🔴 Thanks to all the band students on an wonderful 2018-2019 school year!

🔴 All the band students did a magnificent job in the Memorial Day Service and the Scandinavian Days Parade.  Thanks to all of the graduated seniors for participating in these two events.

🔴 Another great weekend for the Roland-Story band!  The Marching Band performed in front of thousands at the Pella Tulip Time parade on Friday and the Concert Band earned a division 1 rating at the IHSMA Large Group festival which was held at Woodward-Granger High School on Saturday.  All of the students in the high school band have received an overall division 1 rating in their high school career.   The concert band performed the following two selections at large-group:  "In My Perfect Place" by Leslie Gilreath and "Pacific Dreams" by Jacob de Haan.

🔴 Congrats to everyone on their performance at the Spring Concert.  The band shared the concert with the Wartburg College Wind Ensemble.  The concert band performed the following selections:  "In My Perfect Place", "Pacific Dreams", "Lion King Medley" and "Purple Pageant March".  Thanks to the students that performed their contest selections.  The jazz band performed selections from their performance at IJC from April along with "Sing A Song Of Songs" and "First Circle".  

🔴 R-S performed at ISU in Ames at the Iowa Jazz Championships on April 2nd.  This marked the seventeenth straight year of making IJC, which is a huge accomplishment.  We have been blessed with so many great musicians through the years.  Roland-Story finished in 5th place for the second time in three years.  The band did a super job on all parts of the ballot sheet which includes:  ensemble, rhythm section, style, solos, and programming.  Our stage presentation as always was superb.  We had two students selected as outstanding performers.  They played the saxophone and piano.  Congrats to our piano player on being chosen as one of the top four soloists in Class 2A.

🔴 Thanks to everyone that helped to make the solo/ensemble festival a great day!  Roland-Story High School students performed in the IHSMA solo/ensemble festival held at Dike-New Hartford on Saturday, March 30.  R-S students gave many outstanding performances during the festival.  Roland-Story had the following results:  17 division I ratings, 13 division II ratings, 1 division III,  and no division IV or V ratings.  Roland-Story also had two perfect ballots and an alto saxophone solo that was chosen as outstanding in the center.  The past twelve years Roland-Story has achieved the following ratings:  226 division I ratings, 75 division II ratings, 3 division III rating and no division IV or V ratings.  Schools participating in the festival included the following:  Aplington-Parkersburg, Cedar Valley Catholic, Denver, Dike-New Hartford, Hudson, Jesup, Roland-Story, South Hamilton, South Hardin, and Union. 

🔴 The Roland-Story Color Guard was awarded the 2019 ISDTA Sportsmanship Award sponsored by Mark's Dancewear.  R-S was chosen the best out of over 250 high school teams.  This award is more important than any 1st place trophy that we have received at any contest.

🔴 Amazing!  The Roland-Story Jazz Band achieved the highest GPA of all Iowa High School music groups in the 2013 - 2014 and 2015-2016 school years according to the Iowa High School Music Association.

🔴 Congrats to two R-S students on being selected to the 2021 Iowa All-State Jazz Band along with one of the five alternates.  Students selected to the 1A-2A band from R-S perform the following instruments: guitar, drum set, and (alternate) alto saxophone.  The students gave an outstanding indoor performance at Earlham High School in June.

🔴 All of the band students gave a fabulous performance at the Spring Band Concert.  The concert band performed five selections:  "Earthdance", "Fate Of Gods", "Hamilton", "Havendance", and "The Trombone King".  Jazz band students gave a splendid job on the following selections:  "Arnge Drank", I'm Not So Sure", "Jalapeño Dreams", and "Pagan Pie".  The concert was the first time we could sit in a normal concert band formation and do a performance at our high school this year.

🔴 Concert band students had their best performance this school year at the IHSMA Large-Group Festival at Woodward-Granger High School.  The band received a division 1 rating and 2 division 2 ratings.  I'm so glad we were able to make music in a more normal seating arrangement the last few weeks.  Thank you everyone for doing a super job of practicing music from one end of the bleachers to the other end of bleachers for most of the school year. 

