UMKC Bands at the Conservatory

We’ve been having a blast at KCCS 2024! Over the past few days, we were joined by professors Stephanie Roberts, Jennifer Sengin and Yotam Haber for thoughtful, inspiring sessions. Today ended with a group outing to a Sporting KC game! We are looking forward to rounding out the amazing week tomorrow!

Day 2 of our conducting symposium is complete! We are having so much fun getting to know each other and grow in this art form together!!

We had a fantastic time kicking off the 2024 Kansas City Conducting Symposium today! We welcomed participants from 17 different states to Kansas City and are looking forward to a beautiful week of learning, camaraderie and music making!!

Congratulations to Hannah Morrison and Jen Hepp, who both spent the week in Washington, D.C. conducting the United States Air Force Band as part of the National Band Association’s Young Composer/Conductor Mentor Project! Throughout the course of the week, Hannah and Jen each worked with a young composer to prepare a new work that was performed by the Air Force Band in a culminating concert. What an incredible experience!

A big congratulations to all of our 2024 graduates!! We are so proud of you, and cannot wait to see all of the wonderful things you will do in the future!! ROO UP!!! 🤘 🎓

We are so excited to close out our semester next week with three concerts in a row! Join us as we celebrate a wonderful year of music-making here at ! All concerts are at 7:30 PM in White Recital Hall: Campus Band (Monday 4/29), Conservatory Wind Symphony (Tuesday 4/30), and Conservatory Wind Ensemble (Wednesday 5/1). See you there! Tickets @ umkcconservatory.universitytickets.com

The Mob had a blast performing at yesterday’s game at .stadium and helping to cheer on the Royals to a WIN! 🤘

Join the Conservatory Wind Ensemble chamber players this evening! We will be presenting a concert of chamber music, featuring pieces written from the 1920s to 2024. 7:30 PM in PAC 326! Livestream on YouTube

Congratulations to our very own Hannah Morrison and Jennifer Hepp, who were selected as 2 of 4 conductor participants for the National Band Association’s Young Conductor/Composer Mentor Project! They will get the opportunity to conduct the United States Air Force Band in Washington, D.C. this summer in a three-day collaboration with a young composer. This very selective workshop is only offered once every two years and is a huge accomplishment for our studio! Congrats, Hannah and Jen!

We are excited to welcome Steven Collins into the Conservatory family as a Ph.D student studying music education next year! Steven has been teaching middle school and high school band for twelve years. Over the past eleven years, he has served as the Associate Director of Bands at Bixby Public Schools, a suburb of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Steven earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music education from the University of Oklahoma and is a native of the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Welcome, Steven!

Join us next Wednesday 4/10 for a wonderful evening of chamber music featuring our Conservatory Wind Ensemble chamber players! This concert will be conducted by our fantastic GTA team and will feature a variety of music by Persichetti, Weill, Bach, Zare, Lamb and Fisher. 7:30 PM in PAC 326 - We hope you can join us! Seating is limited, so claim your ticket now! 🎶

CONGRATULATIONS to our soon-to-be UMKC Bands at the Conservatory Wind Conducting graduate on her recent appointment as the Associate Director of Bands at West Chester University in West Chester, Pennsylvania starting this coming Fall! We are so proud of you and will miss you greatly. We are looking forward to seeing all the magnificent work you will do at West Chester University! Go Rams! 🐑 🤘

We are so excited to welcome Connor Fetting into our Bands at the Conservatory team beginning this fall! Connor will be pursuing a Ph.D in Music Education and has spent the last five years teaching middle and high school band in the Houston area, most recently as Director of Bands at Kinder HS for the Performing and Visual Arts. He holds undergraduate degrees in music performance, music education, and chemistry, and a master’s degree in wind conducting, all from Michigan State University. Welcome, Connor! We can’t wait for you to join the team! 🤘

Over the past two days, Conservatory Wind Symphony chamber players visited five elementary schools across the KC metro and gave a series of children’s concerts! Showcasing the music of Amanda Harberg, Florence Price and Jose Padilla, we spent time introducing students to all of the instruments of the band. We had so much fun playing, dancing and laughing with hundreds of future musicians!! What a joyful way to head into Spring Break!!

