On December 3-4, over 200 Algona band students in grades 6-12 participated in the 2nd Annual Algona Bands Recording Project. The project brought in 15 professional music educators from throughout the state of Iowa to work with Algona band students. This project began last year with the high school band. The second year of this project was an expansion of the first year and involved the high school band, 7th/8th grade band, and 6th grade band.
On day one, students received instrument-specific sectionals in the morning and full band clinics in the afternoon. Students shared their learning with the Algona community at the Winter Band Concert, held at the Wilcox Performing Arts Center. Students performed to a capacity crowd, with some audience members attending with standing room only.
Day two was the culmination of the Algona Bands Recording Project, with each of the bands participating in a professional recording session by Voce Custom Recording. The high school band participated in both an audio and video recording session. The 7th/8th grade and 6th grade bands each recorded audio of their music.
The Algona Bands Recording Project was funded by the Iowa Arts Council’s Art Project Grant, the Algona Vocal and Instrumental Promoters (VIPs), and the Algona Community School District, under the leadership of Joe Carter, superintendent; Jared Cecil, high school principal; and James Rotert, middle school principal. The Algona Bands are under the direction of Nick Liebl, high school band director, and Kurt Kissinger and Dave Rich, middle school band directors.