Episode 309: Copper Hills High Marching Band Takes the Stage Performing with National Recording Artists, “AJR”

Cadence Ivins:

Like getting to know Arnetta as a professional trumpet player was just really inspiring.

Alex:

We were the big finale.

Cadence Ivins:

It was definitely scary knowing that it was going to be such a big performance. Definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you didn't want to miss.

Beckett Brunson:

Standing in places that some of my favorite performers have been in, it just made me feel inspired.

Anthony Godfrey:

Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. They are internationally known recording artists who have made it to the top 10 of Billboard's Hot 100. The American pop band AJR recently performed in Utah, and guess what? They invited the Copper Hills High School marching band to take the stage with them. On this episode of the Supercast, find out what the high school students are saying about their experience and this incredible opportunity of a lifetime. Then listen as Copper Hills High takes the stage for a mic check with members of AJR prior to the big show.

Anthony Godfrey:

We're here at Copper Hills High School talking with the Director of Bands. Introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what got you here.

Chris Kuhlemeier:

My name is Chris Kuhlemeier. I've been here for just over three years at Copper Hills and loved every moment of it. Over the past couple years, we've been developing our program to get to a higher level of musical excellence and with that, we've just had phenomenal buy-in from our students, families and community, which allowed us to grow to this point and seize such fantastic opportunities like this.

Anthony Godfrey:

I've been over and talked with your students a couple of different times on various occasions. They're impressive and an energetic and enthusiastic bunch. Let's talk about your experience most recently with AJR and being able to perform with them. First of all, how did all of this come about?

Chris Kuhlemeier:

Oh man, it was a pure stroke of luck just a few months ago. I, along with a few other directors, it sounds like in the Salt Lake Valley, got an email from one of the producers for the band AJR.

Anthony Godfrey:

Let's pause right there. AJR, they're no small band playing the Velvet Room, although great bands play the Velvet Room. This is a large-scale operation. They have sold out the Delta Center. They were at USANA. This is a huge venue. So you get contacted by the producer of this well-known, rather quirky, engaging and energetic band.

Chris Kuhlemeier:

Absolutely.

Anthony Godfrey:

Tell me about your email and what happened after that.

Chris Kuhlemeier:

Just a few months ago, we received an email from them just toying with the idea of, "Hey, we're going on tour, this multi-million dollar national tour where we're trying to figure out ways that we want to close the show with a bang." They're notorious for doing some crazy stuff to close out each of their performances. They were toying with the idea and consulted me and others about the logistical challenges faced by bringing out a local marching band at each stop along the way. It was cool planning that out and talking some specifics and logistics with them, but we seem to be the best fit for the job as one of the earlier stops on the tour. They definitely felt that we were a well-organized program enough to be able to put this together with limited experience on their end being so early in the tour. Luckily, I was able to hop on that email very quickly and respond first. It definitely helped our case that we're one of the largest bands this close to the performance venue as well as we're one of very few bands that are as active as we are over the summer. We are constantly rehearsing and performing.

Anthony Godfrey:

You have access to kids over the summer, and you are super close. I've popped over to a USANA concert after work. You know what? I can make that work. I can grab a last-minute ticket and get over there. I love that. You were fast, quick on the draw. You've got a ton going on, and you're close by.

Chris Kuhlemeier:

The perfect storm for the perfect opportunity.

Anthony Godfrey:

How long ago did they lock it in with you and say we want you?

Chris Kuhlemeier:

It was back in early April, if I recall properly, that we received that activation email. At that point, we had no confirmations. It was all speculative until we got a confirmation just a few weeks later. It was no small task. We had a lot of preparations to do logistically before we even told the kids. In fact, we waited well over a month hiding the secret as a staff that we were doing such a big performance with our students just to figure out if we could pull it off. Bringing so many students together, getting them fitted for uniforms far earlier than we're accustomed to, having them learn and memorize music in addition to what they're already working on for their upcoming band classes, their summer parades, or even their fall show. Figuring out from an educational and pedagogical standpoint how we're going to incorporate this while demanding as little time as possible from our students so that they can enjoy some semblance of a summer. After our planning phase, we locked it in with the producers of the band, and we're able to put together a loose schedule. The beautiful thing about this year is our student body has just been so proactive and so eager to succeed, which we haven't seen culturally in this program for a long time. We're really excited to be back on the cusp of student-driven success because that's the nature of the beast. That our students were able to learn and prepare that music all by themselves all summer. Believe it or not, we got by with just a single three-hour rehearsal the day before the performance. Getting together, having the music all memorized across our group, 105 strong, got together for those three hours, polished it up, and then the next day we went out and performed.

