Sophomore Jaycie Thaemert began playing the flute when she was in fourth grade and has been dedicated to it ever since. For seven years Thaemert has been practicing hard to get to become one of the best flute players in the state and all of her hard work is paying off.

“In elementary school we had a band and I wanted to play in it. I thought the flute was cool so I decided to try it out and then I just stuck with it,” Thaemert said.

Thaemert has accomplished much more musically than what a typical underclassman would do. As a sophomore she is first chair in the symphonic band, a band that is typically dominated by upperclassmen, made the Northeast District KMEA honor band, the State KMEA honor band and has also competed at the State solo and ensemble festival. Each honor band and competition that she has played for is extremely competitive. All of these accomplishments are a very big deal for anyone in general, but even more so for an underclassman.

One does not achieve all of these things just by sitting around and hoping for the best though. Thaemert spends a lot of time practicing on her own and taking private lessons. Her private lessons allow her to gain more individualized attention on her skills and to help improve her musical abilities.

“The worst part [of playing the flute] is probably practicing because you have to do a lot of it to get good at it, but it really helps improve  everything,” Thaemert said.
Even though it takes time, patience and lots of practice to achieve high level skills of music, Thaemert would not change any of it. She loves to play the flute and enjoys every minute of it.

“My favorite thing [about playing the flute] is making music for people to hear because the flute is truly a beautiful instrument,” Thaemert said.