Lisbon was the winner in class 2A at the Lisbon Jazz Festival.
According to director Joseph Arch, that Lisbon was the only Class 2A school competing at the event was not the intent.
“We had hoped Maquoketa Valley would be here this year, but they were impacted by weather calls at their school,” Arch said.
Still, Arch said the festival, now in its third year, continues to grow in popularity.
“We actually had to turn a few bands away from the event this year, just because of space issues in the schedule,” Arch said. “If we continue to have more interest next year, we may have to open a satellite location to host another space for performances during the day.”
All of that are good problems to be having and giving bands a chance to perform and get critiques days before the state jazz championships to be able to allow students to polish their performances.
Seventeen total bands performed this year at the competition, between middle school and Class 1A through 3A high school bands. Some groups performed for comments only, most of those in the band room performance space, where judges gave critiques on how to improve playing to the style of jazz.
Sawyer Feldman (on trumpet) was the outstanding soloist for Lisbon in Class 2A.
Mount Vernon’s Swingin’ Stangs placed first in Class 3A at the competition, and Mount Vernon’s Johnathan Winkler (on tenor saxophone) was named outstanding soloist. Center Point Urbana was second in Class 3A and Independence placed third.
At the middle school level, Mount Vernon Middle School’s Milo Jones on trombone was the outstanding soloist at the Lisbon Jazz Festival.
In Class 1A, the outstanding soloist went to Brynn Pogmore (on trombone) from Winfield Mount Union. Winfield Mount Union was first overall and Central City placed second.