Great Bend High School had four students make the district honor bands and one to the honors orchestra for the Southwest Kansas Music Educators Association. These students learn, practice, and submit an audition for the district groups, with preparation beginning in the summer months. The Southwest district stretches from Barton County straight west to Colorado, and straight south to Oklahoma, encompassing a large area of the state. Students from all of those area schools are eligible to submit auditions.   

In band, GBHS had four students audition and they all were selected, so it is quite an honor. The district honor bands consist of a concert band and a jazz band. They meet in Dodge City with all the students selected from the district, work with a clinician, rehearse for about six hours, and put on a concert with musicians from the area school they only met that day. It is a pretty outstanding event that these students can come together and perform as a group all in one day. It is also interesting that those students will never be together in that particular group again after that day. Once the students participate in the district groups, they are eligible to audition for the state groups. Those auditions are in Salina on Jan. 8. The State Band and State Jazz Band perform at the State KMEA Convention in Wichita at Century II, on Feb. 24-26.   

Students making the SWKMEA District Jazz Band were Natalie Williams on second alto saxophone, August Siefkes on drums, and Anderson Luttrell as alternate trombone. They performed in Dodge City on Nov. 6, with clinician Randy Crow, retired Maize band director.

Students making the SWKMEA District Band were Natalie Williams as 1st chair alto saxophone, Jacklyn Garcia as second chair trumpet, Anderson Luttrell as 9th chair trombone, and August Siefkes in dual positions as first chair mallets and second chair snare. They perform in Dodge City on Dec. 4, with clinician Luke Johnson, Director of Bands at MidAmerica Nazarene University.

August Siefkes is also a 3-year participant in the SWKMEA District Groups.

Amy To, a senior at GBHS, made the SWKMEA District Orchestra as first chair violin. She performed in Dodge City on Dec. 4 and will audition for the State orchestra in January.