Iowa City West High School is part of the Iowa City Community School District in Iowa City, Iowa. A GRAMMY Signature Gold Award–winning school, West High is home to a vibrant music department serving more than 400 student musicians, including approximately 130 orchestra students. Iowa City is home to the University of Iowa and the Preucil School of Music and is a community with a deeply rooted, nationally respected culture of string music education.

The West High Orchestra Program is widely regarded as one of Iowa’s premier high school string programs. Over the past decade, the orchestra has consistently placed first or second in All-State Orchestra selections and earned straight Superior ratings at the 2008 and 2018 ASTA National Orchestra Festivals. The program has been featured at the University of Northern Iowa Invitational Orchestra Festival (2019, 2022) and the Festival Disney National Competition (2020), receiving straight Superior ratings, Best-in-Class honors, and the Festival Gold Award for Best Overall Orchestra.

Orchestra Honors

Recent national highlights include invitations to perform at the Capitol Orchestra Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. (2023) and the program’s Carnegie Hall debut in New York City (2025). Under the direction of Jonathan Welch, the orchestra program maintains ongoing collaborative performances with the University of Northern Iowa Orchestras and Orchestra Iowa, the region’s professional orchestra, at the Paramount Theatre in Cedar Rapids. West High orchestras consistently earn Superior ratings at the Valley High School Orchestra Clinic and were selected as the featured ensemble for the 2025 Iowa String Teachers Association Festival. Students regularly earn selection and top honors in the Iowa Junior Honors Orchestra, Kennedy Honors Orchestra, Metropolitan Honors Orchestra, Iowa String Teachers Association regional and state orchestras, and the Quad City Symphony Youth Orchestra.