Two Mid-Prairie students are heading to Ames this week for the Iowa All-State Music Festival.

After completing auditions in late October, senior Liv Caskey was selected to sing Alto 2 with sophomore Avery Slaubaugh selected for the Soprano 1 section in the chorus. Caskey shares what it means to her to be selected during her senior year, “I felt very accomplished, finally. I finally got to this point after auditioning all these years and then getting accepted. Then having Avery along the way was so nice. All my groups throughout the years have been amazing but being with Avery was the best.”

Slaubaugh shares how she felt upon her first All-State audition, “It was pretty nerve racking just because we had practiced so much that we didn’t want to mess up. And it felt like one little mess up was gonna screw everything up. We knew we sounded really good but we also were scared of the judges. Because we didn’t know what they would think either so a lot had to play into it.”

Slaubaugh, Caskey and other All-State finalists rehearse tomorrow and Saturday, with the 75th annual Festival concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, at Hilton Coliseum in Ames. Information on how to purchase tickets can be found here. Hear more from Caskey and Slaubaugh during Thursday’s JJ Nichting Company In Touch with Southeast Iowa program.