Great Bend musicians and music educators Kurtis Koch and Steve Lueth will perform with The Diamonds Thursday night for the Golden Belt Community Concert Association’s final concert of the season. On Tuesday, they traveled to Liberal to play with the legendary band in that community’s concert series.
The original Diamonds quartet rose to prominence in the 1950s and early 1960s with 16 Billboard hits including “The Stroll” and “Little Darlin’,” which has sold approximately 20 million copies to date. The original members are gone now, but new musicians have filled their places over the years and they continue The Diamonds’ tradition of classic rock and roll still evoking standing ovations wherever they perform.
Koch and Lueth have often performed with the group when it comes to this area. These days, it’s a common occurrence for bands to hire musicians as they travel, Lueth said, about the opportunity to play with this group. He has been performing with The Diamonds for 11 years, when they come to this area.
“The first time I was asked to play with the Diamonds was in Stockton, Kan.,” Lueth said. “When we finished that show, the leader asked me, ‘What are you doing tomorrow night?’ So the next night we played somewhere in Nebraska.” That was just the beginning of a long-standing tradition.   
Koch has been playing for the Diamonds for about five years. “We’ve played in Larned, Colby and other western Kansas towns, and also in Beaver, Okla.,” he said.
“The Diamonds’ music has been popular over the years, and that’s never gone away,” Koch said. “People like it; the melodies are fun. Some people can even relate these tunes to their dating days. This is a great program, really up tempo, a lively show.”
About two to three weeks before a concert, Lueth and Koch receive digital recordings of the music along with the musical scores so they have a chance to rehearse the music for the concert. Once they arrive at the performance venue, they simply go through the sound check, but then perform the concert “cold,” Lueth said.
In today’s economy, traveling bands can’t afford to travel with a full stage band, so singing along with instrumental music tracks is normal for most traveling groups, Lueth explained. Sometimes the digitally recorded tracks have all parts, or the group may add some live musicians along with the tracks so that it has more of that live sound. For this week’s concerts, the piano and drum parts played by Lueth and Koch provide the live instrumental sound accompanying the tracks.
 “In this concert, there’s not a song that you won’t know. It’s family-oriented entertainment, a lot of great music,” Lueth said.
Both Koch and Lueth have longevity as music teachers in this area. Retired after 34 years as band director for Great Bend Middle School, Koch also directed the Great Bend City Band for 32 of those years. He previously taught in southeastern and northeastern Kansas for four years. Lueth has been director of instrumental music at Barton Community College for the past 10 years and previously served as band director at Russell High School for 25 years.
The two have been playing together in various groups for a long time and have come to know each other’s musical styles well. “We’ve been listening to each other for so long, we pretty much know what the other is going to do with the music,” Koch said. “We both enjoy playing with the Diamonds when we have the opportunity.”