Mueller, Tauer earn band awards

Senior Morgan Mueller’s (left) smashed hand just before the band trip concert in Florida this spring wasn’t a first for director Erik Hermanson (right).

While he deals more often with hurt players as a football coach, some notable injuries afflicted his student musicians over the years, and they seem to happen to his best.

“Kevin Johnson (CHS 2005 and now the band teacher at GFW) had all the solos for state competition for jazz, and the night before, he got hit with a fly ball in the lips,” Hermanson said. "They swelled up huge, and he had to play out of the side of his mouth.”

“Grant Germscheid (CHS 2014) tore his ACL right before we went on a band trip to Texas. He was a featured soloist, and he won the soloist award, and he had to go out on crutches to get it.”

And like Johnson and Germscheid, the show went on for Mueller.

“I get nervous before a contest,” explained the senior trumpeter. “It happens to everybody, I think, and I went into the bathroom, and the door on our bus didn’t close correctly, so one of my classmates said ‘I’ll close the door for you.’ I didn’t hear what he said, and I put my hand on the edge of the door, and he slammed it, and I got my thumb caught in it.”

Mueller fought through the tears, overcame the swollen thumb and muscled her way through the performance.

“I’m glad it wasn’t any worse than it was. I don’t really hold my trumpet with it, but it still hurt a lot. I was a little shakier because I was trying not to bend it, and I had it in the back of my mind.”

For both her talent and dedication Mueller was voted by the rest of the band as the winner of both the Woody Herman award for the outstanding jazz musician among all grade levels and the John Phillip Sousa award for the outstanding senior concert band musician.

Junior trombonist Amelia Tauer (center) took home the Louis Armstrong award for the outstanding jazz soloist among all grade levels.

They were presented with their awards during the spring concerts on Monday.

“They play fantastically,” Hermanson said. “They know their instruments backwards and forwards, but they’re so flexible; they’re great at so many things. A lot of students could play fast or high or pretty or a certain style, like just jazz or just concert band, but they can do it all, and they are very confident and very dependable…everything I could want in a player, just dream students.”

Held in the early afternoon, the Jazz Band Concert featured seven groups: Tuesday Jazz (seventh graders), Thursday Jazz (eighth graders), Friday Jazz (seventh and eighth graders), Red Folder Jazz (freshmen and sophomores), Green Folder Jazz (freshmen and sophomores), Blue Folder Jazz (sophomore and juniors) and Black folder Jazz (juniors and seniors).

Red and Green Folder Jazz earned an excellent rating at the state contest. Blue Folder Jazz earned a superior rating at both the state and the national contest in Florida, where their 96 out of 100 score surpassed any vocal or instrumental group. Tenor saxophonist Sophie Shouler won the soloist award at the Florida competition. Black Folder Jazz got a 37 out of 40 rating at the state contest for a superior rating.

Many musicians played in more than one band and on more than one instrument. Tunes ranged from traditional jazz and blues to big band to power rock.

In the evening, the concert bands performed, including the 6th-Grade Band, the 7th and 8th-Grade Band, the 9th and 10th-Grade Band and the Cleveland Concert Band (juniors and seniors and the 9th and 10th graders who went on the band trip).

Mueller has been playing trumpet, the same instrument her mother played, since she was a fifth grader. While she would like to continue playing in at Winona State, her nursing studies might make that difficult she said.