Tonight will be the final performance for two three-time qualifiers from Greene County for the Iowa High School Music Association All-State Music Festival.

Greene County High School seniors Gavin Vander Linden and Olivia Hoyt have been performing with the best high school choir students from across the state since their sophomore years. Hoyt talks about what making All-State for a third consecutive year means to her.

“I think it’s really an honor I would say. It’s definitely not easy and it definitely shows work and commitment, and overall improvement making it a third year. Even like, ‘Yeah I made it the first year,’ but I still had to learn, and I still had to work, and I still had to do all the repetition. It was really honorable, I think.”    

Vander Linden was excited to make All-State for a third year after not making it his freshman year of high school. He explains a deal he made with his mother.

“Before I auditioned my sophomore year, I made a bet with my mom that if I made it for the next three years, there’s a bumper sticker that you get that says, ‘My Kid is an All-Stater.’ They’re terrible bumper stickers (and) they’re hilarious. But having made it this third year, she now has to put it on her car.”  

After graduation Hoyt plans to study music and performance at an undecided school and Vander Linden plans to attend Iowa State University for computer science.