HHS Jazz Band performs in State Jazz Championships

By KYLIE PORTZ
At the start of the year, the Humboldt High School Wildcat Jazz Band set out to achieve one goal: to qualify for the Iowa High School State Jazz Championship. A feat not accomplished by the band since 2017.

Senior alto saxophonist Kayla Weinert said, “It was really exciting, it was a great opportunity for us. We hadn’t been in nine years and as seniors we thought, ‘this is our last chance, so we got to make it!’”

Seniors Turner Hansen and Ayden Fiengo explained that they had set a goal at the beginning of the school year to make it to state jazz, whatever it took to get there.

The band spent time outside of class working together to practice and perfect their pieces.

Director Emily Willadsen said, “I’m just really proud of our students. They set a goal at the beginning of the year that they wanted to go to Jazz Champs and they worked really hard for it.”

Willadsen said, “They had weekly sectionals where they’d get together and work outside of practice and coming in for extra lessons and taking lessons with area professionals and local teachers and just really putting in a lot of extra work to make this a reality.”

She explained, “The way we make Jazz Champs is we go to a district contest in February and they take the top two bands that place at districts and our band got first place, which is huge after not having placed for many years.”

Willadsen said, “We placed third last year and then to place first this year it just shows a lot of growth and a lot of improvement. And I think proud is the word, I’m really proud of them.”

Read the story in this week's issue of the Humboldt Independent!