Growing Greenup
Wind Ensemble
Anne Stephens
The Ashland Beacon
The Tri-State Wind Ensemble is a new wind band that was started in December 2024 by Bradley Coleman, Director of Bands, Orchestras, and Choirs at Greenup County High School to bring more live wind music to Greenup County. The ensemble was comprised of college professors, music professionals, music educators, music majors, college students, community members, and high school students from Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia.
I had the pleasure of singing with the band on “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”. It was a special experience to go back to my alma mater as a grown-up band kid. I am always happy to collaborate with our local music teachers and support their programs. There is a lot of great art and music being made in our community!
Since I only performed with the band on one song, I enjoyed passing out programs, welcoming the audience members as they arrived, and assisting with a little bit of the a/v engineering. After the concert as we were debriefing, I asked Bradley to contribute to this column by telling me more about his idea and why he put in the work to organize this concert. The next five paragraphs were authored by him.
Mr. Coleman stated: Many times, musicians come to a point in their career when they find themselves in a situation where they are not making music, the act of what they fell in love with at some point in their musical career. Whether it be because they start teaching, temporarily leave the music field for any number of reasons, or just run out of time in the day, many musicians find themselves separated from the act of making music with others.
The Tri-State Wind Ensemble aims to give musicians that may have fallen into that description an outlet to express themselves through playing in an ensemble again. There were 44 musicians on stage for the inaugural concert on December 19, 2024, many of which hadn't consistently performed in a traditional ensemble setting in a number of years.
As a veteran of the Marine Corps Band field, I understand the importance of keeping a love for playing. I have watched many people lose their passion for performing and music from doing it day in and day out. This realization connected with a philosophical idea that I had as a young music major himself. I recognized that many of the band directors in Michigan where I grew up progressed further and further away from what they ask their students to do, which is play their instruments daily.
What is one way that teachers can show their students that they are primarily musicians with a unique skillset of playing an instrument vs. "just" a teacher that teaches music? Performing of course! From that day as a young music major, I have vowed to stay active in performing music as long as I can throughout my musical career by any means necessary.
In addition to being the Director of Bands, Orchestras, and Choirs at Greenup County High School and the Founder and Director of the Tri-State Wind Ensemble, I also play clarinet in the Mountain Arts Center Wind Orchestra in Prestonsburg, KY; the Bluegrass Wind Ensemble in Ashland, KY; and the Portsmouth Wind Symphony in Portsmouth, OH, where he also conducts the wind symphony occasionally; and intend on playing with the Huntington Community Band and auditioning for the Huntington Symphony Orchestra.
Anne returns as author: Thank you, Bradley, for sharing this story and for leading by example. I agree that music teachers all started out as music students who loved playing an instrument or singing. That love should be protected and cherished! Teaching is a difficult profession. Music education students hone their individual skills to a high level but must also be able to communicate and inspire beginners. That is not easy to do and can be overwhelming to the time it takes to keep up your own practice routines. I applaud Bradley for creating this opportunity for himself and other musicians in our greater community.
Before I wrap up this week’s column, I want to give a shout-out to Greenup County Schools Superintendent, Mrs. Traysea Morasea. At Mr. Coleman’s very smart request, she was the emcee for the Tri-State Wind Ensemble’s premiere concert. She was outstanding!!! Bradley did a great job preparing a script with some history of each piece of music. Traysea did her homework and was prepared with correct pronunciation, which can be difficult when you get into international composers. The entire evening went smoothly and reflected positively on what is happening at Greenup County Schools.
I am happy to be a proud alumnus, and I wish them all the best with continued growth of the arts programs. If you have good memories of playing an instrument when you were a student and you would like to pick it back up, let us know! There are opportunities for anyone to continue making music for life. That is one of the best things about playing music – you never age out.
For more information, contact Anne Stephens, Agent for Community Arts and Development in Greenup County. 606-836-0201 anne.stephens@uky.edu 35 Wurtland Avenue, Wurtland, KY 41144 The Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment is an Equal Opportunity Organization with respect to education and employment and authorization to provide research, education information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function without regard to economic or social status and will not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnic origin, national origin, creed, religion, political belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, marital status, genetic information, age, veteran status, physical or mental disability or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity. University of Kentucky, Kentucky State University, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Kentucky counties cooperating.
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