Fine arts

Aaron Larson is in his second year of teaching choir at OHS and has been making a lot of changes to the program. 

Larson has been teaching music for four years now. His time here has already shown more change to the program than past directors, and he is the first one to stay for a second year since former choir director Harry Hamblin left. He is most excited to push his students with new music. 

“I really just enjoy pushing my choirs because I know they can be fantastic and make beautiful music,” Larson said.

Larson studied at the University of Central Missouri, as well as Texas Tech University. Although he has a deep love for music, he only started doing choir in high school; on top of that, he also played in his school's marching band. 

Before working at Odessa High School, he taught different subjects in both elementary and middle schools. 

Larson is the fourth choir director at OHS since the class of 2026 came to the high school. In past years, the choirs had a limited number of performances, including the Odessa Christmas lighting ceremony, their winter concert, large ensemble contest, and their spring concert. 

Expanding the choir's performance opportunities, “allows us as a choral program to gain experiences” and “allows us to hear music being made outside of Odessa, Missouri,” said Larson. 

Students are excited, as this is the first time in over six years that the Choir department will be taking an overnight trip for performance! There had been plans in the past to take larger, out of state trips, but Larson believes that starting with a lower budget trip would be best for students involved in multiple activities, seeing as costs can pile up. 

The trip this year will consist of both chamber and concert choir students here at OHS. The Choirs will be visiting Branson for a total of three days and two nights. On this trip, they will get to spend a day at Silver Dollar City after performing in the park's Music Festival. The choir will also have time to explore different areas of the city, including the Branson Landing. 

Addison Shank, junior, expresses her excitement for the new opportunities Larson has opened up for the choirs. 

“I am most excited for our fall concert, he (Larson) has opened us up to the opportunity to sing with UCM and create music with people who love music as much as us,” Shank said.

 The UCM Choirs have invited Odessa High School’s chamber and concert choir to perform with them at their fall performance. There will be over 150 singers combined, and Odessa even gets to perform a song on their own, ‘When The Earth Stands Still” by Don Macdonald. 

Larson has a very interactive way of teaching this music to his students. Cheyanne Strader, senior, describes a unique exercise they did while practicing. 

“We all went in a random spot in the room, closed our eyes, and thought of a moment when the earth stood still.” Strader says that exercises like this, “helps the choir connect as one.” 

Strader mentions that to get the students to understand what the song means, he’ll first give an example of his own moment. 

Another new way of engaging students Larson has created is the highly popular “Theory Thursday" and “Fat Beat Friday”. Larson says he wants to end the stigma of Missouri choir students not being able to read music. 

Zoe Bullock, junior, says that one of the things she appreciates about Larson is, “him trying to make choir a fun thing to be in with games and "fat beat Fridays.”

A popular one of his games by the students is something they’ve named “Trash-ket Ball”. In this game, students separate into teams and play rounds of flash cards. The student who is the first to shout out the answer to the card gets a chance to shoot the ball into a trashcan and win points for their team. 

Fat Beat Friday is another creative tradition started by Larson. The process starts with a line of beats written onto the whiteboard. The students will clap their way through the line a few times before the beat is paired to a random song. Natalie Doney, junior, says her favorite song they’ve done for Fat Beat Friday is Diamonds by Rihanna. 

These forms of teaching seem to be helping students like Journey Platt, senior, who says, “Mr. Larson has taught me more about music than any other choir teacher I've had.”

Many of his students have expressed their thoughts on Larson in a positive way. 

“Mr. Larson has brought back my love for music; he made music more about passion and less about being perfect. He sees potential and he helps his students reach their fullest potential. He has truly changed The OHS Choir Department,” says Shank. 

Lynkyn McElmurry, senior, says Larson is the reason they are still in choir today. “Whenever I walk into the room, I can immediately feel comfortable knowing I can talk freely and be honest on how I am feeling to him.” 

