Larry Green

1999

Larry Green is one of the founding members of the Iowa Jazz Championships along with Mr. Dan Peterson and Mr. Ron Battani who were inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1995. These three Des Moines directors had a vision to create an event that would showcase the talent of Iowa high school music programs and attract the state wide attention that the State Basketball Tournaments possessed. Out of this vision in 1976, the first Iowa Jazz Championships was hosted at Des Moines area high schools and the evening finals at Valley High School auditorium. For the next ten years, the event was hosted at Des Moines area high schools, Iowa State University, and the University of Iowa. It was Mr. Green's contact with Mr. Walter Walsh of the Principal Financial Group that put into motion their corporate sponsorship of the Iowa Jazz Championships and brought the event to Des Moines where it has been hosted at the Polk County Convention Complex and the Civic Center.

During his tenure as a high school music educator at Seymour, Washington, Roosevelt, and Valley High Schools, his jazz bands were known for their outstanding quality. Bands under his direction have appeared at the Mid-West Band Clinic in Chicago, the National Band Conference in Knoxville, Tennessee, the Iowa Bandmasters Convention, the Iowa Music Educators Convention, the Montreaux International Jazz Festival in Switzerland, and received a "DB" award from Downbeat magazine for outstanding high school jazz ensemble. The Valley High School Jazz Ensemble under his direction received numerous awards including first place at the Jazz Championships in Class 4A on 7 occasions, six of those in consecutive years from 1982-1987 and again in 1989.

He is a member of the Iowa Bandmasters Association, jazz chairman for the National Band Association, a member of the Leadership and Advocacy Committee for the International Association of Jazz Educators, presently the district manager for United Musical Instruments, U.S.A., and coordinator of the Court Avenue "Evening of Jazz".