Lula Biondi, Rachel Burgos, Julian Cervantes, Ryder Day, Tristan Duran, Kritika Gautam, and Noah Luna were recently selected to perform as a part of the Texas All-State Band. The expected audience for the performance is over 30,000 people from Texas.
These students were chosen for this prestigious honor through a competitive process held this year across the state at District, Region, and Area levels. They play at school under the direction of Scott Carter who is a member of the Texas Music Educators Association, a 14,000+ member organization headquartered in Austin.
This is Ryder Day’s third time and Noah Luna’s second time performing as a member of a TMEA All-State organization. Lula Biondi, Rachel Burgos, Julian Cervantes, Tristan Duran, and Kritika Gautam are first-time members of the All-State team.
High school students selected to perform in the All-State concerts have competed through auditions to qualify at the state level. All-State is the highest honor a Texas music student can receive. 1,875 students were selected through a process that began with over 70,000 students from around the state vying for this honor to perform in one of 18 ensembles.
Texas Music Educators Association sponsors the Texas All-State competition. This competitive process begins throughout the state in auditions hosted by 33 TMEA Regions. Individual musicians perform selected music for a panel of judges who rank each instrument or voice part. From this ranking, a select group of musicians advances from their Region to compete against musicians from other areas in eight TMEA Area competitions. The highest-ranking musicians judged at the TMEA Area competitions qualify to perform in a TMEA All-State music group. Only the top 2.6% of musicians who initially audition become All-State musicians.
These All-State students participate in four days of rehearsals directed by nationally recognized conductors during the TMEA Clinic/Convention. Their performances for thousands of attendees bring this extraordinary event to a close. For the All-State concert and conductor information, go to the Performances section of www.tmea.org/convention.