DeKalb County Teen Named Top State Clarinetist

June 12, 2023
By: Bill Conger

An 18-year-old DeKalb County girl is the top clarinet player in the state of Tennessee. Warren County High School graduate Kelsa Rice, the daughter of Jason and Alisa Rice, was ranked the number one B-flat clarinetist after facing stiff competition.

Earlier in the year the talented teen had made second chair at the Mid-State competition for both B-flat Clarinet and Bass Clarinet before squaring off against musicians in the east and west division of the state.

“With B flat Clarinet, you have 180 audition from each region, and then you’re going against 9 people from each region put together where with Bass Clarinet, you’re only going against six [people] period,” Rice explained in a radio interview with WJLE.  “That was a very stressful situation for auditions. They had to push the result date back a couple of days, and we were all on edge because we didn’t end up getting the results until the Monday of the week we were supposed to go there. So, it was a very nerve-wracking couple of days because they were supposed to come out the Wednesday before. It was just a terrible waiting period.”

She performed with the All-State Band the last weekend in April.

“We played some really amazing music,” she said. “It was a phenomenal experience.”

Rice first started band her sixth-grade year.

“I had never picked up a wind instrument,” Rice recalls. “I played a little bit of guitar with my father, but it was a completely new thing. And the way our band director was at the time, he was like, you get to try three instruments. If none of them work, you go to percussion. So, I was originally going to play trombone. That’s what I thought I wanted to play. I tried it, and he was like, you can’t play that. I was like, okay. So I went home that day, and I was telling my mom [Warren County Middle School Principal] about it and she had played clarinet in middle school. And so she went and got her clarinet out of the closet. She was like, try this and I picked it up. That was how it started.”

Rice showed quick progress and was soon asked to join the 7th/8th grade band. She began taking private lessons to hone her skills, which paid off big time in 8th grade Rice auditioned for Mid-State Band and was selected first chair bass clarinet and third chair B-flat clarinet.

“I was really surprised I had done that well because I had only had about a year and a half, well a year of private lessons. Nobody knew who I was. Nobody knew what I was doing. I wasn’t from a big town because places like Murfreesboro like Siegel [Middle School], they have 50 kids making Mid-State and All-State, and the Cookeville band, they have about 30.”

During her freshman year Rice became the first person in 15 years in Warren County to win her audition for the All-State Band. It’s a feat she accomplished every single year of high school.

Rice’s music compassion doesn’t end now that high school is over. She will be majoring in Music Performance at Western Kentucky University this fall and plans to attend ClarinetFest 2023 in Denver, Colorado.

June 11, 2023
By: Dwayne Page

The 52nd Annual Smithville Fiddlers’ Jamboree and Crafts Festival is coming Friday, June 30th and Saturday, July 1st to downtown Smithville, Tennessee. Each day begins at 9am with over 35 music and dance categories, streets full of hand-made crafts, and food booths galore. Come and see for yourself why this FREE family-friendly festival has been named the official Jamboree & Crafts Festival of the State of Tennessee.

The old-time Fiddlers’ Jamboree is a DeKalb County tradition that draws musicians, craft artists, and spectators to the Smithville Square each summer around the Independence Day weekend. Over time, the festival became a broader tribute to Appalachian art and culture. Thousands of tourists visit the festival every year, along with television viewers this year via DTC-TV and blanket coverage by WJLE AM 1480/FM 101.7 with a LIVE audio Stream at www.wjle.com

June 10, 2023
By: Dwayne Page

The DeKalb County Budget Committee is recommending to the county commission passage of a resolution allocating funding for several non-profit and charitable organizations for the 2023-24 fiscal year.

The commission will consider adoption of the resolution with passage of the consolidated budgets for 2023-24 when it meets in regular monthly session on June 26 at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Mike Foster Multipurpose Center.

The resolution proposes to contribute funding to the following non-profit organizations:

*Upper Cumberland Development District- $2,000

*TN Division of Forestry- $ 1,500

*DeKalb County Rescue Squad- $42,821 (increased by $2,000 from 2022-23)

*DeKalb Animal Coalition-$ 36,805

*Plateau Mental Health-$7,180

*Senior Citizens Assistance Senior Program -$ 81,948 (increased by $1,303)

*DeKalb County Soil Conservation District- $ 89,433 (increased by $4,837)

*DeKalb County Chamber of Commerce $35,000 (increased by $10,000)

*Imagination Library- $ 12,000

*Veterans Honor Guard-$1,500

*Civil War Trails-$ 400

*DeKalb County Fair- $ 5,000

*Jamboree-$ 5,000 (new contribution)

*Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency- $ 5,500

*UCHRA Assessment-Homemaker Aide, Etc. -$9,717

Total- $ 335,804

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