Six students from the school choirs will be traveling to San Antonio Feb. 11-14 to perform in a convention, known as All-State, sponsored by the Texas Music Educators Association after advancing through many auditions since September.

“About 15,000 kids from across the state start the process,” Choir Director Dorothy Wilson said. “In our region, we usually have 650-700 kids start the process in September. They go through a district audition and then they advance to the region audition. We choose 17 people from each section to be in the mixed choir. The top 15 people go to the pre-are audition, and then we choose the top 5 singers based on singing and sight-reading, and they go to the final area audition where we compete against 4 other regions.”

 In total, there are four rounds of auditions leading up to the convention in February. These auditions, beginning in September, are each about a month apart. At the auditions, choir students must sing cuts from different pieces of music for a room of five judges sitting behind a screen. Top students from each section advance to the next round of auditions.

After the area auditions, students who advance are invited to perform in the All-State choirs in front of an audience of a few thousand people based on their chairs, or ranks.

“Each person who auditions is ranked based on how well they sight read at the audition,” sophomore All-State singer Sabrina Hodgins said. “Your rank when compared to all the other people is your chair.”

Chairs vary for the men and women. Women in the top five chairs make the Mixed All-State Choir, and the next five make the Women’s All-State Choir. For men, those in the top four chairs make the Mixed All-State Choir, and the next four perform in the Men’s All-State Choir.

The students who will perform at this convention with their corresponding groups are junior Hayden Mott, freshman Chrystal Chen and sophomores Ann Chirayil, Sabrina Hodgins and Kenneth Fernandes, a second-year All-State member. Junior Remi Simpson is an alternate.

Hodgins, Chirayil and Chen will be a part of the women’s choir. Fernandes will perform in the men’s choir and Mott will perform in the mixed choir.

During the three days rehearsing for the All-State Concerts, the students will, according to Wilson, “do clinics with their clinicians, choir rehearsals and then they will present final concerts Saturday afternoon.”

At the concerts, the choirs will sing five songs needed to know for the auditions and three to four new pieces. The music each year for All-State differs, even though the process remains the same.

Kenneth Fernandes is very familiar with All-State from his first experience as a freshman in the men’s choir and has learned a lot.

“I learned that the choir requires a lot of focus, which, if you put your mind to it, will pay off with a breathtaking final concert,” Fernandes said. “I also learned being aware of your schedule and rehearsal timings is crucial. Most of all, I realized what an honor it is to perform with such an amazing group of people, and I will definitely consider how lucky I am when I’m there.”

Kenneth also believes that the process of All-State requires “perseverance, discipline, strong work ethic, ability to take constructive criticism, and a little self confidence.”

Wilson has been helping the students since the second week of August, which shows how much time has been put into preparing for the convention.

“They’re all going to come together and make a giant choir and sing with a great conductor and learn music and present a concert, it’s amazing,” Mrs. Wilson said.

All-State is considered to be the highest honor students involved in choir, orchestra, or band may achieve, so it is understandable why students may anticipate this event.

“I’m just really excited to meet all the other All-State members and to perform with so many great musicians,” Hayden Mott said.