Photo courtesy of GCSD

The Greene County High School Jazz Choir is getting ready to make a return trip to its “postseason.”

Ram Jive was one of the eight Class 2A Jazz Choirs selected for the Iowa Vocal Jazz Championships. Director David Heupel is impressed with how well the ensemble has been coming together ever since their first competition in the beginning of February. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio schools submit a recording of two songs and of those submissions in the different high school classifications, eight are chosen to compete at the Iowa Vocal Jazz Championships. Heupel talks about some nervousness he had once their recording was submitted.

“My only question was…was our recording solid enough? I know they sounded good enough. They did the Shake the Lakes competition (and won). When we sent in the recording, I listened to that (and) I’m always a little picky on our recordings, and I thought, ‘Oh I don’t know if I like this recording or if it’s good enough or not’ and then we got the results and they got in.”     

The 2025 IVJC will be held at Dallas Center-Grimes High School Tuesday and Wednesday, with Ram Jive being the final performance on Tuesday at 7:45pm. The other Class 2A jazz choirs that were selected include Central Lyon, Grundy Center, Emmetsburg, Maquoketa Valley, Roland-Story, Sibley-Ocheydan, and Hudson.