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K-State Clarinet Studio
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About the K-State Clarinet Studio
The philosophy of the K-State Clarinet studio is to strike a balance between creating a competitive environment with high standards of performance and maintaining a friendly and supportive atmosphere between all students. The clarinet studio has produced three consecutive winners in the K-State Orchestra Concerto and Aria Competition (2007, 2008, and 2009), and five winners overall during my ten years at K-State. In 2008, Chris Johnson was named the first prize winner at the annual. Music Department Honors Recital competition. In 2009, Melissa Woodworth was named the K-State Presser Scholar, perhaps the highest award that an undergraduate music major can receive. Alumni of the studio have gone on to do graduate work at prestigious institutions such as The University of Kansas, Arizona State University, and The University of Minnesota. We also have a very active Clarinet Ensemble that performs fun music at many different venues. Please come visit (email me!) if you would like to consider studying here! K-State is a great place to be a student, and Manhattan is a beautiful place to live!
About K-State and our Department of Music
I believe with all sincerity that our music department offers an incredible value for the money. With a total number of music majors only around 200, the average class size for music major courses is quite small—typically around 20 to 30, and often smaller. There are 27 full-time faculty members, giving us a very small student-to-faculty ratio—similar to that of private institutions, which are significantly more expensive to attend. Our faculty members are full-time teachers, and are readily available and accessible to our students. Regular faculty members teach almost all of our classes—we do not have very many graduate assistants teaching courses for our music majors.
K-State is certainly a relatively large school with around 22,000 students. This gives us many of the advantages of a larger institution—world-class guests presenting lectures, an incredible performing arts series at McCain Auditorium, and strong athletic programs. Yet many of our music students comment on how small and personable the music department feels. This is indeed our strength, and we feel it makes our music education degree second to none. When you graduate with a music education degree from K-State, you will have no problem securing a job. Very few majors can make this claim as strongly as we can.
The Everyday Virtuoso
I believe that all clarinetists with a good work ethic (and the willingness to spend some serious time with the metronome!) can develop truly outstanding technique—regardless of their social, economic, or musical background. My undergraduate clarinet professor from Furman University, Dr. Robert Chesebro, and I share this philosophy; and we recently co-authored a textbook that describes our practice strategies in great detail! The book, titled The Everyday Virtuoso: Virtuoso-level Technique for Every Clarinetist, is available from Woodwindiana of Bloomington, Indiana for $29.95.
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Other News
Dr. Kerstetter is now serving as the Kansas state chair for the I.C.A. Click here to visit the new clarinet website for the State of Kansas! The Ad Astra Clarinet Quartet consists of Dr. Kerstetter as well as Rachelle Goter from Friends University, Jeff Pelischek from Hutchinson Community College, and Stephanie Zelnick from The University of Kansas. We play concerts at a variety of venues, including at recent feature performance at the International Clarinet Association “ClarinetFest” and at the KMEA convention. Please check out our website: www.k-state.edu/music/AdAstra Any suggestions or news that you think should be included on the K-State Clarinet Studio website would be appreciated! Just email me! |
