Every year, the Kentucky Band Organization invites middle schoolers to audition for their prestigious KBO All-State Band program.

Only the best young musicians make the cut.

The music's tough, rehearsals are long, but the final result is much greater than the sum of its parts.

And if you pay attention to the saxophone section, one name keeps popping up year after year.

█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ Since 2019, the Kentucky Band Organization has been pairing the state's top young musicians with renowned conductors for an intense weekend of rehearsals and an amazing final concert.

It's a powerful experience for everyone involved.

They're middle schoolers, but they are performing They're middle schoolers, but they are performing at a high school level.

And when they perform, I think, at that level, they can feel it on stage that this is different.

This is not just a performance in a gym.

This is where everybody's paying attention to every rest, and everybody's coming together, and everybody's breathing together.

And I think that kind of shared experience is something that's so memorable and deep for them.

They do a good job of judging the best of the best.

And so that's why it's such a good experience.

A lot of my kids go, and they really get a feeling for how much they need to work, what they need to work on, and how good they are.

One part of our process is giving feedback to the students, and I think watching them get the feedback and their appreciation for that, that's probably the most satisfying thing.

It's not just their placement.

It's about their growth.

And I think if they feel like they're growing, that's mission accomplished.

My mom in middle school and high school My mom in middle school and high school did a lot of honor bands and extracurriculars with music, and she wanted me to do those as well and she wanted me to do those as well because I think she knew how much fun it would be and how much it would help me grow.

This year's program took place at UK's Singletary Center for the Arts.

The KBO keeps the show moving.

Past venues include Eastern and Western Kentucky Universities and the Youth Performing Arts School in Louisville.

Another element that changes every year is the guest conductor.

Our guest conductor this year is Christine Wolfe, and she's actually from Salt Lake City.

She is a fantastic middle school band director and has been for 30 years.

And the biggest reason why we brought her in was because she's a fantastic educator and treats her children well.

The conductors are brought in from all over the country, and their influence is felt beyond the rehearsals and performances.

Sometimes they talk to them and they realize, you know, not my band director might have told me I'm great, but this guy from Texas told me I'm amazing.

And that changes like their viewpoint of like themselves and their self-esteem, and I love that.

As important as the influence of the guest conductors has been, the students have gotten to this level with hard work and the devotion of their middle school band directors and private teachers.

And if you take a look at the KBO's saxophone sections, one teacher really stands out.

Making Allstate is hard to do, man, on any level, middle school, high school.

And it says a lot about the student, and it says a lot about the teachers that are coaching them to kind of motivate them to get to that point.

Ron is incredible.

For years and years, we would always look at the Allstate list, and you would see a Ron Jones student, a Ron Jones student, a Ron Jones student.

So anytime anyone around looks at the saxophone list, we know it's going to be a Ron Jones studio.

In addition to teaching saxophone for more than 30 years, Ron Jones has been playing professionally for longer than that, and he brings all that experience to his students.

It just blossomed into something that you see today.

I had no idea that I would want to teach music like I am now, and I found out that I had a niche for working with young people and helping young people to develop as musicians.

Over the years, Ron has helped a multitude of young musicians, but this year's first chair alto sax is someone special.

Louisville eighth grader Wyatt Quiles has been working with Ron for two years, and he's made quite the impression.

I've taught a lot of students.

He's different in a very positive, good way.

I love working with him.

Every lesson is a journey, and he has a lot of really great questions.

He's very inquisitive.

2...3... █ █ █ █ Music is important to me because it really helps me free my mind from everything that's going on, and it helps me enter a world where I can just choose what I want to play and choose how I want to express myself.

I can't think of one lesson since he's been taking lessons with me, which started in the sixth grade, where he's come in here and he said, Mr. Jones, I didn't practice this week -- Never happened.

Like all great teachers, Ron focuses on lessons that go beyond the subject at hand.

Mr. Jones always had a saying, don't be upset with the results you didn't get with the work you didn't put in, which is just what I apply to in everything in my life.

I'm just a driven person, man, in my playing, in my practice.

My students see that.

They see I'm not going to tell them to do anything that I myself don't do.

So when they come to see me perform, they see the fruits of my labor as far as practice is concerned.

When you look at teachers like Ron Jones and organizations like KBO, you realize that their effects go way beyond the music.

They reveal the importance of art for the happiness and development of our kids and the communities they will one day be entrusted to lead.

The arts are so important for the students because it's an avenue for them to experience, to create.

And really, I think when you talk about character and creating a person, a human being, the arts is a huge part of their development.

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