Dear Colleagues:
This
year Hendrix College and the Hendrix College Wind Ensemble will be hosting the tenth Festival
of Winds Honor Band. We look forward to welcoming students from
across Arkansas and the surrounding states to our campus for an exciting day of
music making.
This
one-day honor band will be held on Saturday, May 2, 2020.
Please nominate some of your best students in grades 9-12 to participate in this special event
by filling out the online nomination form, available here. Feel free to nominate as many students as you
would like. Using the Student Information Form, you may wish to gather information
from your students before submitting nominations online. The festival will
culminate in a concert featuring the Festival of Winds Honor Band and the
Hendrix College Wind Ensemble at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 2.
The
guest conductor for the 2020 Festival of Winds Honor Band is conductor,
educator, and trumpet player Kelly Watkins. A member
of the United States Coast Guard Band since 2003, she has appeared as a
featured soloist on national concert tours and traveled extensively across the
U.S. and abroad to Taiwan and Japan. Kelly also serves on the faculty of
Eastern Connecticut State University where she directs the Eastern Concert Band
and has taught conducting, Brass Ensemble, and Wind Ensemble. Guest conducting
engagements include ensembles at Gustavus Adolphus College (MN), Appalachian
State University (NC), the University of Delaware, and several United States
Coast Guard Band and Chamber Players performances, as well as regional and
district honor ensembles in Connecticut and Massachusetts. You may read her full
biography in the Festival of Winds brochure or on this website.
At this link is a brochure with more details about the event, including the schedule and the
selection process. Please note that the deadline to submit nominations online is March
18, 2020. Please use the online nomination
form.
I hope
your spring semester is off to a great start, and I hope to see you and your
students at our festival this year!
All the best,
Dr. Gretchen Renshaw James
Director of Bands/Applied Low Brass
Hendrix College
1600 Washington Ave.
Conway, AR 72034
Ph: (501) 450-1422
renshaw@hendrix.edu
Click here to view a PDF of this year's Festival of Winds brochure