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Our 17th year of BluesEd was absolutely one of the busiest and best years yet! Our student bands entertained and delighted audiences large and small all over Lincoln, Omaha and surrounding areas where we made many new fans. Our season officially concluded on Aug. 5th with our Season Finale at The Waiting Room before our senior students head out to their respective colleges and technical schools. Many thanks, as always, to the Blues Society of Omaha for the amazing support and encouragment for our BluesEd bands. Without a doubt, the best Blues education program in the country (possibly world!) hails from Omaha, Nebraska! Awards The Anna Jane Abbott Memorial Scholarship: Josie Jennum from Us and Them Blues Band. The Ron Cooley Award for Most Improved Band: Blue Sunday The BluesEd Brad Cordle Award: Hunter Neumayer from The Redwoods Acknowledgements Not only are the student musicians in BluesEd incredibly talented and hard-working but so are the all the BluesEd volunteers! We could not do it without the many, many parent (and a couple former parent) volunteers. Each band has a Lead Parent (LP) and Performance Coordinator (PC) who does the bulk of the “work” in the bands from communicating to each band to loading/unloading & hauling equipment for each and every gig. The LP’s and PC’s of BluesEd are simply the unsung heroes and are owed a great deal of praise and gratitude: Blue Sunday: JD & Carolyn White & Jill & Jeff Nelson Far & Wide Blues - Drew Johnson & Doug Watkins Five Minute Drive - Dawn Abboud & Tracey Ryan MANNIX - Julie Nichols and Chris Steffen The Redwoods - Laurie Neumayer & Tami Tomsu Us and Them Blues Band - Ann Giebler & Victoria Hawkins Vertigo Blues Band - Rainbow & James Dark Additionally, many other parents helped with photography, videos, storing and transporting equipment, social media and promoting & encouraging each of our 7 bands. The BluesEd Leadership team (Drew Johnson, Laurie Neumayer, Trudy Bredthauer, Sean Gillen, Chris Shouse, Ann Giebler, Susie Hemphill, Tami Tomsu) manages the business end of BluesEd which includes many essential tasks: auditions, accounting, securing venues and performance opportunities, social media, workshop scheduling, fundraising, scholarships, website, marketing and promotion, equipment, organizing events, and many other details large and small that have kept BluesEd strong, growing and thriving for 17 years!
Finally, we are already looking forward to next year and we need your help! Auditions for BluesEd will be held in February of 2019. If you know of middle or high school student vocalists and/or instrumentalists that are proficient in their instrument and are ready to perform in a band we would encourage you to send them our way. We will have more information on our website at www.BluesEd.com. Thanks for helping us “Keep the Blues Alive" for 17 years! |
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