The program, announced earlier this month, will consist of three main offerings: A general education music appreciation class, a jazz band that will double as a pep band and a community concert band that will be open to area musicians as well as students.
The courses will form a pathway within the Associates of General Studies degree, meant to feed into a degree in music at a four-year university (the Bachelors in Music at Missouri State University-Springfield was used as a model).
Rocky Long, who’s retiring from the West Plains School District after 20 years as its band director, will head up the new program. He said it will give students who want to stay in the area after high school a chance to continue playing their instruments.
"Ava and Gainesville and Thayer and West Plains and Willow Springs and Houston and all these good public schools we have out here — their students in band and choir, they don’t have anywhere to go," Long told KSMU. "And so, they’ll graduate and just stop playing."
Long is hoping for about 40 participants in the community band and between 12 and 18 for the jazz band. With Long as the only music faculty, the program is currently limited to instrumental music. However, the university hopes to expand the program into vocal music in the future.
Registration for music classes at MSU-West Plains is open now.