29th Annual High School Honor Band at Bradley April 29

04/25/2014 5:27 PM

Kevin Kastens, Associate Director of Bands at the University of Iowa, will conduct the 29th Annual Bradley University High School Honor Band on Tuesday, April 29, at 7:30 p.m. in Dingeldine Music Center, located at 1417 W. Barker Avenue.   

The performance will feature 90 of the top instrumental students from 41 Central Illinois High Schools.  The Bradley Symphonic Winds, under the direction of Dr. David Vroman, will open the performance.  Admission is $5.00 for adults and free to students.  

The honor band provides high school students with the opportunity to perform with their peers in an Honor Band situation and encourages students to remain a part of an instrumental music program throughout high school and eventually assume a leadership role for their band program.  Students are selected based on their musical accomplishments.

Kevin Kastens is Associate Director of Bands and Director of the Hawkeye Marching Band. As a professor in the School of Music he teaches marching band techniques, band arranging and conducts the Concert Band. Prior to his appointment at Iowa in July 1998, Kastens served for five years as the Associate Director of Bands at the University of Missouri-Columbia and for six years as Assistant Director of Bands at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.

A native of Illinois, he received his Bachelor of Science in Music Education and Master of Science in Music Education degrees at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Before his appointment at Indiana, Kastens was Director of Bands at Wheeling High School from 1980-1987 in northwest suburban Chicago. His concert, marching and jazz bands at Wheeling received numerous honors and awards, including performances at the Mid-East Instrumental Music clinic in Pittsburgh, PA; the Music Educators National Conference in Anaheim, CA; and in Dublin, Limerick and Galway, Ireland