The Greene County High School Music Department will be sending several students to compete at this weekend’s Iowa High School Music Association State Solo/Small Ensemble contest.

Band Director Wes Anderson tells Raccoon Valley Radio there are about 12 students, including three soloists and two ensembles with a brass quintet and a sax quartet. After the contest was held remotely last year because of the pandemic, it is returning to being fully in person this year. Anderson is happy with the return of the in person competition because he feels students need to have that kind of experience of playing live in front of a judge, receive live feedback, which can take a lot of courage to do. 

Vocal Director David Hepuel has eight soloists scheduled to perform Saturday. He points out this is the first time since 2001 Greene County hasn’t hosted the competition. He also changed his standards of requiring every choir student to participate in the contest because of the pandemic, but he is also happy with having it back fully in person as well. 

The two groups will compete for a rating, where Division I is the highest a student can get. The contest will take place at Ogden High School on Saturday.