Published September 21, 2018
On Friday Sept. 21, the Dodge City Community College Little Theater was filled with voices of the future.
High school singers from seven schools across southwestern Kansas congregated at DC3 preparing for State Honor Choir auditions in November. Kerry Kuplic, associate professor of vocal music, directed 85 singers hoping to get a shot at a state performance.
The students spent the entire day on the DC3 campus practicing their technique and learning the assigned material. Students were able to see the campus and interact with staff and current students from the college’s choral music department and hear about opportunities for scholarships and events at DC3.
The singers received the selected music only after arriving at the college and rehearsals for more than six dozen singers were crammed into a few hours.
“It’s fun because it’s such a large group,” Kuplic said. “It’s really intense, but it’s a lot of fun to see their excitement. It’s helpful to the students because they get to perform with a much larger group than their own choral programs.”
The auditions are a definite recruiting tool for Kuplic and the choral music department, but he said the event is as much an outreach effort as anything else.
“We show these students and schools that we are passionate about supporting all the high school choral programs throughout the region,” he said. “It’s good for them to come and spend the day here and be able to see how much we value them.”
Selected students will perform at February’s Kansas Music Educators Conference in Wichita.
By Scott Edger