The Iola High School band, fresh from earning a top I-rating at a state contest, will have its annual fundraisers on Monday.
The band has two fundraisers planned: a practice-a-thon and pay-to-play/pay-to-go-away fundraisers
The practice-a-thon starts at 8 a.m. on the courthouse bandstand. Students will play until 8 p.m. Community members can come to the square to make donations and pledges.
Meanwhile, other students will travel throughout the community to play in front of houses and businesses until someone gives them a donation to go play somewhere else.
Band students are raising money to buy a vibraphone which costs up to $6,000 and a convertible tuba (works for both marching band and concert band) which costs up to $5,000. For more information or to make donations, email band director Brandi Holt at [email protected].
The band headed to Prairie View on Wednesday for the KSHSAA State Large Ensemble Music Festival and earned a I-rating, the highest available.
Last year, Iola hosted the festival for bands up to 4A. Students performed before a panel of judges who issued a rating between I to V. Last year, the IHS band secured a I-rating.
“It’s challenging because we spend months of preparation learning complex rhythms and musical ideas, for a one-time-chance to show off everything we’ve learned,” Holt said.
The band performed Frank Erickson’s “Toccata for Band” and “Down by the Salley Gardens,” arranged by Michael Sweeney.
“I picked challenging music, one of which is deemed ‘core repertoire’ for the wind-band medium. This means that the judges are guaranteed to be more familiar with that music and have predisposed expectations of what it should sound like,” Holt said.
“It’s important to me that the students of Iola experience music that set the standard for serious artistic merit in the wind-band repertoire — regardless of the risk involved in performing it under these circumstances.
“The kids have worked super hard and I’m elated with their growth.”
