From district competition all the way to the state finals, Sandie choir and band members have competed against talented students from schools across the state. Many students have painstakingly memorized their pieces by putting in a lot of hard work to accomplish their goals and dreams of moving onto the state finals.Here, they will perform in a highly talented mixed choir, treble choir and a tenor/bass choir where they perform in San Antonio. Julliana Belcher, Allesandro Dieguez and Aubrey Denton went to state for the choir. Nathan Smith and Zach Barner made it for the band.  

A victory at state means that the students get accepted into the Texas Music Educators Association Convention.  It is a great honor, but an honor that requires countless hours of focus and dedication. 

“We have been working on this process since the beginning of the school year,” choir director Bryan Hackett said. “They had practice tracks, in-class rehearsals and after school rehearsals to help them prepare for the 4 auditions to get to state.”

Getting past the first round of competitions in band and choir becomes a very time consuming task. As they move farther the pieces begin to get harder and require more practice and concentration.

“I prepared by taking time to practice my music and understand it,” singer Elijah Keller said. “You know, I had to sacrifice other things but it was worth it.” 

 Moving forward in the competitions, the skill level increases along with the stress levels. There is a lot of pressure going into these events, but that did not bother band member Peyton Oden.

“I felt pretty calm going into the competition because I knew I could play it without too much difficulty because I knew it in muscle memory at that point,” band member Peyton Oden said.

A major point of the competitions to get to state is for students to play and practice new pieces of music that they typically would not get to experience. They also meet students from other schools and talented judges.

“I had a number of students who I knew had a good chance of making the all-state choir,” Hackett said. “I’m really proud of Aubrey, Julianna and Alessandro for all of their accomplishments.”