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Alan Greiner

Alan Greiner
Alan Greiner

March madness

No basketballs involved in the month when Alan Greiner schedules 18,000 festival musicians.

March Madness has a different meaning for Alan Greiner.

For three weeks in March, the executive director of the Iowa High School Music Association sees 18-hour days.

And no basketballs are in sight. Greiner, a 1985 Iowa State music graduate, hand schedules the 18,000 entries in Iowa's solo and small ensemble festivals.

"It's a three-week period when it's nuts," laughed Greiner. "Everything else is on hold."

From a two-room office suite in the Iowa High School Athletic Association building in Boone, Greiner leads the organization that is the "state agent for high school music festivals." He administers a series of seven annual state music events which include all-state auditions, the all-state festival, and numerous competitions, including those for marching band, jazz band, show choirs and jazz choirs, piano, large groups (concert band, orchestra and choir), and the solo and ensemble series.

"What I love about my job is that I basically do the same thing once a year," said Greiner, entering his ninth year at the IHSMA in fall 2008.

Each festival takes time, but none compares to the scheduling of the solo and small ensemble contests.

For example, Cedar Rapids is the largest site with 18 centers - which means he juggles 18 judges and a throng of young musicians from two classes in 18 different rooms.

"It takes me six and a half hours to build this one site," he noted.

With so many festivals, he's in regular contact with Iowa's music instructors. "I have probably spoken with every music teacher in the state," he added.

Greiner came to the IHSMA in 2000 after a 16-year career as an Iowa band director, the first two at the Northwest Webster schools in Barnum. "I did every thing - all instrumental music, grades 5 through 12." The next 14 years he was at the Prairie school district (now Prairie Valley) in Gowrie.

Over time he became more involved with IHSMA activities, serving on committees, including one with then-executive director Everett Johnson, and doing the organization's web site. When Johnson announced his retirement, Greiner was encouraged to apply.

"This was not on my radar screen," said Greiner, only the IHSMA's third executive director. "I was not thinking of this job at all."

When he's not scheduling festivals, certifying festival judges or choosing the national anthem singers for the state athletic tournaments, Greiner deals with "the issues." Like any administrator, he makes the hard decisions that he believes "are right for all students." Sometimes students are declared ineligible, and he must handle disputes involving teachers. It comes with the territory.

"I'm not alone," he explained. "I sit in a building with colleagues (from the Iowa High School Athletic Association) who deal with the same issues."

An all-state vocalist from Story City, Greiner first played the flute until switching to the bassoon in eighth grade. He was unsure what musical direction to take in college - vocal, instrumental or piano - until Kevin Schilling of the Iowa State music faculty invited Greiner to study the bassoon with him.

Under Schilling, Greiner's skills flourished, and he played in the ISU Wind Ensemble and the orchestra. After Iowa State he became the principal bassoonist for the Fort Dodge Area Symphony then held the same chair with the Central Iowa Symphony for 15 years.

Now he enjoys playing the flute and the saxophone for a contemporary service in his church.

In 2005, Greiner was also the first recipient of the music department's Outstanding Alumni Award in Music Education.

Music has been good to Greiner, and he works to ensure young Iowans have similar opportunities to perform. Not long ago, he said, nearly 75 percent of Iowa high school musicians were in both band and choir. "We now think that number is less than 25 percent."

He blames increased graduation requirements and the unintended consequences of federal education mandates requiring students to load up on courses other than music.

"That's a concern for us, especially if we believe music is truly an intelligence," Greiner noted. "We believe in educating the whole child."