After making it through several difficult phases of competition, senior Mariah Williams Roberts and junior Griffin Camacho qualified for the All-State choir to compete this week at the Texas Music Educators Association conference.
Williams Roberts is a soprano 1 – the highest vocal part – while Camacho is a bass 2 – the lowest vocal part. Out-performing many of the top singers in the area competition, Mariah and Griffin advanced to the Texas All-State Mixed Choir to perform at the TMEA conference in San Antonio’s Henry B Gonzalez Convention Center.
“To make it to the Texas All-State choir, Mariah and I practiced almost every day from August until the audition,” Camacho said.
The audition process began before the school year. Music selections were given to high school students across the state to begin practicing as early as June. After school started, phases of auditions took place throughout the first semester. All-Region was held in October, pre-Area in November and Area in January.
“Before we could audition for the All-State choir, we had to audition for the All-region choir in October,” Camacho said.
Both Camacho and Williams Roberts advanced past their voice parts in the Area competition out-performing 160 students from four regions. As a result, they will perform for the TMEA conference.
“The amount of kids that auditioned in each voice part varied from 28 to 100 singers,” Comacho said. “We will finally be able to perform all the music that we have worked so hard preparing.”
Although All-Region and pre-Area and Area were about the competition, choir members say All-State is more of an honor.
“It’s a feeling that you can’t really describe,” Camacho said. “It’s such an amazing feeling.”