Long-time CCISD Director of Bands to direct last concert
Fri, 2015-05-29 05:00
News Staff
By WENDY SLEDD
Special to Leader-Press
With more than three decades of being with students, life will be much different for Randy Kelley once the school year draws to a close. Kelley, who has taught music to students for 31 years, 13 of those with CCISD, will retire this summer and will direct his last band performance on Monday, June 1, with the Copperas Cove High School “Pride of Cove” Bands Spring Concert.
The CCHS Concert Band, Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble will perform musical selections including Sleep by Eric Whitaker, The Hounds of Spring by Alfred Reed and Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral by Richard Wagner. Graduating seniors will be honored during the evening.
The Wind Ensemble is the most advanced of the three bands and holds a special place in Kelley’s heart as he prepares for retirement.
“I will miss the students the most, but I will especially miss the wind ensemble…my wind ensemble,” he said with his voice cracking in his throat and tears welling up in his eyes.
The audience will be treated to the finest concert music available from all three bands on Monday night. At the 2015 UIL Region 8 Concert and Sight Reading Contest, Cove High was the only school in the region to receive First Division, the highest rating, from every judge for all three of its bands, Wind Ensemble, Symphonic and Concert, for a total of 18 First Division awards.
Under Kelley’s leadership, the Pride of Cove Marching Band and Color Guard received a Division I rating from all three judges at the regional level and qualified for the area contest. Forty CCHS students qualified at the Region 8 auditions to participate in the Region Bands. Twentysix of these band students advanced to the TMEA Area D auditions.
Under Kelley’s leadership, the CCISD band program has grown to more than 200 members. Immediately following the concert, there will be a retirement reception in the CCHS cafeteria to honor Kelley for the decades of his life he has dedicated to instilling the love of music in children. The public is invited to both the concert and the reception.