September 2, 2025
Dear Orchestra Director:
The 2025 Iowa Junior Honors Orchestra Festival is Friday, Nov. 21 on the campus of Iowa State University. The Iowa String Teachers’ Association and the Iowa Music Educators’ Association are the sponsors. The Festival is open to students in grades 6-9. Students are selected from your online nominations. The student fee is $50.00. That includes lunch on campus, renowned guest conductors and 2 tickets to the concert. This fee is due November 7. You will be able to pay by check or with credit card. More information to come once selections have been made.
Inviting well-known conductors to conduct a one-day festival involves assuring them that the students will know the pieces extremely well and have mastered the technical passages of the works prior to the festival. Additionally, a festival that involves written nominations, rather than taped auditions, requires that the nominating teacher be realistic about the playing ability of the students he/she is nominating. In listing the nomination piece for a student, it is crucial that the listed piece be one that the student has mastered and completed. Pieces that a student have just begun, or are in the beginning process of learning, are not to be used in the nomination process.
Guidelines for nomination:
Violin –Book 5 at the Vivaldi g minor or the equivalent
Viola – Book 4 at Telemann
Celli – Book 5 at Danse Rustique
Bass – Comfortable through fifth position
Participation of your students in a festival of this type will require your work. There has to be “quality assurance” monitored by the teacher, which means that you have heard your students play the music and are proud of the manner in which the parts have been learned.
There will be two orchestras of equal ability and they will present a joint concert in Fisher Auditorium at 4:30 p.m. Rehearsals will begin at 8:45 a.m. and the Festival will conclude around 5:30 p.m., following the concert. The entire Festival, including lunch, will take place on the ISU campus. Our conductors this year are Mr. Jonathan Welch and Dr. Rebecca Nederhiser. We are delighted to have these two experienced conductors and pedagogues share their expertise and talent with our young students.
Teachers with a student participating are required to be members of the Iowa String Teacher’s Association, which is the local chapter of the national American String Teacher’s Association. A list of the ISTA membership will be requested on October 1 and if your name is not on that list, your nomination will not be accepted.
The nomination form is online and can be found on the website listed at the bottom of the page. Please be sure to fill in all sections of the form. There is no limit on the number of students selected from any school.
Nominations must be submitted by midnight on Wednesday, October 1. You will be notified of the selection of your students by approximately October 20. We will designate 2 alternates for each section. If you have 9th graders who are trying out for the All-State Orchestra, feel free to nominate them for the festival. If they are accepted into All-State, there will be no problem withdrawing them from the festival.
Sincerely Members of the IJHOF Committee,
Rebecca Windschitl
Melissa Gillette
Kathryn Swinbank
Michelle Mentz
Sarah O’Neill
Josh Reznicow
Tabitha Rasmussen
Thad Sentmen
Nicolle Stern
Katie Vail
Tyler Coleman
Kyle Geesey
Xavier Quinn
1. Previous participants will be automatically selected.
2. The highest ranking student from each school will be selected (1 guaranteed per school)
3. Students will be ranked by their solo by three teacher volunteers per instrument.
4. Their scores will be averaged and the following numbers will be selected based on that average.
72 Violins (18 per section, per orchestra)
28 Violas (14 per orchestra)
28 Cellos (14 per orchestra)
16 Basses (8 per orchestra)
5. Any ties in the averages will be decided by grade level or other honor orchestras attended.
6. Two students will be selected as alternates for each section.
7. Beyond the alternates, students not initially selected will be placed in order on a waiting list and notified at least three weeks before the concert.