Letter from the Director

Guests,

Greetings from the Conservatory of Music and Dance at the University of Missouri — Kansas City!

I am extremely excited about the 2007 &mdash 08 academic year here at the Conservatory and am also eminently thankful for the incredible support the administration and faculty at the Conservatory are giving to the Conservatory Wind Symphony and Conservatory Wind Ensemble. Please allow me to inform you of events that are expected to be offered and we hope you will attend.

Next summer we will continue our Wind Band Teaching Symposium on our campus that is designed for K-12 music educators from around this region and the entire country. There will be numerous clinics and sessions presented during the week-long symposium by many guest presenters. Sessions on gesture, pedagogy, literature, philosophy, score study, marching band and other topics will be covered during the symposium. The dates for the event are July 13 — 18, 2008. Please mark your calendars. Look for the event poster, arriving sometime in January.

We are starting our Six—State Honor Band Festival and Symposium on January 17 &mdash 19, 2008 on our campus. UMKC Bands are also very fortuante to have been granted the hosting of the CBDNA Southwestern division conference to be held on our campus February 28 &mdash March 1, 2008.

If you are a band director and are reading this, I would like to make a standing offer to you. If you would like to bring one of your concert ensembles to our campus to attend a concert, I would be delighted to meet with the ensemble to discuss the pieces they will hear that evening. In addition, if you would like to bring your ensemble to our campus earlier in the afternoon, I would be happy to work with the ensemble in any manner you feel would be appropriate (clinic, comments, etc). That evening, I would recognize the director(s) and ensemble from the podium. Ticket fees would be waived for you, your chaperones and your students.

Finally, I know that I speak for my other band colleagues, Joe Parisi, Associate Director of Bands and Dana Buchanan, Ensemble Secretary and our graduate student assistants, in my conveyance that we are here to serve our institution and community/region/nation in any way possible to further the cause of music education. If we can help in any way , please do not hesitate to call on us. Be our guests at a concert — we will hold tickets (free of charge) for you. And don't forget to mark your calendars for January 17 — 19, February 28 &mdash March 1, and July 13 &mdash 18, 2008. You will not want to miss these wonderful events!

Hopefully, we will meet in person soon.

Sincerely,

Steve

Steven D. Davis
Director of Bands and Wind Ensembles
Conservatory of Music
University of Missouri, Kansas City