West Heart Rocks Westview - Continued
Members of the band age in age from 20s to mid-40s, several write their own music.
Casas performed with several celebrities like Cher and Three Dog Night before settling in Lee;s Summit.
Kuzmich, who co-founded the talent management company Boulevard Group Inc. with Commerford, has performed with country music star Hal Ketchum.Commerford co-wrote both the song “Lady Liberty," which was played at the rededication of the Statue of Liberty, and the theme song for the Kansas Special Olympics, “I can Do Anything.”
Munoz has been a featured performer, first at the Harris House and later at the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City, for the last ten years.
So far the group has obtained sponsorships from the Kansas City Royals, Burger King, the children's network Radio Oz, radio station KFKF 94, and their own management firm. the Boulevard Group Inc. To make the program accessible to schools, they charge only $150 a performance. For that reason, they are still looking for more business and corporate sponsors.
Last December, the group released its first album, “Livin in the Land of Oz and Lovin It.” The albums title song and “Ozark Mountain Gold,” were written by Kuzmich, Commerford, and Joe Dekat. Kuzmich said after the group's successful release of the “Oz” album, they were struggling the question: “ How can we have a career and keep our band members at home with their families?”
Casas had abondoned a successful career as a back up musician for major performers several years ago and was eager to hit the road again.
“We like to be at home withour families,” he said. “This concept we look at as sure to be a perfect solution - a win-win solution for everybody - a win-win for the schools, and a win-win for us. The way we get to the public as resonably as ossible,” Kuzmich said, "and keep our band members at home and not on the road where therecan be all kinds of problems. Its hard on marriages, hard on families.
Commerford, whose background is in music education, said for the last 10 years he had been thinking about performing in schools as a way to provide a positive influence on kids. “In order to appeal to kids, you have come to where they are," he said. “we're doing that witha popular form of music that appeals to kids.”
Kuzmich said a survey showed huge audiance - 658 schools - within a 60-mile radius of Boulevard Group's offices at College and Metcalf in Johnson County. So far, they have performed for acout 20 school assemblies and they are scheduled to play 150 schools on their first educational tour, which will begin on Jan. 9.
Commerford said West Heart is very selective about where they work. They have never been on the nightclub circuit, mainly because they don't feel it's the right setting for them.
West Heart has performed for many charitable groups including the Walk of Stars, Buck Buchanan's Celebrity Sports Carnival and the Metro Dream Classic. Kuzmich said their goal is to entertain while providing positive adult role models for their young audiances. After a school performance, band members visit the classrooms to interact with the kids in a more personal atmosphere.
Casas said in talking with one student, who was studying bass guitar, he told him that if you study hard, practiced and was a very good musician, he could someday make his living playing bass cuitar. “That's what my teacher said,” the student said with a startled expression. “Sometimes you say the very same thing to the kids their parents or teachers are saying. Sut when it comes from us, as part of a musical group, they listen,” Casas said.