About a month after the nerve racking All-District Band auditions, three bands in Northwest Missouri performed last Saturday to a near-full theater.
Thomas Brockman, the lead band director at Smithville and NWMMEA president said, “All-District is an honor band that represents our top players in the Northwest region. Students go in and audition on a set of material and they are selected via their performance in the audition and if you make this group you are doing very well and you’re also one of the top players in Northwest Missouri.”
The NWMMEA or Northwest Missouri Music Educators Association holds audition events for high school and middle school band students on the first Saturday of November annually.
”I think it’s a good event. The music in Middle School is somewhat challenging, but in High School, the music that is to be prepared is much more
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Smithville recently had Kyle Holt, Michael Fletcher, Amberly Langford, and Colton James placed in honorable mention (playing Jazz Drum Set, Tuba, Clarinet, and Tenor Saxophone,respectively) and we had Greta Zolynas (Alto Saxophone) place 2nd chair!
On the second Saturday of December, all three bands (Middle School,High School, and High School Honor) took part in an all-day clinic with three special guest directors. This year’s directors were Dr. Nathan Rinnert, Marvin Manring and Ky Hascall.
“We’ve tried to hire directors, who are, for a lack of a better word, prestigious, collegiate, and or directors that are also composers that have separated themselves, as not only great music educators, but great conductors. It 's always our goal to select people outside of the box and the state. Just different people from all around that give our students a chance to rehearse and play with somebody