On Saturday April 12, 2025 the Pleasant Valley music departments hosted the annual 4A Iowa High School Music Association (IHSMA) Solo and Ensemble Festival, which featured over 350 musicians. In addition, Pleasant Valley supplied over a third of all participating students.
While this 4A local festival has been held at other locations previously, PV took on an inaugural responsibility to support the association and featured vocal and instrumental performances by soloists, duets, trios, quartets and a range of small ensembles.
Senior Sydney James performed a solo in a quartet with her all-state audition group and in a small ensemble composed of PV Leading Tones jazz choir members. James also volunteered during times when she was not performing. “I think it was very well orchestrated and for a first year host location, it was very successful,” she said.In addition, James shared from a student’s perspective that the festival “was run smoother than any other year.”
“I felt very confident in what I had prepared as well as the location it was held because I felt at ease in knowing where each classroom was,” James added, noting the definitive home court-advantage.
PV Chamber Choir supplied 13 small groups and provided over 20% of all vocal entries. Together, PV choirs earned the overall total of 48 Division I “superior” ratings, 57 Division II “excellent” ratings and 14 Division III “good” ratings. In addition, PV seniors Kailee McCaw and Clare Tinsman were respectively awarded “outstanding performance” awards for their solo performances.
PV Band members prepared similarly to choir members and earned a total of 66 Division I ratings, 51 Division II ratings and 11 Division III ratings. The band also had three “outstanding performance” award recipients: seniors Becca Hahm and Sophia Pomykala’s clarinet duet and senior Tanya Rastogi’s flute solo.
Many band members participated in multiple events, and junior Anthony Harvey was no different, choosing to perform a trumpet solo, play a duet with a friend and play in the trumpet brass choirs. Harvey shared his excitement before the festival on Saturday, “Our choirs have practiced about every to every other day for the past week and a half to two weeks … I’m really excited to perform with all of my friends and classmates,” he shared.
While students performed on Saturday they navigated events at multiple centers placed in classrooms throughout the school. The festival was organized to have instrumental centers in a different region than vocal centers to help musicians better navigate their events.
Many musicians expressed their gratitude for the event volunteers, “It was actually very enjoyable this year,” said Harvey. “All of my events ran on time, while last year they were always behind.”
However, with so many musicians attending, it was a challenge for everyone to navigate the school perfectly. James suggests a solution for the more congested areas of the school, such as the world language hallway, which was home to some vocal centers. “We could try to make the classrooms in more of a familiar area or less clustered,” she said.
James elaborated on the positive experience she had while volunteering as well. “I felt some of the volunteers needed more guidance than they received and may have felt more confident to help the musicians and spectators if given that guidance.”
While improvements may be needed for future years, it is clear that the 2025 festival was a large success and made a positive impact on students, contributing to their growth as musicians.