🔴 Thank you band students for your preparation of your solos and ensembles this year for the Iowa High School Music Association solo/ensemble festival.  The festival was held virtually.  Judges chosen for the festival had four days to evaluate the performances.  R-S had the following ratings:  24 division I's, 4 division II's, and no division III, IV, or V ratings.  We had a total of four perfect scores.  The performances that received perfect scores were the following:  alto saxophone solo, snare drum solo, piano solo, and the flute/clarinet duet.  The alto saxophone solo was chosen as the best performance in the center.  The last thirteen years R-S has had the following ratings:  250 division I ratings, 79 division II ratings, 3 division III ratings, and no division IV or V ratings.

🔴 The R-S jazz band performed virtually for three jazz contests.  Those contests included the following:  Triton Jazz Festival, 50th annual Hoover Jazz Festival, and the University of South Dakota Coyote Jazz Festival.  The Triton festival was for comments from judges.  R-S finished in first place at the Hoover Jazz Festival with a high score of 91 points from a judge.  The band received a division 1 rating at the Coyote Jazz Festival.  R-S received the most points ever from a festival in March or April when we participated in the USD Coyote Jazz Festival.  The band had incredible scores of 93, 97, and 93!

🔴 Another outstanding concert was performed by the band students.  The concert band selections were as follows:  "Sedona", "Manhattan Beach March", "Star Of Dreams", and "A Disney Spectacular".  The jazz band featured the tunes that we performed at the IHSMA Jazz Festival held earlier in the month.

🔴 Way to go jazz kids!  The R-S Jazz Band received a division 1 rating for the 20th consecutive year at the IHSMA Jazz Festival held at Fort Dodge.  The jazz band received 48, 49, and 50 points out of a possible 50.  The band performed the following three selections:  "Hipper By The Dozen", "Georgia On My Mind", and "Trofeo de Bolos". 

🔴 Three Roland-Story ninth grade students were selected to the 2021 Wartburg College Honor Band.  R-S students chosen were on the following instruments:  alto saxophone, bari saxophone, and percussion.  Our percussion student was selected as the section leader.

🔴 The concert band gave a splendid performance of Christmas tunes.  The concert was live steamed for our community to watch and over 2400 people enjoyed the performance.  Parents were able to attend in the gym.  The band performed the following musical selections:  "Angels Of Joy!", "A Fresh Aire Christmas", "A Most Wonderful Christmas", "Do You Hear What I Hear?", and "Symphonic Highlights From Frozen. 

🔴 Two students auditioned for the SCIBA Honor Band and both were chosen to be a part of the band.  Selected to the honor band were a 12th grade french horn player and a 10th grade trumpet player.  Thank you to both of you for all the time spent preparing your scales and etudes.

🔴 Congrats to our senior saxophone student on being selected to the 268-piece 2020 All-State Band.  The All-State auditions were held virtually at Le Mars, Hampton, Independence, Atlantic, Indianola, and Washington.  Three alto saxophones were chosen from the Indianola site which covers the Des Moines metro.  Our sax student was the only alto saxophone chosen to receive 1st part from our site.  The 2020 concert was cancelled due to health safety concerns.

🔴 Congratulations to the Roland-Story Color Guard on finishing in 4th place in Class 1A at the ISDTA team competition.  One judge had Roland-Story as the highest out of all three classes.  The team finished 1/2 point out of 300 points for 3rd place and 3 points from 2nd.  Thanks to everyone for their hard work and working together as a team.

🔴 Six R-S color guard members competed in the solo competition.  All six students received division 1 ratings.  Our top color guard soloist finished in 7th overall in Iowa on her solo.  Everyone did an amazing job preparing their solo for competition.

🔴 Thanks to all of the band students for doing an amazing job for the three home football games this year.  Special thanks to Mrs. Barker, Mrs. Masemann, and Mrs. Stutzman for doing rehearsals and performances while I missed time due to being ill.