Anna Garcia Kelcey Knoernschild British trumpet soloist Alison Balsom takes center stage with the Kansas City Symphony next weekend in virtuoso concerti by Haydn and Tomasi.

For Anna Garcia, the opportunity to perform for world-renowned trumpeter Alison Balsom was one she simply could not pass up.

"Ms. Balsom is one of my idols," said Garcia, a fourth-year trumpet performance major at the UMKC Conservatory. "I want to play really well for her."

The 22-year-old from St. Louis applied - and was one of three musicians selected - to take part in a master class with Balsom, the British trumpet sensation who is in town next weekend for three performances with the Kansas City Symphony.

This is the first season the Symphony has offered public master classes. Balsom will listen to and offer critiques of performances by three local trumpet students at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Founders' Hall inside Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, 415 W. 13 St. There's no admission fee.

Pairing a visiting musician with students, and inviting anyone to come and watch for free, is an ingenious way to combine educational outreach and marketing. Which is probably why several orchestras across the country have begun doing it.

"We said, 'What can we do with these world-famous artists - who are coming through our doors already - to put them to good use in music education?' " said Steven Murray, education manager for the Symphony.

Balsom is the third and final master class of this season; cellist Daniel Mueller-Schott and violinist Midori conducted the first two.

"It's especially helpful for college students to see musicians who are making a living," Murray said, "but the class will also be accessible to those not so musically inclined."

The two other students selected to perform for and be critiqued by Balsom are Kelcey Knoernschild, 18, a senior at Park Hill South High School; and Rachel Sneed, 19, a music education major at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville.

"I'm really excited, but I'm also really nervous because I know there are going to be a lot of people there who are trumpet players," said Sneed, who was (unbeknownst to her at the time) nominated by her professor, William Richardson.

Sneed said the class will help her conquer her anxieties about performing before large audiences.

"I'm also eager to see what Ms. Balsom says about my playing, both good and bad," she said. "I've just never worked with somebody with that high a profile."

Sneed's Smithville High School band teacher, Shane Fuller, encouraged her to pursue a musical education. She plans to teach music, but she admitted that Balsom represents another career option: the working musician. She'd like to play in a military band.

"Getting paid to play - that would be an awesome career, to have fun every time I went to work," she said.

That's a big reason professors at music schools invite working musicians to lead master classes, said Keith Benjamin, professor of trumpet at the conservatory and Garcia's teacher.

"It gives the students a chance to see someone who's made it already and to hear their stories and inevitably, to hear how hard they've worked to get there," Benjamin said. "Someone like Alison Balsom is a major recording star. She's the hot thing right now."

He compared it to being picked for a baseball clinic with Derek Jeter.

When the youngest participant in Thursday's master class was asked if he was nervous or had upped his practice time, Knoernschild sounded almost blase.