Olathe North High School wind ensemble heads to prestigious national festival

It’s a snowy Monday morning in February following a five-day break from school when students in Justin Love’s Wind Ensemble class at Olathe North High School file into the band room.

On any other morning, coming back from having several days off might mean these students would be moving a little slower. But that’s not the case today. There’s simply no time for that.

In just a few short weeks, this group of 56 students — chosen for the class through an audition process — will be giving the performance of their lives. The ensemble group has been invited to perform at the prestigious Music for All National Festival in Indianapolis, which runs Thursday through Saturday.

So on this day, students are quickly coming into the room, dropping their backpacks and setting up their instruments with extreme efficiency while they chat with their friends sitting nearby. The chatter abruptly comes to a halt when Love takes his place at the front of the room.

“Good morning,” welcomes Love. “We have lots to do.”

That’s a bit of an understatement by the band director who will be guiding these students through the intense preparation required to take part in a highly regarded festival like Music for All, which is a group that promotes music education around the country.

The Olathe North group has much to accomplish in a short amount of time, so that means making the most of every precious moment in class. The students will play four pieces of music during their 30-minute concert Friday at Butler University in Indianapolis.

So for Love and his students, the pressure is on.

“We’ve picked a very challenging program,” Love said in an interview. “It’s a neat opportunity to expose the kids to new music and to push them. A lot of the pressure is self-imposed. We want to deliver a performance that we walk away from feeling very satisfied.”

For Love, that means holding his students to a high standard.

“Mr. Love is pushing us very hard and we are moving at a very fast pace; much faster than in the past,” said senior David Nelson, who plays the euphonium.

Love is working hard to keep his students focused on giving their best performance.

“You’re struggling there, flutes,” Love announces to his class. “One, two, one, two, ready,” Love instructs the students as he waves his baton.

It’s no wonder Love wants his students to bring their A game. It took a lot of effort to get to this point. Olathe North’s Wind Ensemble was chosen to perform at the Music for All National Festival through an application process that saw more than 60 music ensembles from across the country apply for consideration.

Olathe North was one of 45 ensembles chosen to perform. The group also enjoys another special distinction.

“In the state of Kansas we are only the second group to receive an invitation in the history of the music festival,” said Love.

Now in its 24th year, the Music for All National Festival is a music festival made up of five categories of performances. They are the National Concert Band Festival, Middle School National Music Festival, Sandy Feldstein National Percussion Festival, Orchestra America Festival and the Chamber Music National Festival.

Olathe North will perform at the National Concert Band Festival. It’s made up of featured bands that perform for 45 minutes and invited bands that perform for 30 minutes. Olathe North is an invited band. This year, there are a total of 22 featured and invited bands performing as part of the National Concert Band Festival.

To be chosen to participate in the Music for All National Festival, ensembles had to submit audio recordings of their group performing. Then, last summer, professionals in the music education field sat down and did a blind audition of the schools, listening to their recordings without knowing which school was which.

Erin Fortune is the senior marketing coordinator with the Music for All organization. She said getting chosen to perform at the Indianapolis festival is often a career highlight for most high school band programs.

“The Music for All National Festival is known as the epitome of the national band festivals,” Fortune said. “Just to have the opportunity for these ensembles to come together and share their love of music is something very special. And it’s an opportunity to have your group on a national stage.”

Unlike other music festivals, Music for All is not a competition. Instead, it’s an opportunity to perform in front of other ensemble groups from across the country and to receive feedback from professionals in the music education industry. All ensembles will receive a critique from an industry professional as well as the chance to attend master classes geared toward their particular instrument.

“After performing, they get a one-on-one clinic with one of the evaluators,” Fortune said. “One of the evaluators who was watching their performance goes into a room with all of the performers and gives them tips on what they can do better and what the evaluator saw during the performance. They tell them what they did really great and then they give them ideas on how to make it 10 times better.”

The chance to grow as a musician is especially exciting for many of the band students at Olathe North High School.

