Photo courtesy of GCSD

Greene County High School Jazz Choir is once again going to its state tournament.

Vocal Director Dave Heupel says Ram Jive was announced as one of the eight finalists to perform in Class 2A at the Iowa Vocal Jazz Championships. After coming off a third place finish last year in Class 3A, Heupel talks about how the ensemble has adjusted with graduating several seniors from last year’s group.

“Well I think it means that they are maybe finally believing in themselves a little more because I heard a lot of that at the beginning of the season from the group itself, ‘Well, we don’t have this person, we don’t have that person.’ Well, I think this is my 14th year of doing jazz choir, and we have different people every year. Just depending on how much you step up and take it on. And they’re doing every bit as good as they did last year.”   

Heupel is excited to go back to IVJC and is hoping to bring in some clinicians to better prepare the students prior to April 1st’s contest. The 2025 IVJC will be held at Dallas Center-Grimes High School on April 1st and 2nd, with Ram Jive being the final performance on April 1st at 7:45pm. The other Class 2A jazz choirs that were selected include Central Lyon, Grundy Center, Emmetsburg, Maquoketa Valley, Roland-Story, Sibley-Ocheydan, and Hudson.