Anthony Godfrey:

Over a hundred kids.

Chris Kuhlemeier:

Yes, 105 this year, and that was including a few eighth graders that we brought in for our summer marching band from our local feeder schools.

Anthony Godfrey:

What a recruiting tool.

Chris Kuhlemeier:

Yes, exactly, and we would not have heard the end of it if we didn't let the class of 2025 join in for one last hurrah.  So some future Grizzlies and some recently graduated Grizzlies got to take part of this huge ordeal, and I'm sure it's one for the books.

Anthony Godfrey:

And of course you didn't say former Grizzlies because once a Grizzly, always a Grizzly. Yes, of course.

Chris Kuhlemeier:Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:

Well, what a thrill, and how exciting that you were able to make this happen. So many logistics involved in getting over a hundred kids ready, or even earlier than normal.

Chris Kuhlemeier:

Absolutely.

Anthony Godfrey:

And I love what you said about still giving them a summer, so you took on as much of it as you could before announcing it and giving them that opportunity. Leading up to it, you announce it, you give them the music to memorize. They do that on their own, and you come together the day before for the practice.

Chris Kuhlemeier:

Yes. Now, that wasn't ideal, but logistically it made the most sense to give everybody as much of a summer as possible and not start too soon and forget things. We went out on a very, very tedious limb, to say the least, giving them that much time and that little margin of error. But considering the scale of things and the state of the program, we as a staff, while nervous, were relatively comfortable trusting our students to prepare, and they definitely showed up.

Anthony Godfrey:

I love that you had that trust in your students. We can do this. It's tight, but we know we can pull it off.

Chris Kuhlemeier:

And that's show business. We're getting them ready. They're, in this capacity, they're professionals. We were a band for hire, and we got to perform with the pros on a professional stage, and they gave one heck of a professional performance.

Anthony Godfrey:

Let's talk with them. Let's pull them in, and let's hear what that experience was like.

Chris Kuhlemeier:

Okay.

Anthony Godfrey:

Stay with us when we come back. We'll hear from the students of Copper Hills High School.

Male Voice:

Never miss an episode of the Supercast by liking and subscribing on your favorite podcasting platform. Find transcripts for this episode and others at supercast.jordandistrict.org.

Sandy Riesgraf:

Hello. I'm Sandy Riesgraf, Director of Communications for Jordan School District, and we want to invite you to connect with us. So many exciting things are happening in your child's school, your neighbor's school, in every school here, every day. Don't miss out on following the fun or simply staying informed when there's important information we need to share. Join us at JordanDistrict.org or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @JordanDistrict. We can't wait to connect.

Anthony Godfrey:

We're talking now with three of the students who were part of the band that performed with AJR. Tell us your name and what year in school you are, and what instrument you play.

Cadence Ivins:

I'm Cadence Ivins. I am going into my junior year of school, and I played flute in the AJR concert.

Beckett Brunson:

I'm Beckett Brunson. I'm a junior, and I play snare.

Alex:

I'm Alex. I played sousaphone, and I'll be a junior.

Anthony Godfrey:

Tell me about what that experience was like. First of all, you received the sheet music. How did it feel to find out that you were going to be able to perform with AJR? Did you know AJR? Did you know about them?

Alex:

Yeah, I knew about them beforehand. It was just a really cool experience to be able to get chosen out of all the high schools that there are in Utah to be able to go and perform with them.

Anthony Godfrey:

It's a big vote of confidence for the program that you were selected. How about you when you found out, how did that feel?

Beckett Brunson:

I was honestly extremely excited. I don't listen to a lot of AJR, but I knew how big they were, and I knew how important going on that big stage as our program would be, and how influential it would be for us to just get out there and get our message out.

Anthony Godfrey:

It's a huge venue. It's enormous.

Beckett Brunson:

It was crazy.

Cadence Ivins:

It was honestly a huge ego boost. There were so many people in our band that were so inspired by AJR beforehand. There were multiple people that I talked to throughout the course of the AJR concert that expressed how insane it was to be there as somebody who started playing trumpet because of AJR.

