SEMO to host High School Honor Band Festival next week

Band students from Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky will participate in the High School Honor Band Festival on Monday, Feb. 27, at Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus.

Band directors from 34 high schools nominated their students, and 200 were selected by members of SEMO's Music Department. The students will be split into two 100 member bands. Students will rehearse music in the morning, attend master classes in the afternoon, and the two honor bands will give a performances at 7 p.m. in Bedell Performance Hall. The evening will conclude with a performance by Southeast Wind Symphony.

The event is free, but seats are first-come, first-served; and Jim Daughters, SEMO's director of bands, said there was a standing-room-only crowd last year.

"A lot of the students' parents will be there," Daughters said. "It's a pretty big event."

Daughters said the festival is a big recruiting event for SEMO. He said last year's Honor Band Festival "helped make up the minds of several of students."

"But more importantly, it's a chance for us to connect with a lot of high school kids around the region," Daughters said. "Not just Missouri kids, but Illinois and Kentucky kids, too."

Daughters will be conducting one of the Honor Bands, and he said they will have the students work on music they haven't seen before, but pieces they should find fun to play.

He said the festival is not only beneficial to the high school students but to SEMO's students, as well.

"The whole event is so educational," Daughters said. "And it's really nice for our SEMO students to see what music education looks like."

He said SEMO's band students get a chance to "get their feet wet" and "shine" as they manage the bands and organize and run the event.

The high school band directors also participate in the festival. Daughters said they will have opportunities to meet and interact with each other as well as members of SEMO's Music Department.

"It's good for them to socialize and touch base with each other and figure out what each of them are doing and learn from each other," Daughters said. "This is a chance for them to say 'Hey, what can I do to better prepare my students to come to college?' We try to build in some instructional time that the band directors can ask questions and get some feedback on the things that they're doing, too. It's just a good fellowship day."