The 49th Annual Invitational Grade School Music Festival was held at Fort Scott Community College Saturday.

“The day was a huge success!Ellis and Bailey Halls (were) packed full of excited young musicians performing as soloists as well as in small and large ensembles,” Seth Ernst, FSCC music instructor said.

“Here are some numbers from the day:

–        Thirty-four schools and private music studios attended, just shy of 300 solos performed,  46 small and large ensembles, upwards of 400 students, in total, across all entries.

“There were hundreds of family and friends in attendance to watch and listen,” Ernst said. “I must give my sincerest thanks to the following people:

–          The maintenance staff, for their hard work in helping me set up and tear down all of the festival rooms,

–          The business office, for their excellent help with getting me resources for the festival,

–          The festival judges, two of whom include our very own Ronda Bailey and Dr. Greg Turner, for their expertise in assigning students’ ratings and giving valuable performance suggestions,

–          The student workers, who put in a long day and made sure that all of the performance rooms ran smoothly and that students received their earned awards. These included Abigail Gilligan, Alexandreia Johnston, Allison Gilligan, Ashley Lockwood, Dayton Knight, Donnie Flowers, Erin Deatsch, Jackalynn Neher, Katie Palmer, Kevin Kerr, Megan Thomas, Shayla Button, Tim Higgins and Ty Covey.”