Mid-Prairie student Aliza Parks won an Outstanding Soloist Award at the 2025 Iowa Jazz Championships.

The championships, which took place last Tuesday on the campus of Iowa State University, brought together 60 jazz bands from across the state including that of Mid-Prairie High School, which won its district competition last month. 

Mid-Prairie band director David Kunz said that he wasn’t surprised when Parks won the award, “It wasn’t a shock, because she’s impressed people everywhere we’ve played. Every place we played was like, ‘This girl really is good, and plays this solo really well, and makes it her own.’ It just was another nice honor that she earned with all of her hard work.”

To hear more about the Mid-Prairie Jazz Band’s experiences over their 2025 season, listen to the Monday edition of In Touch with Southeast Iowa on kciiradio.com.