Feb 27, 2017 By Luke Campbell 3 min read

The alarms on Wednesday and Friday mornings came a little earlier for a group of Mt. Lebanon middle school students recently.

Fifty-five students in the Jefferson Middle School Wind Ensemble have been embracing early-morning practices as the group prepares to perform side-by-side with the River City Brass Band at Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland March 9.

“It’s going to be a really neat experience,” said longtime Mt. Lebanon fine arts teacher Krista Wagner, who leads the group of musicians.

“These kids are really dedicated,” she continued. “They come early in the morning to practice before school for those two days a week and are also being able to get this feeling of what it’s like to be a professional musician.”

The group, which plays more difficult music than in the regular classes taught at the middle-school level, consists of a mix of flutes, clarinets, alto and tenor saxophones, trumpets, trombones, tubas, French horns and percussion.

While it isn’t the first time a Jefferson Middle School wind ensemble has played with the River City Brass Band, after pairing up with it twice before in previous years for performances at Upper St. Clair High School, it will be a different experience playing on a professional stage.

“It’s a wonderful sounding hall,” Wagner said. “They are going to be able to walk into all of that majesty and play on that stage. It’s really going to be a magical experience for them.”

Not only will the students get a tremendous experience of playing with professionals, Wagner, a professional of her own as a woodwind player with the Jazz Conspiracy Big Band, will have the honor to conduct the group.

“It’s a transcendent experience to be on the stage and have my kids playing with the adults and for them to hear that sound come out,” she said. “I love to stand on the podium and watch their faces when they hear that sound. You have this feeling when you’re in an ensemble of being about to connect through the sound. To be in the middle of that on stage is an emotional and breathtaking experience.”

It all translates back to when Wagner was in her eighth grade band class looking up at the director and realizing it was what she wanted to do.

“It’s indescribably rewarding,” she said of her 29 years of teaching music. “I think middle school is the most crucial time in the music program in many ways because you get to watch them be very young yet rise to the occasion. I get to see leaders emerge in a very ancient art form.”

The wind ensemble also plays at The Galleria at Mt. Lebanon and at the other elementary schools within the district during the holidays.

The concert with the River City Brass Band will also be broadcast on WQED radio at 89.3 FM.