Pictured left to right is McKenzie Miller, Addie Flenner and Brooklynn Chorba
Perry Middle School is once again pleased to announce this year’s talented group of music students who participated in the Ohio Music Education Association (OMEA) District 7, Middle School and Junior High Honors Band. The event was held in the Mentor High School Fine Arts Center on February 29th and March 1st.
Selected to perform in this year’s Honors Band were 8th graders Addie Flenner on trumpet, 8th grader McKenzie Miller flute and 7th grader Brooklynn Chorba on flute. The Perry Middle School 7th and 8th Grade Bands are under the direction of Mr. Jeff Miller and Mr. Brad Hruska. These three students, along with students from 24 other middle and junior high schools, met for two days of rehearsals followed by a Friday evening concert for family and friends.
The Honors Band was conducted by Barry E. Kopetz. Mr. Kopetz recently completed eight years as Head of the Department of Music at Mississippi State university, serving in the position from 2014 to 2022. He was the Conductor of the Starkville Symphony Orchestra, a position he held from 2016 to 2022. Previously, he was the Director of Bands and Professor of Music at Capital university in Columbus, Ohio, where he conducted the Symphonic Winds, Wind Symphony and the Chamber Winds.
Prior to his appointment at Capital University, he held positions at University of Utah, University of Minnesota, and Bowling Green University. His public school teaching experience included three years in the public schools of South Carolina, and in Ohio in Strasburg and Columbus.
Kopetz received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Ohio State University and he holds a doctorate with distinction from the School of Music at Indiana university. He studied conducting withFrederick Fennell in Tokyo in 1989, and his previous conducting teachers include the late Professor Frederick Ebbs and Professor Ray Cramer of Indiana University, and the late Dr. Donald McGinnis of Ohio State.
Kopetz is an active composer and arranger, with more than one hundred-thirty published works to his credit. He has written numerous commissioned works and has composed music for both chamber and large ensembles, as well as for television and film. He is in demand as a guest conductor/composer and accepts engagements each year with All-State and Honor Bands. He is a published author, having written interpretive articles analyzing the standard wind band repertoire for The Instrumentalist Magazine. He was selected for an award from the Educational Press Association of America for these interpretive analyses and has completed his first fantasy novel.
Kopetz resides in upper Arlington, Ohio, with his wife, Gail. He has two grown daughters, and is a dedicated reader of Political History, Classic Literature, and Philosophy.
The OMEA is the third largest of the fifty-two federated state affiliates of The National Association for Music Education. OMEA members are involved at all levels of music education, serving more than 1.8 million public school students and fifty-one colleges and universities.
First formed in 1924 in Fostoria, Ohio, the Ohio School Band Association was designed to “promote high school band contests” in Ohio, but in 1929, had expanded its emphasis to include all areas of music study.