Selection Process
How Students are Selected
Have you ever been curious about how students are selected for participation in the Kentucky Intercollegiate Band? This page will attempt to explain the selection process.
Selection to the Kentucky Intercollegiate Band is dependent on the use of a formula. The original formula was approved and agreed upon by the general membership in the early 2000s. The formula guaranteed certain things – but also allowed for other factors to creep in that were not always in the best interests of the membership, particularly smaller institutions. In 2026, the general membership voted on and approved a new formula closely resembling the old formula, but attempting to fix some of the small issues that existed with the previous methods. The success of this new formula still hinges on the truthful and forthright nominations of each participating director.
As is stated in the new guidelines, each participating director may nominate up to 30 members of their concert or symphonic band personnel. However, only the first 20 are given full weight. Nominations after the first 20 receive sharply diminished weight, dropping to a zero rating or below, and may be selected only in cases of low numbers of nominations for a given section. We ask all directors to nominate only members who are fluent with, and able to positively contribute to, literature of a Grade VI caliber. Nominations are listed in “rank order” regardless of instrument. In other words…if Tommy is the very finest player in your band, and Tommy happens to play tuba, then Tommy should be listed first in your submissions.
When the KIB Coordinator receives the nominations, they establish a database or spreadsheet with all of the received raw nominations [these calculations used to be done by hand, which was not a pretty sight]. Listed on the database or spreadsheet will be the band member’s name, their instrument, and the “rank” as established by the nominating director. This is the first of the three important numbers that establish selection in the new formula. The second number is a single shared value, set once by the Coordinator for the entire pool, representing the maximum number of ranked spots that will be given full credit under the formula (in this case, 20). The third and final column is the “rating” as established by the formula.
In short, one minus the quantity of Rank minus one, divided by the shared maximum, equals the rating. Unlike the previous formula, no institution’s own nomination total factors into the calculation. Every director’s rank order is measured against the same fixed scale, so a school’s second-ranked nominee is scored identically to any other school’s second-ranked nominee, regardless of how many total students either institution nominated. A rank that falls beyond the shared maximum (e.g., nominations past 20) will produce a rating at or below zero, indicating a nominee outside the scored range for that cycle. That doesn’t mean those people may not be chosen – as previously mentioned, in cases with low instrumentation (for example, a year without many clarinet nominations), nominees with negative numbers could still be chosen to participate.
After the Coordinator has entered all of the raw data (usually 220+ nominations!) and the “rating” has been established, the raw data is then sorted by instrument. This generates a listing of, for example, all of the flute players nominated and their respective “ratings” from highest to lowest. At this time the KIB Coordinator looks at the raw data (sorted by instrument) and selects instrumentation based on the usual Intercollegiate Band roster numbers.
The typical Kentucky Intercollegiate Band consists of the following:
- Flute/Piccolo – 10
- Oboe – 4 (including English Horn)
- Bassoon – 4 (including Contrabassoon)
- B-flat Soprano Clarinet – 24 (including E-flat Soprano Clarinet)
- E-flat Alto Clarinet – 1
- B-flat Bass Clarinet – 4 (including Contra-Alto or Contrabass Clarinet)
- Alto Saxophone – 4 (including soprano saxophone)
- Tenor Saxophone – 2
- Baritone Saxophone – 2
- Trumpet – 12
- Horn – 8
- Trombone – 8
- Bass Trombone – 2
- Euphonium – 4
- Tuba – 6
- String Bass – 1 (if repertoire calls for it)
- Harp – 1 (if repertoire calls for it)
- Piano – 1 (if repertoire calls for it)
- Percussion – 8
Total Roster: Up to 106 total members are possible.
As you can see, the formula guarantees participation from each and every institution that submits nominations. Each college or university will always have at least one student chosen, even if there is only one nomination from that school. It also means that the “best” players are not always necessarily chosen, which is why the Kentucky Intercollegiate Band is specifically billed as being only “representative of the finest wind and percussion players from colleges and universities in the Commonwealth”. This is also why the key to a successful KIB is very honest nominations from each director.
I hope that this may clarify the selection process and give participating students and directors a more clear view of how the selection process is conducted.
