(Milford)– More accolades for the Okoboji High School Jazz Band. Instrumental Music Director James Kunz tells KUOO news the group placed 1st recently at the Northwest Iowa District Jazz Festival, automatically qualifying them for the State Jazz Championship April 8th in Ames. He says this will mark more than 30 years Okoboji has qualified for the event…
“The two years that they didn’t host the event due to the pandemic, not withstanding, so I guess it’s really stretched for 32 years, but 30 years of participating in it. Pretty incredible to think about all the students over that time that have been impacted by this awesome event and the four directors that have been part of it. I’m just a teeny tiny part of that legacy, so it’s pretty cool to be part of that.”
Kunz singles out several students for their performances at the district competition…
“Cole Becker and McKenna Hesse and Alyana Antoine all received outstanding soloist awards. Oh, and Trig Heimdahl as well on trombone. And then most recently we had three students selected for the All State 3A Jazz Band: Cole Becker on alto saxophone, Annamaria Simone on trombone, Alyana Antoine on piano and then Mark Hogard was selected as an alternate on bass.”
Kunz attributes the success of the Okoboji Jazz Band to the student musicians and their hard work…
“I think we’re pretty unique in that our jazz band season runs from September, about the third week of school, and then we go all the way to the very last week of school, so the last week that we have our normal classes before we start May term, so our season isn’t just kind of a three month sprint like a lot of other schools. It’s a whole year program and we wouldn’t be able to have the success we do without the commitment and the hard work of the students.”
Kunz says he’s also grateful to the administration and parents for their support of the program.
