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Next week, the Bonner Springs City Band will experience two firsts.

At 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 22, the band will perform with the Bonner Springs High School band in a joint performance in the Bonner Springs High School auditorium. This will be the first time, City Band conductor Larry Berg said, the band has performed outside of its summertime repertoire of concerts, and also the first time it has ever performed with the BSHS band.

“I’m really excited about it for one reason. I simply sent an e-mail to the members of the City Band that were really regular in their attendance … and I (now) have a band of about 50 people. And their response was, ‘Oh, it sounds like fun. Yeah, we’ll be there,’” Berg said.

The idea to play a joint performance came about through Bill Turley, director of the BSHS band. Turley said he came up with the idea in part because he wanted to give his students a taste of what professional performing is all about, and also in part because he wanted to instill in them the joy of playing outside the school setting.

“One of my main goals for my students is once they leave Bonner Springs, they’re still playing … and just sort of (make them) see there is life beyond high school,” Turley said.

The two bands will perform separate numbers, then perform together at the concert’s end.

The night also will include the debut of BSHS senior Morgan Tinsley’s composition, “A Brave’s Ballad,” which she wrote as part of her senior project. Tinsley said she had been performing with the City Band since the summer after her fifth-grade year.

“It’s just a really great way to advance your skills,” Tinsley said of playing with the City Band.

Tinsley will also be conducting her own piece, which she started working on in June 2009. She said she was nervous about the upcoming performance, but was also looking forward to seeing what her band mates could do with what she’d written. During a recent rehearsal of her piece, she seemed bolstered by all the feedback and support they had given her.

“They’ve been really supportive, and they’ve had their own ideas, and they’ve asked for solos, and they just really just want it to be part of all us, not just something I’d written,” Tinsley said. “It’s kind of my gift to the band.”

Turley said he expected the performance would only make his students better musicians – another major reason why he wanted them to perform with other musicians outside the band rehearsal room.

“Well, beyond seeing what the possibilities are beyond high school, one of the big challenges for band is the only band they ever here is themselves,” Turley said. “So when you’re trying to improve and get better, you need to listen to other bands … so this is a chance for our high schoolers to see another band, and what does it look like, how does it sound, how they carry themselves, all those kinds of things.”

“There’s always just a lot of fun when you go play with other musicians,” he added. “And there’s kind of an instant bond when you sit down with someone who plays the same instrument as you.”

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