The City of Rochelle is home to many namesakes, but it is now also home to the best mandolin player in the nation.
Local resident Wes Carr has been playing the mandolin since he was 13 years old. Recently, the 29-year-old competed in and won the Walnut Valley National Mandolin Championship that is held in Winnfield, Kansas, each year.
There is a 40-person limit for the contest, and each person plays two tunes for the preliminary round that judges then choose the top five to move on to the championship. Once in the championship each contestant gets to play two more tunes for the judges who then vote on the winner of the entire competition.  

Carr has competed in the contest before, but decided to try a different approach this year.
“I ended up taking some more chances by performing one bluegrass, two jazz pieces and a classical tune. It would have been safer to stick to bluegrass, but it paid off in the end,” said Carr.
This was his first time winning the competition in the multiple years he has competed.
At the competitions, there are events for eight different instruments such as the banjo and guitar, all of which are in the bluegrass genre. The top three players from all eight of the categories divide $116,566 of trophies, instruments and cash.
While Carr was confident in his abilities, he admitted he was a bit taken back when he found out he won the competition.
“I signed up for mandolin because it was the day before the guitar, so I had put more thought into the guitar and was kind of using the mandolin as a warm up for the next day,” added Carr. “When I found out that I had won it was kind of surreal.”