On Oct. 8, the Texas Music Educator’s Association (TMEA) held phase two of Region vocal auditions for choir students. This was the second round of vocal auditions, and in each of the eight vocal parts, the 50 competing students auditioned to snag either one of the 15 spots that advance to the next audition, or one of the 25 spots in All-Region Choir.

Despite the fierce competition, 50 choir students advanced to phase two of Region auditions. Out of those 50, 48 choir students were able to compete, 37 of which made All-Region choir. 25 advanced to Pre-Area auditions, and two got positions as alternates for Pre-Area.

“Each competition gets harder,” Elizabeth Wolf ‘20 said. “So to know that I’ve been in the top ten for both auditions is really surprising. I’m looking forward to see how hard it actually is because we have to sight read again and the other people from other regions are going to be really good as well.”

Students learned four songs for the first two phases of auditions, and cuts, or small portions of those songs, were provided at the start of the audition as the material that students would sing.  Once everyone arrived, students were allowed to run through the cuts aloud twice as a group. After that, students couldn’t sing until it was their turn to audition.

“It was really fun to get to hear everyone singing it together because it sounded really cool as a choir,” Kyra Kornfeld ‘18 said. “I was nervous because it’s a lot of pressure and I had been working on this music for a long time, so I really wanted to do well.”

The audition rooms were empty except for a lone music stand and a curtain, which the judges sat behind. Immediately after the door closed behind the student, the music of the cut would start and the audition would begin.

“I felt that I could have prepared more, but I think that I had a pretty good audition,” Osric Nagle ‘18 said. “I felt pretty confident. I thought I could do better, but at the same time I also felt fairly confident that I had done well. I only heard some minor mistakes, and that was good. I got first chair, and that’s what I was aiming for, so that was pretty awesome.”

Students were able to prepare for the music all summer and throughout the start of the school year by themselves, or partaking in sectionals or music camps.

“I went to Houston Baptist University choir camp over the summer, and that was a week long,” Elizabeth Widener ‘19 said. “We worked everyday for eight hours in that week and learned the music, and we had a concert at the end. Last year I wasn’t really prepared and didn’t learn my music to an extent. This year I didn’t want to make the same mistakes as last year of not knowing my music and not being prepared, so I over prepared.”

Congratulations to all the participants, especially first chair recipient Osric Nagle ‘18, second chairs Claire Ricks ‘17, Elizabeth Widener ‘19, Martha Beaty ‘18, and Jack Mischnick ‘17, third chairs Stephanie Krill ‘17, Christy Vineis ‘17, Kyra Kornfeld ’18, Nammu Srinath ‘17, and Christian Smith ‘17, and fifth chairs Alyssa Yarbrough ‘17 and Akshay Aggarwal ‘17.