Three Gehlen students take part in Drake Honor Band Festival

Three Gehlen Catholic High School students (from left) -- Elias Niebuhr, Matt Klein and Emily Hutchins, will perform this weekend in the 2008 Drake Honor Band Festival. [Click to enlarge]

Three Gehlen Catholic High School students have been selected to take part in the 2008 Drake Honor Band Festival this weekend in Des Moines.

Senior Elias Niebuhr will be performing for his fourth year in a row; senior Emily Hutchins will be performing for her third time at Drake and sophomore Matt Klein will be performing for his first time at Drake.

They will join together with nearly 300 high school students from across Iowa and Nebraska in performing as members of the Honors Wind Ensemble and Honors Concert Band. The students will perform at 5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, in the Performing Arts Hall.

The Drake Wind Symphony and Drake Concert Band will kick off the 38th Annual Drake University Honor Band Festival with a concert on Friday, Dec. 5.

Both performances are free and open to the public.

"Gehlen Catholic has been fortunate over the years to have a number of students selected annually to perform in Drake Honor Band," said Gehlen instrumental music director Paul Niebuhr.

He added the prestigious Drake Honor Band provides musicians the opportunity to perform in large All State type ensembles, as well as master classes for each instrument.

More than 500 students were nominated again this year to the Drake Honor Band Festival. In addition to concerts and clinics, the festival features scholarship auditions for entrance into the music department at Drake.

This year, Andrew Trachsel, Drake graduate and interim director of concert bands at Ohio University, will serve as the guest conductor for the Honors Concert Band. Guest conductor Thomas Lee, who serves as professor, director of bands and conductor of the UCLA Wind Ensemble, will lead the Honors Wind Ensemble.