A Night of Jazz
By Brynn A.
Nerves ran high and singers belted their hearts out under the stage lights as the Roland-Story Jazz Choir took to Dallas Center-Grimes High School to compete in the 2025 State Vocal Jazz Championships. Held on April 1, the competition is designed to showcase the very best vocal jazz ensembles that the state has to offer, with the competition in the 2A division better than it has ever been. After winning the championship the previous four years, pressure weighed down the shoulders of every performer in the group, but none of them faltered.
Roland-Story Vocal Jazz consists of 16 singers, as well as piano, percussion, and bass players. This year, our group was led by eight seniors, all of whom gave their everything to this ensemble in the last several months! Succeeding in the ensemble requires dedication to early Wednesday practices, as well as commitment to working during seminar and choir periods. There are typically only two people per part performing very difficult selections, so all singers must have skills in sight reading, keeping rhythm, and finding pitches.
Long before any choirs prepare for the Championships, first comes the selection process. Seven or eight schools are selected from each class, with the adjudicators receiving entries from all over the state. Each school submits a recording of two pieces, usually the two swing tunes. Roland-Story’s jazz choir has been selected every year of its existence, a tough feat to match. With no other performances leading up to the event, it can be difficult to predict the strength of the competition, and each group’s brief show is four months in the making.
After the choir arrived at the school on the big day, and everyone changed into red and black, a 20-minute rehearsal followed. This is usually the group’s only chance to warm up and practice their set before taking the stage. This year, Roland-Story’s two swing pieces were “Devil May Care” and “Hearts Take Time,” while our ballad was an arrangement of a soft 70s rock piece, called “If.” After the warmup, the students swallowed their fear and took the stage for their season-making performance. Groups were assessed by three judges based on their mic and sound check, tone and pitch accuracy, blend, interactions with each other and the audience, dynamics and tempo, solos, and the challenge level of the music.
After all the performances were finished, judges presented their picks for an outstanding instrumentalist and two outstanding soloists. Junior soprano Lexi Butler was chosen as one of these winners, out of about 40 soloists in the competition, for her opening solo in “Hearts Take Time.” After these were presented, judges gave out their placement awards, starting with the eighth place school and working their way to first place. As the top three were announced, every student was holding their breath. For the fifth year running, Roland-Story were chosen as the state champions in 2A vocal jazz!
This is the longest winning streak of any school, regardless of class, in the history of the Jazz Championships. Later, students would find out that Roland-Story won over Maquoketa Valley by an eight-point margin.
After our last performance of the year at the MAST Showcase on April 13, the 2025 Vocal Jazz season at Roland-Story, an incredible success, has come to an end.