The student news site of Amarillo High School

The Sandstorm

The student news site of Amarillo High School

The Sandstorm

The student news site of Amarillo High School

The Sandstorm

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Five Sandies are Newest Members of All-State Music

Five+Sandies+are+Newest+Members+of+All-State+Music
Burchett, Amy

 Students involved in choir, band, and orchestra made it into All-State music, after multiple rounds of competition. These students include choir’s William Booth, Elanna Weber, band’s Brady Neese, Laci Grosser, and orchestra’s Quan Nguyen.

All three audition processes differed and students favored some more than others. The band has blind auditions, but uncommon to other All-State competitions, their fellow students and competitors are in the same room watching and listening to them as they play. 

“I feel like they could definitely be better if we did it the way choir does it where they have each person go into the room individually,” Grosser said.

Choir auditions are held in a similar way to the band but with a major difference.  Each student goes in individually to play for judges as a blind audition causing less stress and worry than band auditions. 

 “I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Booth said.

Orchestra auditions, on the other hand, cause the least amount of anxiety for participants. While similar to the choir, the orchestra students played for a video blind audition instead of playing at an in-person audition. 

“I honestly do like it the way it’s set up because I think it’s much less stressful than All- Regions so I think that’s a plus,” Nguyen said. 

All-State auditions all included different experiences for the students but they can all agree on one thing: they feel happy, relieved, and excited they made it into All-State. 

“I made All-State last year too, and my favorite part was playing in an amazing band,” Neese said. 

Even though to make it to state students went through various audition processes to achieve the title of All-Stater each was different per what event the students were involved in. One of the rounds involved in making All-State include a round called Pre-Area the choir competed in on Nov. 8, Sandie Choir students will sing their way into the next competition in January for a top position. 

“I was more confident than I was last year, but I was still pretty nervous,” Novak said. 

Excluding the 21 students who placed, five more made it as alternates. The next competitions, Area and All-State, took place during January in Midland. One student, Senior Kylie Novak, took the top spot for soprano II, being one of the only students to take first place in their section. 

“It was very tiring because I had to learn so much music and I had so little time,” Novak said. 

As the only Sandie to place in Bass two, William Booth took the 3rd place spot. He placed the same in the district and regional competitions, taking 3rd in those competitions too.

“The music was really difficult compared to years past,” Booth said. “But we all worked really hard on it so we all felt really good about it. I felt really prepared because we practiced a bunch so I felt prepared.”

Junior Colby Hurt took the top spot for the school in district and region competitions, and then placed 4th for Tenor two in pre-area, and hopes to do better in future competitions.

“I felt surprised a little,” Hurt said. “I’ve always placed high in Regionals but I wasn’t expecting to beat some of my peers.”

 

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