Anthony Godfrey:

Wow. So there were some students who started in music because of AJR, and now they get to be part of it. That's a dream come true. That's fantastic. So tell me about, let's go to, first of all, you get the sheet music and you just work independently to be sure that it's memorized, that you're good to go. Did practicing for a performance like this feel different from other practicing that you'd done on your own?

Beckett Brunson:

Yeah, it felt different. Obviously, we weren't completely separated the entire time. We joined together for a few times in our individual sections, and then we came together for one big rehearsal with the whole band. It was definitely hard. It was something difficult because we're not used to this sort of individual practicing, but we definitely overcame the odds and showed them what we're made of.

Alex:

Yeah, it was a lot of, I did, I would look over the music. I tried to actually figure out, because immediately what we played, I tried to figure out what songs we were playing by them and listen to them to kind of get the feel of what it was. And then I kind of brought that to my section when we were doing sectionals to practice together as a group so they could help understand.

Cadence Ivins:

Yeah, there were some ways that it was definitely the same as any other rehearsal. We sat down and we looked at the music and we figured it out and we listened to whatever references we could find online and in our own knowledge. But it was definitely scary knowing that it was going to be such a big performance, definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity that you didn't want to mess up.

Anthony Godfrey:

Yeah, that's a ton of pressure. Tell me what was the day like. Talk me through it, because I always wonder, I'm a huge music fan. I have three concerts I'm going to this week alone. I love going to see live music. So to be part of it, I have gone to dozens of concerts at USANA. It would be hard to count how many I've gone to. And just imagine being on the same stage where Ringo Starr and Radiohead and all these huge people have performed. Must have been incredible. How did it feel that day? Talk me through what the schedule was like and how that felt.

Cadence Ivins:

Yeah, we got here not too early in the morning, but early enough that we had time to prep ourselves. We got to the venue and incredible to be back there just as our group without the pressure of ‘they could be listening right now.’ We got to warm up together as a group behind the scenes and then we got to meet up with Arnetta, their trumpet player, who took us out to the stage and gave us our placements and told us where we were going to be performing and what groups we'd be performing in. And getting to know Arnetta as not just a performer, but as a person, and this person was so incredible and so friendly to this huge group of people that I'm sure it was so hard to keep track of was awesome. She was so powerful for that and getting to see that up close was awesome.

Beckett Brunson:

Waking up in the morning, I was ready. I was excited, but I was also pretty nervous and as it just kept ramping up until we got to the venue and strangely enough when I got to the venue, all my nerves were gone because I was like you said, standing in places that some of my favorite performers have been and it just it made me feel inspired and it pushed all the nerves away. We were practicing with all the lights and everything that we were going to be doing. Arnetta told us what everything was going to be like, where we were going to be going and everything to expect. So I had no nerves until right when we were about to perform and then it just came rushing in and I was so, so nervous.

Anthony Godfrey:

I'm feeling nervous right now just thinking about you guys on that.

Alex:

My experience was, so when we got here in the morning, I was feeling real confident in the performance because from our practice the other day before we were sounding really good and had prepared it well and it was cool being back there to see like where all these other groups have come and performed and I'd never been to USANA before. So being my first time walking into there because I've just seen like passing it on the road. I started getting like a lot nervous when I saw it.

Anthony Godfrey:

It looks huge to you, I’ll bet.

Alex:

Really big. But throughout the day just started getting more calm and I thought about it like this is just really genuinely cool experience that we get to have.

Anthony Godfrey:

And how long was the performance itself?

Beckett Brunson:

Our portion of the performance was only about three and a half minutes. We were the big finale that they teased and then big surprise at the end. AJR set was about an hour and a half long and naturally all of our band students are huge fans of the group, despite some of our staff members not really knowing who they were. They find their niche audience. But our group actually only got to see about one or two of their songs at the beginning before we had to go backstage, get changed into our uniforms and on deck for the performance. So the majority of us witnessing their performance was just from what we heard backstage, which was a really cool experience in and of itself.

Anthony Godfrey:

Yeah.

Beckett Brunson:

And you know about an hour and a half of just waiting and waiting and waiting each second feeling longer than the last as we gear up for this big performance at the end. And then just going out with a bang for the last three and a half minutes was truly breathtaking.

