Photo Provided Members of the John Marshall Steel Drum Band will travel to Chicago this week for an international conference. Pictured are, from left, front, Paige Wallace, Lakyn Phillips, Hannah Lynch, Kailey Filben, Sarah Fitzpatrick and Leah Reuschel; back, Dakota Wyatt, Creed Kidney, Brayden Snider, Madi Blake, Ben Games, Eli Nielson, Cameron McClure and Olivia Miller.
The Midwest Clinic, International Band and Orchestra Conference in Chicago is to be held Tuesday through Friday in Chicago. The steel drum band, under Director Tracey Filben, is the first in to ever represent the Mountain State at the conference, which draws more than 18,000 people and more than 600 exhibitors.
Filben said the excitement she feels about it is unreal at times.
“It’s surreal. To say we’re so excited, this is the understatement of the year,” Filben said Friday. “Now it’s like, it’s Christmas. We’re ready to go. … We get to set up right outside the exhibit hall, and there are about 650 exhibitors.
“It’s massive — multiple ballrooms. Our state conference has maybe 30 or 40 exhibitors, this has 650 plus. I keep trying to explain to my kids how big a deal this is — they can’t picture how big this is.”
Filben said the journey to Chicago began last school year, when the steel band ensemble performed at the West Virginia Music Educators Association in March. The band then was chosen to represent the state on the national scene.
“On a whim, we said, ‘Let’s submit for Midwest.’ We sent in our recordings, and they selected us,” Filben said. “They said they really enjoyed our video, our group looked really fun and they gave us the opportunity to perform up to three times, an hour each.”
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