Musicians from Free State and Lawrence High will be well represented at the 2017 Kansas Music Educators Association All-State High School orchestra, band and choir concerts in Wichita.

Lawrence will be well represented at this month’s Kansas Music Educators Association All-State High School orchestra, band and choir concerts in Wichita.

Judy Erpelding is sending two of her students (with another waiting in the wings as an alternate) to this year’s All-State orchestra concert, slated for Feb. 25 at Wichita’s Century II Convention Center. It’s a huge honor, she said for the young musicians, who had to first audition successfully for a spot on the competitive northeast district orchestra — which includes dozens of high schools across 14 Kansas counties — in order to advance to All-State auditions.

“Getting in that group makes them, in my eyes, one of the top 100 players in the state of Kansas,” said Erpelding, now in her fifth year as orchestra director at Free State. This year, she had somewhere around a dozen selected for the all-district orchestra — a record number at Free State, Erpelding said.

For her students, an All-State designation is more than just a resume-builder. It’s a chance to develop real-world experience. They’ve been practicing their audition excerpts since May, devoting “hours and hours and hours” toward the ultimate goal of a spot on the All-State ensemble, Erpelding said. “These kids,” she said, “work at a professional level.”

“For them, it’s going to be the best orchestra they’ve ever played in, working under a conductor that is probably the best that they’ve ever had the privilege to sit with and perform with,” Erpelding said. “First and foremost, they’re going to grow as musicians exponentially and get an experience that cannot be duplicated at their age. It’s the closest they can get to being in a symphony orchestra.”

The process works a bit differently for choir students. This year, Lawrence High School will be represented by five students in the All-State choir.

There’s only one audition, at district level, for choir kids. Dwayne Dunn, choir director at LHS, said his students had to first learn and master three pieces for the district auditions. From there, the top 10 singers (based on their audition scores) in each voice part from the district choir are selected for the All-State ensemble.

Dunn’s son, LHS senior Bryce Dunn, is representing his school in the All-State choir for a second year. It helps to come from a musical family (Bryce’s mother, Cynthia Colwell Dunn, works as director of music therapy at the University of Kansas), the elder Dunn admits, but it also takes a kind of self-motivation that can’t be taught or simply inherited, he said.

“The things he accomplishes in music are really because he really works hard at it,” Dunn, ever the “proud” father, said of his son. “I would say that’s true for these students who make it into the All-State choir.”

Dunn stresses that All-State auditions and performances aren’t part of the curriculum for his students or for those involved in band and orchestra. Traveling down to Wichita each year, meeting and collaborating with other young musicians from across the state, has become a fun — and meaningful — ritual over the years for his All-State students, Dunn said.

“It’s something that they find fulfilling, that they find personally motivated to participate in,” he said. “I think it’s a real testament to the kids who make it to All-State how much they’ve worked and how much they’ve gone above and beyond their class requirements to do something so special.”

This year’s KMEA All-State ensemble concerts will be held Feb. 23 through Feb. 25 at Wichita’s Century II Convention Center as part of the KMEA’s annual in-service workshop. All-State orchestra, band (for 5A and 6A schools) and jazz band performances are slated for 12:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m. and 4:45 p.m. Feb. 25. Tickets are $7, and can be purchased online at www.wichitatix.com.