We are thrilled to welcome Blake Hordé into the graduate wind conducting studio this coming fall! Blake will be pursuing a Master of Music degree at the Conservatory and has previously taught both high school and middle school band in Alabama and Florida. Blake earned his Bachelor of Music Education degree from Columbus State University. Welcome to the Roo family, Blake! We are so excited to have you join the 2024-2025 Bands at the Conservatory team! 🤘

The Conservatory Wind Symphony is preparing to present a series of children’s concerts in elementary schools across the KC metro next week! Today, we had the pleasure of receiving a masterclass coaching from Stephanie Roberts, an Associate Professor of Physical Theatre at to help us better engage with young students! We are so excited to share this joyful music and introduce young students to the instruments of the band next week!

The Mob is ready to cheer on the Men’s and Women’s basketball teams in the Summit League Tournament this weekend in Sioux Falls, South Dakota!! ROO UP!!!

We had so much fun hosting more than 1,000 students and directors over the past few days here at !! We were so inspired by all of the music making, learning and collaboration that took place in such a short time. Special thank you to Steve Davis, Joe Parisi, Craig Kirchhoff and Deborah Confredo for serving as clinicians for this year’s event. We are so grateful to host this joyful event year after year on our campus!!

We are looking forward to hosting 17 bands from across North America over the next two days for the UMKC Conservatory Concert Festival, sponsored by and ! We are excited to welcome Craig Kirchhoff and Deborah Confredo to serve as guest clinicians alongside Steven Davis and Joe Parisi. Visiting ensembles will perform a concert, receive a clinic from one of our guests, participate in masterclasses led by our world-class applied faculty, and attend concerts featuring our Conservatory Wind Ensemble and Conservatory Wind Symphony! We are looking forward to a great few days of music-making! GO ROOS!

Join us this evening for Campus Band’s first concert of the semester, “Songs and Dances” - 7:30 PM in White Recital Hall!

Congratulations to our Conservatory Wind Symphony and guest soloists Professor of Saxophone + alumni and on a musically inspiring and absolutely THRILLING performance at our Southwestern Division Conference!! We are so proud of you!!! GO ROOS!!!

The Conservatory Wind Symphony is only a few hours away from our performance at the 2024 CBDNA Southwestern Division Conference. Check out the livestream on the UMKC Bands YouTube channel!

https://www.youtube.com/

The Conservatory Wind Symphony welcomed flutist alums and as guest soloists for “Cuando Hablan Los Vientos” by at their dress rehearsal this afternoon! Join us tomorrow at 7:30 PM in the Folly Theater to hear this beautiful piece alongside many others, both old and new!

Congratulations to the Truman State University Wind Symphony on a stunning and wonderfully attended performance to kick off our Southwestern Division Conference! We are off and running in Kansas City!!

We are just a few days away from hosting our 2024 CBDNA Southwestern Division Conference, Modern Legacy! From 2/28-3/2, attendees will experience performances from nine bands from across the country, including our very own Conservatory Wind Symphony. As a highlight of our featured performance, we are thrilled to be collaborating with Professor of Saxophone on a brand new transcription of John Corigliano’s “Triathlon.” We are especially thankful to Dr. Elizabeth Noble for her generous support of this commission. Be sure to join us on Friday 3/1 at 7:30 PM in the Folly Theater, and stick around afterward for our UMKC reception! Check out the link in our bio for more info about all CBDNA performances!

Roos Graduate Wind Conducting Alumni Anya Pogorelova and Corey Seapy in action at the Kansas Music Education Association Conference! We are proud of you! and .bands are lucky to have each of you as their leaders! Congratulations on these successes!

DEADLINE EXTENDED! Applications for our Kansas City Conducting Symposium will now be accepted through Friday, 2/23. We hope that you will join us this summer in Kansas City!! Apply here: https://www.canva.com/design/DAFPyCtJuqs/w75BDyL-MLVDUt3-EN2uXg/view?utm_content=DAFPyCtJuqs&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=publishsharelink

Roos from the Conservatory Bands are excited to cheer on our tomorrow in the Super Bowl! - may the better team win!

Applications are now live for 2024 the Kansas City Conducting Symposium! Taking place from June 16-20, our clinicians this year are Steven Davis, Joseph Parisi, Donald McKinney, Nicholas Williams and Beth Peterson. We hope you’ll join us for an inspiring week of learning and music making! Applications due Feb 15.

Apply here: https://www.canva.com/design/DAFPyCtJuqs/w75BDyL-MLVDUt3-EN2uXg/view?utm_content=DAFPyCtJuqs&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=publishsharelink