Anthony Godfrey:

That's what an incredible experience. Did you get stickers like “working crew” or “backstage” or —

Beckett Brunson:

We got wristbands.

Anthony Godfrey:

Let me go anywhere I want. Oh wristband. OK. We had the wristband. If I had a wristband like that, I'd just be walking around with my fist in the air like “check me out. I got a wristband. Look at me.” What was your favorite part of the experience?

Cadence Ivins:

My favorite part of the experience was getting to see what it was like to be a real performer, like getting to know Arnetta as a professional trumpet player was just really inspiring. As somebody who would like to pursue music at some point in the future, it was really great to stand there and see what it was like as somebody who does this every day of their lives.

Beckett Brunson:

It was great to see how as a group we could come together and make an absolutely amazing show that everybody's excited to see and work together as a group instead of being that individual person like when we were practicing. We didn't have very many group rehearsals, but we still managed to sound together like a group. And it really was awesome.

Alex:

I really liked it being able to be able to play again with a lot of the seniors who had graduated the year before. We allowed them to come back and being able to experience playing like one last time with all my friends that I had been able to build a relationship and bond with over the years. It was a great like last time to play with someone experience.

Anthony Godfrey:

I heard about this and I was on vacation and unable to go. It was killing me. And I got a text from someone who was at the show, “They sound incredible. Did you know Copper Hills is here?” “Yes, I know. And I know I'm not there. And it's killing me.” But everyone was super impressed with the performance. And I hope you guys are feeling great about it because everyone else in the audience did.

Anthony Godfrey:

Tell me a little bit about being Director of Bands. I think it's difficult for anyone who isn't directly involved to understand the scope of work you do as a band director.

Chris Kuhlemeier:

Well, indeed at Copper Hills, we have quite the depth and breadth of ensemble opportunities here. I myself oversee seven class periods of music-based ensembles. We have two percussion ensembles here that meet during the day at Copper Hills, as well as three concert bands and two curricular jazz bands. On top of that, after school, of course, we have our pep band, which can be seen and heard at football games, basketball games, assemblies and more. And of course, our fantastic marching band, which doubles and rolls as a parade band all throughout the summer and then as our show band all throughout the fall. In addition to that, I work closely with our two middle school feeders as their Director of Jazz Bands before and after school. We have a lot of fun with that, but quite the wide scope of musical opportunities here in the instrumental world. And that's just getting started with band.

Anthony Godfrey:

Is there any point at which there are five consecutive days in the calendar year where nothing is going on with any band?

Chris Kuhlemeier:

I'd like to say the week between Christmas and New Year. We kind of have to keep free, but beyond that at Copper Hills, we are busy every week of the year.

Anthony Godfrey:

And if you wanted to play a basketball game during that time, you probably could.

Chris Kuhlemeier:

Correct. Yep. Yep. We make it happen.

Anthony Godfrey:

There's always something going on, which just means a lot of work for you and other staff members, but also a ton of opportunities for students and great chances to be a part of something.

Chris Kuhlemeier:

Absolutely.

Anthony Godfrey:

And in some cases, to show their talents and in other cases, to learn something they've never tried before.

Chris Kuhlemeier:

Absolutely. We have quite the diverse student body, from students who have been playing their instruments since they came of age to be in school. Or others who are just trying to learn something new while they're here in high school. We have educational opportunities for these students to flourish at a musical capacity. It's really cool seeing the different levels of engagement and styles from student to student all coming together regardless of individual context to really make something cool with all of their friends and making more along the way. Next week, we're actually headed for five days, four nights down to Wasatch Academy boarding school in Mount Pleasant with 82 of our kids, where they're going to undergo multiple team building activities and such as we put together our field show and such. So it's kind of a summer camp paired with band camp galore where we kind of deal with each other for five days straight. It's a really cool opportunity for these kids to get together and just flourish socially well beyond the craft, but also integrating it and making it even more of a part of their lives by separating themselves from any distractions and really getting into it. We're going to carry that momentum all year long.

Anthony Godfrey:

Well, thank you very much for talking with me and for representing Copper Hills and Jordan School District so well and congratulations on the job. Very well done.

Cadence Ivins:

Thank you.

Alex:

Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:

Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, “Education is the most important thing you'll do today!” We'll see you out there.