KINGSVILLE (June 21, 2024) — Jazz Band I from the School of Music at Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK) has been invited to perform at the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) Convention Feb. 12-15, 2025, at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio.
“Jazz Band I is the only college jazz band from South Texas to have ever been invited to perform at TMEA,” said Dr. Scott Jones, director of the School of Music and director of bands. “TMEA is the largest and most selective music education conventions in the country and this performance will have many of our music alumni, and thousands of others, excited and eager to attend.”
“Only one university jazz band in the state is chosen to perform at the convention each year, so it is definitely a big honor to be selected,” said Dr. Kyle Millsap, associate professor of trumpet and jazz and director of Jazz Band I.
Jazz Band I has previously performed at TMEA in 1995, 2003, 2009, 2013 and 2020, all under the direction of former School of Music director Dr. Paul Hageman. The Wind Symphony is the only other major ensemble that has performed at the convention.
“The students are definitely excited,” Millsap said. “For some, this will be one of the concerts they remember most about their time here at TAMUK. They went to the convention as high schoolers, performed in all-state ensembles, watched the college ensembles in previous years and now they are excited to get to be the ones on stage playing.”
Millsap said he has already started working on selecting the music for their TMEA performance. “I’ll probably have most of it picked out by September, once our fall auditions are done and we will be gradually working on it throughout the fall semester.
“Since TMEA happens early in the spring semester, we will have some rehearsals before the semester starts to really dig in on the music, get a majority of the hard work done. That way, when classes start, we will be ready to work on the fine details and have a polished product for TMEA,” he added.
Millsap said the concert is not live-streamed, but it is recorded and everyone in the ensemble gets a copy. “We always try to do a tour leading up to TMEA. It gives the band a chance to run the program five or six times before the convention. We visit high schools and use it to get us in shape and recruit for the music program.”
In order to audition for the opportunity to perform at TMEA, 20-40 minutes of live recordings are submitted. Millsap said he used recordings from concerts the band did in October, November and March. All the submitted recordings are evaluated by an adjudication panel and the best one is selected to perform at the convention. Once a band is selected, they have to wait four years until they can audition again.
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