Jessica Vogel, a 2008 Marion High School grad now in her first year at Washburn Univer?sity, is one of 24 flute players from across the country selected to play in a collegiate flute choir at the annual convention of the National Flute Association in August.
The NFA, which attracts flute players from across the country and even internationally, sponsors 15 competitions to select outstanding flutists to perform at its conventions. Four of the competitions are for flute choirs. This is the first year the NFA has offered a collegiate choir.
?Four of us from Washburn made it, which was pretty impressive,? Vogel said. ?I was looking at the people who made it and they were from all over the country: one from Texas, a couple from Nebraska and even one from Vanderbilt.?
The competitive process includes a written application as well as making a recording of a designated piece.
Vogel almost didn?t apply.
?Originally, I wasn?t going to do this because I thought I?d just kind of take a break, since this is my freshman year of college,? she said. ?But I found out the piece (to record) was a piece I had played for contest my junior year of high school. So I went ahead and recorded it and sent it in February.
?I found out a couple of weeks ago that I made it.?
Vogel has been playing the flute since the fifth-grade, when she entered the band program at Marion Middle School.
?When I was little I did not like practicing, I?ll be very honest about that,? Vogel said. ?But when I was in eighth-grade, something just clicked and I started to enjoy it a lot more.?
When she was a high school freshman, Vogel began taking lessons from Lonn Richards, instrumental music instructor at Tabor College.
?I got involved in doing district and state competitions, and did tons of solo work,? Vogel said. ?I gained a lot from that.?
Between now and New York City, Vogel and her three Wash?burn classmates will need to work out the travel logistics and rehearse the music they will receive from the choir conductor.
Some of the funding for the trip will come through a program called the Washburn Transformational Experience, a requirement for all students to be involved in a scholarly or creative activity or community service before they graduate.
Being selected for the NFA collegiate choir is one more milestone marking Vogel?s journey with flute. She said she expects that journey to continue in the years ahead.
?I know I want my own private studio someday, and I?m debating grad school,? she said. ?But I want to continue to play. It?s one of those things that if I keep it up, I think I can get a lot out of it.?
