The University of Northern Iowa will host the annual Northern Festival of Bands Thursday through Saturday at the Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center in Cedar Falls, bringing high school musicians from across the region to campus for performances, workshops and masterclasses.
The festival features three student ensembles—wind orchestra, symphony band and concert band—along with a percussion ensemble and concerts by UNI’s Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band.
A familiar local name will again be part of the event, as former Hampton-Dumont band director Leon Kuehner will return as a guest conductor for the concert band. Kuehner tells RadioOnTheGo News returning to UNI to conduct these high school musicians is especially meaningful, recalling his own time as a student at the university
“The head director at the University of Northern Iowa, he will go through and invite sometimes it’s Iowa teachers, teachers from other states, and then international conductors will come in as well. I’ve been fortunate, I think this is the fourth time I’ve been asked to direct. And it’s really fun because since I’m a graduate from University of Northern Iowa, it’s fun to go back to my alma mater and direct all the years I was at Hampton-Dumont High School. I always had my students play at this. Even when I was in college, I worked at the festival. So it’s just a full circle moment. In fact, I get to go back to the very stage that I played on when I was in college and get to direct an ensemble on that stage.”
Kuehner, who is involved with the Iowa Arts alliance, says the festival will bring together students from dozens of schools across the region.
“They’re from Iowa, some from Minnesota, some from Wisconsin, and each of the band directors gets a chance to submit students for this honor band. Right now they send in a taped audition and then the students are selected. Now they have just three bands at the festival. One band is made up mostly of freshmen and sophomore students, and that’s the band I’ll be directing, and then there’s kind of a band more like sophomore, juniors, maybe a few seniors, and then the top ensemble is a little smaller, very, very select. They usually bring in a director from Europe or from a foreign country to come in and direct that ensemble.”
Public performances are scheduled for Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 2:00 p.m.
Full interview below