“We get to learn from people who are at the top of the music world,” said junior Hannah Greer, who plays the flute. “And there will be some really top groups there performing, so we can learn from them and enjoy being around people with the same interest as us.”

“I’m really looking forward to performing on such a high level with other strong bands and to see what they can do,” junior alto saxophonist Jordan Hulet said.

Over in Missouri at Grain Valley High School, strong performances are also on the mind of percussion director and associate band director David Gronneberg.

“Mr. G,” as the students call him, is preparing to take his percussion ensemble to perform in the Sandy Feldstein National Percussion Festival at the Music for All National Festival. Eleven ensembles will be performing at the percussion festival.

Gronneberg’s small group of 13 students beat out other applicants from across the country to earn an invitation to the national festival. Twelve students will make the trip to Indianapolis. (The 13th student will be traveling with her school choir to Walt Disney World during this time.) His group is the first percussion ensemble from Missouri to ever play at a national percussion festival.

Now he’s working hard to make sure his students can deliver a performance worthy of a national stage.

“Normally, our ensemble has about eight minutes of percussion music that we know and would play for state music festivals this time of year,” Gronneberg said. “But for the national percussion festival, we need to be playing 25 minutes of music. That’s three times as much to prepare for in the same amount of time.”

If Gronneberg is feeling the pressure, you could never tell by talking with him. He has a surprisingly calm presence even with the extra workload. That’s especially amazing given the fact that he became a first-time father just a few weeks ago when his daughter was born eight weeks early. So for now, he’s splitting his time between extra percussion practices and visits to see her in the hospital.

“That makes my time more important,” Gronneberg said. “I use my time more efficiently. A lot of preparation has to be done on my end.”

His students especially appreciate his calm demeanor.

“He is fairly relaxed because he knows we will get it done,” said senior percussionist Kelsey Bloom. “While he is urgent, he is still laid back. We still have fun at rehearsal.”

That fun often includes Gronneberg cracking a joke to keep his students from feeling the pressure a bit too much.

“He will purposely tell a joke just to lighten up the mood,” said freshman percussionist Brian Jones. “So he’s purposely trying to keep it a little loose so that we are not stressed out because it’s a lot of music that we have to learn. And then after joking around, we get focused immediately.”

For Gronneberg’s students, learning extra music requires adding a couple of evening practices to their regular schedule. It also means students are carrying an extra practice load at home as well.

“We do a lot of preparation on our own time so that when we come together we try to balance everything out,” said sophomore percussionist Helen Putman. “I personally rehearse a few extra hours a week.”

Students from both Olathe North High School and Grain Valley High School have put their hearts and souls into preparing for the Music for All National Festival, whether it came from the extra hours of practice or the extra hours of fundraising they have put in.

For Olathe North High School students, fundraising came in the form of unique opportunities like working a mattress sale at the school. Students worked with a fundraising company that actually set up a mattress showroom at Olathe North High School.

Then there was the Practice-O-Thon, where students sent out letters asking for sponsors. In exchange, students kept track of their practice time for a two-week period and received donations based on their practice time. Students at Olathe North were responsible for raising about $200 apiece for the trip to the Music for All National Festival.

At Grain Valley High School, students had to come up with about $300 each for the trip. Students helped raise the money by selling raffle tickets as part of their Great Giveaway raffle, which included a weeklong stay at a condo in Hawaii donated by a parent.

Both ensembles from Olathe North High School and Grain Valley High School were fortunate to have help from their schools to offset the cost of the trip and reduce the amount that students had to raise on their own.

But despite all of the extra work, students aren’t complaining because they know they are gearing up for an experience they may never get again.

“I’m looking forward to the experience and meeting fellow percussionists that also fall under this elite group,” said Grain Valley High School sophomore percussionist Dylan Gunderson.

“I like that it’s not a win-or-lose situation,” said Olathe North senior clarinet player Carolyn Wing. “Whatever happens, we walk out better than we were before.

“It’s a win-win.”

This story was originally published March 10, 2015 at 4:06 PM with the headline "Olathe North High School wind ensemble heads to prestigious national festival."