December 14th, 2019

Winter Concert Dessert Auction
This Holiday tradition has been a perennial favorite of mine. The De Soto High School Band and Choir students work incredibly hard to produce several high level performances during the holidays. From tree lightings and caroling to parades and concerts our students and directors work hard to put a quality product together for the community and our school district. Thank you to the families that came and stayed for the afternoon to support all of our musicians and thank you for the help putting equipment away after the concert.

The overwhelming support of the community for the De Soto HS Music Department is moving to me as an educator. The funds raised from this event and our other fundraisers will go to continue our efforts of providing students with guest clinicians, equipment, and additional support.

JeffCo Community Jazz Project

Jefferson College Community Jazz Project
Thursday night, we had multiple events going on involving the De Soto Bands. We had our DHS Color Guard sponsoring our Mini Guard performance, the DJHS Winter Band Concert, and the DHS Jazz Ensemble participating in the Jefferson College Community Jazz Project.

At the Jefferson College Community Jazz Project last night, the DHS Jazz Ensemble lit the room on fire. This group demonstrated independence and mastery as the student musicians held together and put on an incredible show. I was able to stand to the side and let our musicians shine.

An incredibly gratifying moment occurred last night. At the Jefferson College Community Jazz Festival, Dr. Joel Vanderheyden led the JeffCo Jazz Band to end the concert. Before their last piece Dr. Vanderheyden spent time talking about one of his students. He said he had watched this student throughout his high school career and how developed as a young musician performing in an area high school. Dr. Vanderheyden mentioned how this talented young man had developed a passion for creating music and that he was sad to see him moving on from JeffCo, but happy to see that he will be continuing his studies pursuing a music composition degree. This student is De Soto alumni Gavin Luther, winner of the inaugural Fountain City Composition Competition. The audience recognized Gavin with thunderous applause. The Jefferson College Jazz Band finished the concert with a piece featuring an impressive drum solo by Gavin. It was a wonderful moment and feeling as an educator.

Tonight is the All-District Jazz performance. If you are available come see our students performing in the East Central JH Jazz and both of the East Central HS Jazz Bands tomorrow December 14th, 2019 at 6:30pm in the Jefferson College theater.