This Tuesday, 16 of Pleasant Valley’s finest choral musicians will be taking part in the Iowa Vocal Jazz Championships. Leading Tones is one of eight class 4a high schools selected from around the state to compete. The group will be performing at 7:20 Tuesday night at West Des Moines Valley high school.
Leading Tones is an elite, a cappella group that was auditioned back in early November. They have been rehearsing twice a week since then and have performed at District Choral Fest, Jazz Night (along with the six other jazz ensembles) and the elementary choir tour.
Their set starts off with an R&B/jazz arrangement of Reset by Take Six, featuring solosists; Brendan Roethler, Roshni Nair, Avery Luepker and John Mendelin. Leading into a more upbeat swing tune, with some comedy thrown in, called I Hear Music with soloists Christine Lyon, Ellie Lindmark, John Mendelin and Madison Wells. Their ballad is titled, When I Fall In Love and really showcases the vocal prowess and what being an a cappella group is all about. No tricks, no beatboxing, just 16 individuals coming together to create an emotional experience for the audience. They will end their set with chart called Summertime, originally an aria from the opera Porgy and Bess. This arrangement mixes up different grooves and has the perfect explosive ending. Soloists are Bailey Connors, Avery Luepker, Roshni Nair, Halle Fish and Brendan Roethler.
Last year the group placed 3rd overall and the top three groups were separated by two points. They are ambitious and excited to get back on the stage and represent their school with another ecstatic performance. Director Meg Byrne said, “It’s a great honor to be one of the top eight 4a school selected.” Byrne also added, “It is always exciting to get out there and perform with the best in the state. Even though it is a competition, it is a very supportive environment and everybody loves to go out and watch all the other groups.”
Earlier on in the day six students will be auditioning for the Iowa Allstate Jazz Choir. They must sing three scales, a prepared audition cut, a memorized solo and do two forms of sight reading. The group of only twenty selected students from all classes will be announced that night during the awards portion of the competition.
Pleasant Valley has always had a good showing of students being selected for the choir, most recently being 2017 graduate Megan Maloney and senior Roshni Nair who hopes to continue the trend. Nair said, “I’m so excited for this Tuesday, as much as I want to make Allstate Jazz again, right now all I really want is for our ensemble to perform well and have a good time.”
This being their tenth year in a row at the championships, Leading Tones is certainly ready to give a show stopping performance.
