Photo by Deb Gau Area woodwind players try out new pieces of music during concert rehearsals at the Festival of Woodwinds at Southwest Minnesota State University on Saturday. The Festival of Woodwinds included high school and university students, band directors, and area musicians.

MARSHALL — They had spent the morning playing music together. But now the people gathered on stage at Southwest Minnesota State University’s Fine Arts Theatre were focused on just three musicians.

SMSU junior Alec Ashby and Marshall resident Daphne Bemer were each ready to perform flute solos, and get feedback from guest flutist William Cedeño.

“I’m so excited for it,” Ashby said of getting to learn from Cedeño. “What he’s doing is what I want to do when I graduate.”

The workshop Cedeño led was just one part of the Festival of Woodwinds, a day-long workshop held at SMSU on Saturday. True to its name, the Festival focused on woodwind instruments, like the flute, clarinet, oboe and saxophone. Area woodwind players performed together, and attended both a guest recital and the masterclass with Cedeño.

Getting a chance for students and area residents to work together with a guest musician is one of the main highlights of the Festival, said Dr. John Ginocchio, professor of music and band director at SMSU.

“For me, the big thing is bringing in a guest artist,” Ginocchio said.

Cedeño is the principal flutist at the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, and recently finished his first year of a master’s degree program in flute performance at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music in Austin, Texas. Cedeño was born in Venezuela, and started learning music as a child in Venezuela’s El Sistema music program.

“All my fundamentals came from El Sistema,” Cedeño told audience members during a recital Saturday.

The Festival of Woodwinds is an event held every other year at SMSU, Ginocchio said. The event grew out of community workshops focused on brass instruments, like the university’s Brass-a-Palooza. Organizers decided they needed learning opportunities for woodwinds as well, Ginocchio said. Now the Festival of Woodwinds alternates with Brass-a-Palooza every year.

Woodwind players at Saturday’s festival included university and high school students, as well as band directors and area musicians. On Saturday morning, Ginocchio conducted attendees as they tried out different pieces of music for groups of woodwinds. The musical styles of the pieces ranged from classical to jazz.

“I try to pick out a number of pieces that will work,” Ginocchio said. The festival’s finale concert would feature the music that sounded the best from the rehearsal sessions, he said.

However, it was the masterclass with Cedeño that was big highlight of the day for Bemer and Ashby.

“I’m very excited, and I’m looking forward to learning new things,” said Bemer. Bemer is a high school freshman, and said she has been playing flute for about five-and-a-half years. “I really just enjoy how much I can express myself.”

Ashby said it was a big opportunity to have a guest musician come to SMSU and teach. Masterclass opportunities for musicians are often far away from Marshall, and can cost a lot to enroll in, he said.

Ashby hoped to continue his musical training after graduating from SMSU.

“I want to be able to do that, but I have a long road ahead,” he said.