform. Over 100 clinic sessions will be offered for professional development. Special guests include Southwest Division President, Martha Gabel, Missouri past president and state mentor chair, Chris Sprague, Dr. James Weaver, NFHS, as well as Greg Gilpin, sponsored by Shawnee Press/Hal Leonard, and Peter Boonshaft, sponsored by Alfred. On Thursday at 8:30, the President's Concert will feature Amadeus, an electric string quartet from Romania.The Board meeting will be Wednesday at 6:00 PM in the Hyatt ballrooms and include dinner. All-State registration will be 9-10 on Thursday, with all rehearsals starting at 10:00. Remember, high school All-States will be served a box lunch on Thursday. Opening session is at 10:30, with the keynote by Martha Gabel. A reception in the lobby will follow, and then clinics and concerts will begin at noon. I encourage you to invite your administrators, who can register for free. I also encourage you to register your Tri-M students, who will get to meet the members of Amadeus. If you have students who are interested in music education but are not a member of Tri-M or an All-State group, they can also register for free.
In-Service Workshop Concerts
Thursday, February 27
All-State Elementary Choir - 5:00, Emily Howe
President's Concert: AMADEUS - 8:30
Friday, February 28
KCDA Treble Choir - 5:05, Ryan Main
All-State Middle Level Choir - 5:35, Joshua Pedde
Kansas Intercollegiate Orchestra - 8:00
Saturday, March 1
String Orchestra Matthew Forte and Full Orchestra Sharon Lavery - 10:30
Treble Choir Joshua Palkki and Mixed Choir Eric Nelson - 11:30
Jazz Band - 12:00 pm Kevin Cerovich
12A Honor Band - 1:00 pm Capt. Shanti Simon
56A Band - 5:00 pm Capt. Darren Lin
1234A Band - 3:00 pm Robert Sheldon
Elementary room clinicians are Matthew Stensrud and Kathy Kuddes. We have added 20 more voices to the Elementary and ML All State choirs for 2025 to provide an opportunity for this wonderful experience to even more young students.
Our mentoring team, Elise Peterson, Cindy Blagg and Sean Boller have several events planned for our new teachers. If you are a new teacher and want to get connected, please fill out the contact form on the mentoring network page of our website. https://ksmea.org/mentoring/
Keaton Alexander, senior at KU, is serving as the president of Collegiate NAfME. He will be presenting a session and will be hosting the CNAfME luncheon in the balcony of the Expo Hall. Many scholarships will be awarded at the luncheon, so students, be sure to check those out and apply.
We are excited to be launching a new job portal on our website for our collegiates and other members to connect with future employers. School districts will be able to list job openings, and members will be able to create a profile, including the type of job they are looking for. They will be notified when there is a job posting that matches their criteria.
Our new Small Schools Help Hotline is open. You can find that big red button on the homepage of your district websites. Many thanks to Vesta Jo Still and Angela Wilczeck, our Small School Chairs for getting this up and running. Don't be afraid to reach out for help when you need it.
Mary Jo Harper is our new Recruitment and Retention Chair. She will be presenting a session at ISW on ways to bridge our elementary students, Tri-M members, Collegiates and mentors to recruit them into the profession and keep them there.
Thank you to KBA for their work on the new instrumental audition materials. You can find the excerpts on https://ksmea.org/excerpts-repertoire/ Congratulations to all of your students who were selected to their respective District events! Our Instrumental Live Auditions will be at Salina Central High School on January 11.
The following KSHSAA changes are in effect for this year: Regional and State Piano Festivals will be using the new Piano Rubric, and small ensembles can now include published duet music.
- 1A and 2A schools may perform band duets on two unlike wind instruments or two unlike percussion instruments, but not a combination of a wind instrument and a percussion instrument.
- 3A, 4A, 5A and 6A schools may perform band duets within their family of instruments: two woodwinds, two brass, or two percussion instruments.
- All schools may perform string duets in any combination of the following two instruments: violin, viola, cello, string bass, harp.
We are pleased to welcome our new editor, Dr. Emily Rossin. She is looking for articles from our Kansas teachers. We want to showcase our "home grown" talent, so share your successes in our KMR.
The Jeff Jordan Composition Competition winners have been selected for ISW 2025 and will be announced at the Opening Session. Encourage your students to submit by May 19, 2025, for the 2026 ISW at https://ksmea.org/composition/
I encourage each of you to stay engaged, share your experiences, and continue to inspire your students to reach new heights. The collective strength of our association lies in the dedication and passion of each of you. Our voices, when united, can create lasting changes that will benefit not only our students but the broader community as well.
