Four students from last summer's Symphony in the Flint Hills class offered by the Elliott School of Communication at Wichita State University produced a documentary that will air on KPTS Channel 8 at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 26. The half-hour show will repeat at 1 a.m. Friday, May 27.

The title of the documentary is "Prairie Music: Symphony in the Flint Hills." The documentary is based on the 2010 event, which was held eight miles west of Bazaar in Chase County.

Producers were Corin Brena, Mark Kenny, Steven Ludlow and Fletcher Powell. Executive producers were Amy DeVault and Les Anderson, who taught the summer class last June.

'Heighten appreciation'

Symphony in the Flint Hills is an annual event held in a different location in the Flint Hills. The Kansas City Symphony performs the evening concert each year.

Only 5,000 tickets are sold each year. This year, tickets were sold out in 30 minutes.

"The mission of Symphony in the Flint Hills is to heighten appreciation and knowledge of the tallgrass prairie, by providing opportunities to experience symphonic music and place-based education in the Kansas Flint Hills," said Emily Hunter, executive director of the organization.

This year's concert is June 11 in the Fix Pasture near Volland, adjacent to Mill Creek Scenic Drive in Wabaunsee County. The theme is "Freedom's Frontier: The Story." During the 150th anniversary of Kansas statehood and the start of the Civil War, the Symphony in the Flint Hills organization is partnering with Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area.

"Together, we will present the many stories relating to the Missouri/ Kansas border, a geography that witnessed unprecedented violence between Americans just prior to the Civil War," Hunter said. "These stories provide critical insight into our national value of individual freedom."

DeVault and Anderson are teaching the summer class based on the 2011 Symphony in the Flint Hills again in June.

In addition to the documentary being shown on KPTS, the 2010 summer class produced a 100-page, four-color magazine (available at magcloud.com), a 10-minute feature that aired on KMUW 89.1, and a photo slideshow and videos provided to Symphony in the Flint Hills for display in its office in Strong City. Students also wrote stories and provided photos for newspapers in Wichita, Lawrence, Ottawa, Gardner, Spring Hill, Marysville and the Turnpike Times.