Seven students recently represented De Soto High School at the State Kansas Music Educator Association festival in Wichita. Five students attended the festival for the band portion of the event, two attended it for middle-level choir.

Seniors Rhiannon Caldwell, Emily Churchwell and Maria Pileski, junior Madison Kerr and sophomore Connor Kennard were chosen in the band. Freshmen Emily Everson and Rex Templin were the only ones to represent DHS choir.

Pileski and Churchwell played the flute at the band event, with Churchwell getting first chair in her section. Caldwell attended the competition for piccolo while Kerr attended  for clarinet. Kennard was a part of the percussion section for snare drum.

Templin and Everson attended the event for the choir portion of the KMEA festival. Templin is a bass and Everson was an alto.

To qualify for this event, band participants had to audition last fall in order to make the district band. By making district this allowed them the chance to audition for the state band later on. Choir members only audition once for both regionals and state.

After finding out if the participating members had made it, they received their songs and parts that they were expected to perform at the event.

In Wichita, the band and choir members rehearsed for hours in the convention center. At the end of the week, the students had a concert for music educators.

Unfortunately, the event had some run-ins with the weather this year. DHS students were forced to leave a day earlier than they have originally planned.

“To get to the place where we were rehearsing, we had to go across the street, in the snow, in the cold, in the freezing weather,” Kerr said. “We made that trip eight times.”

There were many schools that had troubles showing up to the event because of the weather. The show must go on, however, and the concert was still and enjoyable experience.

“It was a lot of fun. The exhibits were really interesting, all the music shops around the state came,” Templin said.

Churchwell, who is considering being a music major in college, believes that this event will help her get accepted into music programs due to the excellent reputation of KMEA.

“I love music and I like to play with other people,” Churchwell said about attending the event.

While at the event, Churchwell and Caldwell were given medals to honor their participation in state band all three years. They were the only ones out of the De Soto’s group to receive this honor.

With all of these honors the students in the music education department are very proud of all they have accomplished.