As yet another year of various all-state competition has passed, five dedicated Falcons achieved the near impossible feat of making the prestigious all-state choir and band. The all-state process consists of multiple audition rounds to compete in rank against the over 70,000 public school music students in Texas. Each round takes a certain amount of ranks, also known as chairs. Both all-state choirs and bands will perform at the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) Convention on Saturday, Feb. 15 at the San Antonio Riverwalk.
The only falcon student to make the All-State Band is sophomore David Nguyen. He ranked as top chair in bassoon. Band students begin their all-state preparations as early as July, and learn three different etudes for their instrument, and once they advance past the second round of auditions from area, they advance to state. As the final step in the competition, Nguyen will go to the TMEA Convention and compete in a final seat test to be placed into a band or orchestra at state.
“I would usually practice after band class, but I also procrastinated big time and so the bulk of getting my music ready happened a few days prior to any auditions that I had,” Nguyen said.
The other four falcons made the All-State Choir after four rounds of auditions that eliminated thousands of competitors, and while our students were successful, it didn’t come without its challenges. Junior Parker Davis made the prestigious choir for the third time, despite a significant voice change putting him in an entirely different voice part.
“The slightly scary thing about it is I didn’t know any of my competition…you get kind of used to certain types of voices and this time I didn’t really know what to expect at first,” Davis said.
The choir program also had two first time all-staters: sophomore Rachel Mareth and senior Madilyn Schiefelbein, as well as three time all-stater Xavier Bailey.
Congratulations to those who advanced to all-state.
2020 TCHS All-State Band Students
- David Nguyen, Sophomore
2020 TCHS All-State Choir Students
- Xavier Bailey, Senior
- Madilyn Schiefelbien, Senior
- Parker Davis, Junior
- Rachel Mareth, Sophomore
This story has been updated to correct a spelling error.
Great article! So excited for these kids, they work very hard! (Correction: It’s Rachel MARETH, not Merrith) –Her proud Mom
Our apologies for the spelling error. It’s updated in the story now.