As many of his students have shared their adoration for him and his teaching, Larson shares an equal amount for them. When asked for one thing he could say to his students, his response is this: “I love each and every one of you. You are greater than you think and I am just waiting for you to figure that out!”

Larson's plans for OHS choirs do not end after just this year. He plans to continue pushing his students to become better year after year. 

“I want to get them out of Missouri and I also want to get them exposed to choral music at higher levels to see what they can accomplish and for them to realize that I ‘am’ as crazy as they think! (but for good reason, which is good music making),” Larson says.

 Overall, Larson has improved not only the learning of the students, but the morale and connection of the choirs as a whole.

By Andrea Pfetsch, Makayla Cole

(Both are current members of the color guard and band.)

Photo Credit: Belinda Johnson

Odessa’s Band of Distinction brings the sound to the high school this 2025-2026 school year.

Our OHS band has been working since June to perform the best music at football games and competitions. 

Band directors are Travis Wittman, who has taught in Odessa for five years, and Johnny Rotolo, who has taught for two years here. The color guard director is Paige Bockes, teaching for three years. Their drumline technicians are Rachel Mrosko, Matthew Gannon, and Tony Lewis.

Directors and staff have high expectations for our band this year, thinking that they will improve from their scores from last year if they allow themselves to be challenged.

“My expectations this year is to challenge ourselves with harder drill and really iron out a lot of our technique fundamentals. I think that our scores should be higher than last year overall and continue to trend upwards based on the hard work we've already seen!” says Wittman.

Members say the band is a great environment for people to join and blossom in, welcoming and supporting people with open arms.

“I would describe the band as like a second family, it's a place where you can create everlasting friendships and meet the most amazing people with the same interests as you,” says Lynkyn McElmurry, senior drum major.

Beyond the friendship and family-like atmosphere described by McElmury, Rotolo notes that the band also prides itself on supporting students with several passions.

“It's a fun time filled with passionate students! I would also like to tout that the band is very good at working with students who balance multiple sports, activities, etc,” says Rotolo.

Talking about a second family, the Odessa BOD is oriented on being student-led, students leading the eight different sections within the band and color guard, three drum majors leading right next to the directors, and three band managers who help the band keep organized. 

Every leader comes from a certain place for a certain reason. The band promotes this, allowing people like Jaida Starchman, senior mids section leader, to lead with passion.

“I only had one out of two section leaders that I looked up to and saw as an actual leader, and I wanted the incoming freshman to have a leader that would teach them the correct things and be someone that they could have as a "role model" but also a friend,” says Starchman.

All returner members have overall positive memories with the band, but they also say the friendships you make are important as well.

“I recommend joining because not only do you make very funny and almost unbelievable memories, but you make connections,” says Cheyenne Strader, senior color guard section leader.

A majority of the members have experience with the band, and they all know the best and worst. Most of those worsts are overlapped by the bests due to all the fun memories, like trips!

“My favorite time was going to Disney World. Just because I play an instrument, I have to go to a place a lot of people wish they were at, so trust me you gotta join. I had a really good time with the band, and I don't think I'll ever forget it,” says Denton Geier, senior clarinet section leader.

While there are many funny trips you can go on – like competitions or out-of-state trips – some of the band kids enjoy the smaller things. 

“Awards, always awards,” said Rylee Hollingsworth, color guard senior. “After watching bigger bands and being amazed, when the time finally comes for our score to be announced, everyone gets together, and we all hope for the best, even if we are last.”

Speaking of awards, BOD's hard work goes towards all of their performances where they earn said awards.

Their show this year is named The Final Voyage, a pirate adventure, and they’ve recently performed at every home football game so far; the Blue Springs South Competition, placed 2nd in their class and 16th in open class; and the Smith-Cotton Invitational, where they placed 4th of 6 in their class. 

Some of the band's important upcoming dates are our Odessa Marching Invitational, which goes on here at the high school and middle school on October 11; our 8th-grade night home football game on October 17; their last competition at the Royal Regiment Invitational on October 18 at Harrisonville High School; the senior night home game on October 24.