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Pictured above are the 2020 All-State singers, back row: Tate Radcliffe, Kaylin Wright, Glennon Selke and James Kerr; front row: Brayden Hilgenfeld, Grace Myers, Julianna Stout and Elizabeth Myers. