Seven Ellinwood High School band students recently attended the 20th annual Concert Band Clinic at Kansas State University. They went through an audition process upon arrival at the event. From the audition, the students were placed in six different concert bands.
There was one “top” band with those students who scored the highest in their audition and five equal bands for all the other students. Out of approximately 950 students who applied to the clinic, 650 were chosen for the event. Conductors for the bands were:  Dr. Larry Blocher from Troy University in Alabama, Dr. James Saker from the University of Nebraska, Dr. Phillip Payne from Kansas State University, Diane Koutsulis from Green Valley High School in Las Vegas, Dr. Dale Warren from the University of Arkansas and Dr. Anthony Purcell from Tarleton State University in Texas.
All of the bands were included in a final concert on Sunday afternoon. Each band had excellent performances with miraculous improvements from the first rehearsals on Friday evening.  
Students from Ellinwood included Steven Cortez on trombone, Elizabeth Frakes on flute, Sam Kline-Martin on tuba, Avery Pike on tuba, Ashley Sheldon on french horn, Wyatt Smith on Trombone, and Slade Zamarripa on clarinet.  Don Regehr, band instructor for these students, and Tonya Pike served as sponsors for the weekend.