When West High Orchestra Director Jon Welch opened his email, he wasn’t expecting to see an acceptance letter. But there the words were: “Dear director…”
“I was very emotional. I just kept staring at the screen and refreshing it, just to make sure it was real,” Welch said.
Acceptance to the Midwest Clinic seemed like a long shot to Welch, as it is one of the largest international conferences for music education. The orchestra applied in 2020, but didn’t have as strong as a resume and was denied. But this time, Welch received an acceptance letter.
The Midwest Clinic has 17,000 annual attendees, accepting over 50 ensembles this year. Symphony Strings will attend the event Dec. 16-18 in Chicago, Illinois. It is an international conference, gathering a variety of groups from all over the world with different experience levels.
“The Midwest Clinic is really the premier performance that any high school group could hope to do if they’re a band or an orchestra,” Welch said. “So they really do only take the best of the best, and there’s a big process that goes along with it.”
Symphony’s audition process for the clinic was extensive, requiring a resume of former performances, recordings of the orchestra and conductor and recommendation letters from musical professionals. Over the last several months, Welch has been working to renovate West’s orchestra program website to include programs of older concerts and a list of students’ achievements.
Although the festival is seven months away, Welch is already preparing for it. The roster for next year’s Symphony Strings was released May 8, and the first time the full group — including current eighth graders — will play together is at the Class of 2026 graduation ceremony May 30. For the clinic, Welch is planning to commission a new piece by Joshua Reznicow, the orchestra director at Linn-Mar. Alongside that, Welch has to select what music the group will be playing months ahead of the festival.
“I’ve had publishers, composers, everybody reaching out to me to perform their music. People providing personal service to their libraries, major publishers giving me a personal contact and saying anything we want, they’ll provide for us,” Welch said. “Not only do we have access to almost any piece we want to perform, but we’re also going to be able to have special guest conductors come up and work with the kids.”
Welch received another acceptance letter in his email April 24. This time, it was to the American String Teachers Association’s National Orchestra Festival. Coincidentally, both conferences will be held at McCormick Place in Chicago two months apart.
Because of this, Welch decided West orchestras would attend both conferences, making the year a rare exception to the usual one trip every two years. The ASTA festival is also a competition for performers, and Welch is planning to bring a slightly larger group to perform.
“Anytime we do something nationally, I feel as though there’s a little spotlight on our little corner of the world, but this is something different, and this is really showing everything that goes into our music that we offer here at West High,” Welch said. “So I feel as though I’m going to be representing not just West High, but the city of Iowa City, Coralville, the university, all the people that have worked with me to get to where I am professionally and the folks that have been in our corner to support our orchestra.”
The orchestra program has a busy year ahead with both events, and Welch and the instrumentalists will soon start preparing for the Midwest Clinic, which will require them to play 45 minutes of music.
“It’s got to be pristine, so we’ve raised the bar on ourselves,” Welch said.
