Wisconsin Concert Band Association
2024 Spring Newsletter
President's Message
Greetings WCBA Colleagues!
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for making this year’s WCBA Convention at UW-Whitewater a huge success. If you were not able to join us this year, you missed something spectacular. Our new venue provided us with a great experience as our convention consisted of 4 guest bands, 3 honors bands, 3 clinics, a luncheon, and a sight-reading session. There were high levels of excellence and learning experienced all weekend long. Thank you to our convention host, Dr. Glenn Hayes for a job well-done in hosting the event for the first time. Glenn, his students, and all of the staff at Whitewater were absolutely tremendous in making the convention a huge success. We look forward to one more year for our convention on the Southwest side of the state. Plans are being made for the 2025 convention to return to the center of the state at UW-Eau Claire in the excellent hands of Dr. John Stewart.
I would also like to thank all of our board members for the tireless work that is done behind the scenes. The convention wouldn’t happen without countless hours of organizational meetings, phone calls and emails. They are an amazing group of people and I thank them for their commitment to the students of Wisconsin.
This will be my final message as WCBA president as my term will be up this June. I would like to thank all of you for giving me this opportunity. I have learned a lot and made many excellent friends along the way. The past 4 years have not been easy as we went through the COVID pandemic, the cancellation of two conventions and the move away from the National Band Association to becoming an independent organization. It was never boring! The WCBA will now be in the care of the marvelous Katie Prihoda.
I wish all of you the best for this spring in solo & ensemble, large group festivals, spring concerts, and graduation; or in your retirement. Remember that you improve students’ lives by sharing the gift of music with them everyday. Live in the moment and try to enjoy the process.
Best to all of you!
Kristen D. Kirch
Music Educator, Grades 6-12 Band
Chequamegon School District
President, Wisconsin Concert Band Association
Membership
NEED TO RENEW YOUR WCBA MEMBER?
LOOKING TO BECOME A FIRST-TIME MEMBER?
Scan the QR code or go tour website link:
WCBA Awards
WCBA Directors Awards
The Wisconsin Concert Band Association is proud to announce a series of new awards to be
presented at the annual WCBA Convention. The awards will be presented for the first time at
the 39th WCBA Convention in Whitewater, WI on Saturday, January 18, 2025. Please take the
time to read the descriptions of these awards and nominate worthy individuals. Click the
below link to access the nomination form. Nominations are due by November 15, 2024.
AWARDS
Harvard Erdman Lifetime Achievement Award:
Established in 2024, this award was named for one of the founders of WCBA, Harvard Erdman,
who served for many years as the secretary of WCBA. Harv was the director of bands at
Wautoma High School. This award does not have to be awarded every year but is to be reserved
for individuals of outstanding merit. CRITERIA: Candidate must be a current or former resident
of Wisconsin who has demonstrated a commitment to instrumental music through teaching,
conducting, or service to the art and who has made outstanding contributions to instrumental
music in Wisconsin.
Dr. Edgar P. Thiessen Distinguished Service Award:
Established in 2024, and named in honor of Dr. Edgar P. Thiessen, a founding member of WCBA.
Edgar Thiessen was the director of bands at Lakeland College and Silver Lake College. He was
also the conductor of the Kiel Municipal Band. CRITERIA: Candidate must be an individual
whose contributions to the organization are exemplary and/or go beyond the normal services
provided for the operation of Wisconsin Concert Band Association.
Outstanding Young Band Director Award:
Established in 2024, this award honors teachers with ten or fewer years of experience.
CRITERIA: Candidate must be a current WCBA member who exhibits characteristics of a master
teacher, including enthusiasm, energy, musicianship, student rapport, and professionalism; who
has made a considerable impact on the size, quality of performance, festival involvement, and
visibility of the program; and who has made a commitment to the community through civic
band organizations, youth activities, or civic service organizations.
Outstanding Band Director Award:
Established in 2024, to recognize significant contributions as a school band director. CRITERIA:
Candidate must be a current WCBA member with a minimum of ten years of experience who
exhibits characteristics of a master teacher of students within grades 5 – 12.
Award Requests for students/parents
The Wisconsin Concert Band Association is proud to sponsor a number of awards for students and parents. These awards are available free to WCBA members and can be obtained from the WCBA Awards Chairperson. Please use the link below to request awards.
2025 Convention Information
Call for Convention Guest Bands
Dear WCBA Members: Calling all Bands!!
The WCBA Guest Band Committee is accepting applications for performers for the 2025 WCBA
Convention at the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater. The 2025 convention is January 17-18,
2025. Guest Band performance spots are available to Middle School, High School, Collegiate,
and Community Bands, who are directed by WCBA Members.
Online registration is now open. Please read the following application details, then click on the link below to register!
1. Applications due July 1st; notified by August 1, 2024
2. Application details
- a) Ensembles can submit recordings from 2022 or 2023 academic years.
