This weekend, Iowa State will be alive with the sound of music.

Saturday evening, the 49th Iowa All-State Music Festival will be held in Hilton Coliseum. The event begins at 7:30 p.m.

About 1,100 of Iowa’s finest high school musicians, who were selected out of 56,000 vocalists from 250 Iowa high schools, will be performing at the festival, said Everett Johnson, director. Local students from Ames, Boone, Ankeny and Des Moines are among those taking part in this “prestigious” event, Johnson said.

“This really is the cream of the crop from high schools in Iowa,” Johnson said. “The audience will experience a varied program that they never knew existed.”

Three ensembles will be performing Saturday.

Rossini’s “William Tell Overture,” Berlioz’s movement four and five of “Symphony Fantastique” and “Smith’s Africa: Ceremony, Song and Ritual” are among some of the selections for the Iowa All-State Orchestra. Johnson believes such a selection will be good exposure for the people of Iowa. “‘Africa: Ceremony, Song and Ritual’ is especially an exciting contemporary percussive piece,” he said. “It shows most basic characteristics of native African music.”

All programs will be performed by the All-State Band, starting with “Three Revelations of Lotus Sutra” by Reed, followed by Phillmore’s “American Are We” and Ticheli’s “Amazing Grace.”

The All-State Chorus will be singing six short pieces including one from native American literature called “From Where the Sun Now Stands,” an Irish piece “The Bank O’Door,” Ptautsch’s “Musicks Empire,” Leonard Bernstein’s “Make Our Garden Grow,” Handel’s “With Cheerful Notes” and Young’s “To Him We Sing.”

The Iowa All-State Music Festival is organized by the Iowa High School Music Association, a nonprofit organization.Tickets are $9.50 or $8.50 for a block purchase of 20 or more at the Iowa State Center.