Mount Horeb bands to invade Humanities Building

Some 300 middle- and high-school band members from Mount Horeb, Wis., will come to the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus on Wednesday, March 17, for a morning of musical instruction and collaboration in a musical March madness.

Students from five bands will visit the UW–Madison School of Music for clinics with Scott Teeple (wind conducting) and Teri Dobbs (instrumental music education). In addition, UW–Madison music education students will a get of taste of life after graduation as they observe the clinics and interact with the band members.

The number of students attending is significant: seventh-grade band (85), eighth grade (55), concert band (78), symphonic band (64) and wind ensemble (30).

The first band bus arrives at the Mosse Humanities Building, 455 N. Park St., at 8 a.m., with the second wave of buses arriving at 9:05 a.m. The clinics conclude at about 10:40 a.m. The students will then head to State Street for lunch. From there it’s back on the buses and a return to school for an afternoon of classes.

The band directors are UW–Madison alumni Will Janssen and Patty Schlafer, and Jeanne Hammes, whose husband is a doctoral student in percussion at UW–Madison.

This is the first time the bands have had this type of visit. Janssen says he wants his students to have a musical learning experience and see a university campus. Mount Horeb may be just 30 minutes away, but Janssen says many of his students have never been to the UW–Madison campus.