- b) Recordings should be no longer than 25 minutes of live, unedited, recordings as an mp3.
- c) Recording should be labeled as follows: Ex. 01_balmages_moscow_1941.mp3
- Do not use spaces or special characters in the titles.
- d) Directors will be asked to provide samples of programs from previous years as well as some descriptive data about the program (number of students in band, school size, etc).
3. Online submissions are now open. Please click on the link above or copy and paste it into your
browser.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Best Regards,
John
Dr. John R. Stewart
Director of Concert Bands
University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire
WCBA Guest Band Chair
NBA – State Chair
WCBA ALL-STATE JUNIOR BAND
Greetings WCBA Members! We hope the school year is going well for all of you and wish you a
strong finish this spring. With Katie Prihoda taking over the duties of WCBA President, we
would like to introduce ourselves as the new co-chairs for the WCBA All-State Junior
Band.
First, from the Wisconsin Rapids School District, we have Jacob Jorstad. Working with
Jacob is Ryan Waldhart from West Salem Middle School. Thank you Katie for continuing the
strong tradition of the ASJB and best wishes in your leadership role.
Jacob worked closely with Katie at this year’s convention in UW-Whitewater and Ryan has
been with the WCBA over his 25 year career. We are excited to announce our 2025 ASJB
Guest Conductor: Kati Seiter of Oregon Middle School in Oregon, Wisconsin. Kati’s 8th Grade
Band was a guest performer at this year’s convention. The ensemble was outstanding and we
are thrilled to have Kati work with our all-state musicians this coming January. The date for the
ASJB is Saturday, January 18 at UW-Whitewater.
We encourage you to reach out to colleagues and encourage them to become WCBA
members, allowing them to nominate some of their high-flying students for the 2025 ASJB.
Please feel free to reach out to either of us with any questions you may have.
Jacob Jorstad
Band Director
Wisconsin Rapids Middle School
715.424.6740 x3056 608.518.5025
Ryan Waldhart
Band Director
West Salem Middle School
Clinic Proposals
The WCBA is accepting clinic proposals for the 2025 convention at UW-Whitewater. The clinics will occur on Friday, January 17 and Saturday, January 18. If you have any topics you think are relevant to today's band directors, something innovative you have tried with your students, or an idea for a panel discussion, please submit a proposal!
Proposals will be due on September 1st, with selected clinicians notified by mid-to-late November. The proposal form is available on the WCBA website under the Clinics tab. If you have any questions, please contact Paula Neuzil at paula.neuzil@brf.org.
From the New WCBA All-State Band Coordinator!
Greetings from Westby!
My name is Kory Dahlen, and I am the new WCBA All-State Band
Coordinator. I am completing my 21st year as a music educator and am the current band
director at Westby High School. I would like to thank Monte Dunnum for all of his years of
service to the All-State Band. He has set an illustrious standard that I will do my best to uphold
in the coming years.
This past January, I had the pleasure of assisting Monte, and I can say that
the location of UW-Whitewater, in combination with the expertise of Colonel Graham, kept our
students on their toes while creating an unforgettable experience. I am happy to say that we will
be returning to UW-Whitewater next year, and our students will be working under the baton of
Alex Kaminsky, Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Music at VanderCook College.
Please take the time to reach out to colleagues and encourage them to nominate some of their
wonderful students this coming year. Stay tuned for more information in the fall newsletter, and
don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions in the meantime!
Kory Dahlen He/him/his
Director of Bands
Westby Area High School
608-778-1607
2025 Commission Project
Following the success of our 2019 commissioning project with Robert Sheldon, we are working with composer and Wisconsin native Erika Svanoe to add another excellent new work to the wind band repertoire. Bolerobot, will be based on themes from Maurice Ravel’s famous work Boléro. The difficulty level is expected to be a Grade 4+. The premiere performance is planned for our January 2025 concert, performed by the WCBA Intercollegiate Band. Conceptually, the piece will follow the story of our robot in a pinocchio type journey as it strives to become more human. It will start with motivic pieces of the melody at the beginning stated in repetitive patterns, and will gradually form into a full statement of Ravel’s melody as our robot self actualizes near the end of the piece.
We are looking for your band program and/or band booster to be a sponsor of this Wisconsin Concert Band Association Project composed by Wisconsin Native, Erika Svanoe. The fee includes a copy of unpublished parts and your Organization/Name listed on the unpublished score as a member of the “consortium” for this project. Also included will be your Organization/Name in Wisconsin Concert Band Association State Convention Finale Concert Program for the year of the premier, 2025.
Please visit our website at https://wisconsincba.org and click on the COMMISSIONING PROJECT tab for payment details. Upon receipt of credit card payment, you will receive further details as to how you would like your Organization/Name to appear on the score.
Please contact Ryan Waldhart if you prefer to pay by check: waldhart.ryan@wsalem.k12.wi.us