On Saturday Feb. 24, the Kansas Music Educators Association [KMEA] All-State Band will perform at the annual concert that they have been anticipating since fall of last year. Band members that made the 2024 KMEA 56A All-State Band include senior Elliot Kastens, freshman Toby Kwan, senior Julia Kwan, senior Amy Lock, senior Luke Rogers and junior Anwen Williams.

Before performing at All-State, students went through two rounds of auditions. First, they auditioned for the district band last fall, then attended the district performance last December.

“Auditions went well for Free State,” Kwan said. “We have good representation in band, orchestra and choir.”

Students who performed at the district level were then eligible to audition for the All-State Band on Jan. 13. Three days later on Jan. 16, Students found out if they were selected.

“Some people just obsessively check and then the moment they come out everyone somehow just knows or hears about it,” Williams said.

Right after they are selected, students are sent the music and given approximately a month to rehearse on their own before the performance. During the weekend-long convention, students will rehearse for two days with the entire band before their performance.

“The convention is only for three days, but it’s fun to see and play music with friends from years past,” Kwan said.

This rigorous process comes to a close when the All-State band plays their selected pieces together in concert. Kastens said all this hard work provides an experience students wouldn’t be able to get as part of their typical curriculum.

“KMEA to me is a program that allows students to play and experience something that they normally wouldn’t be able to just enrolled in the normal band,” Kastens said.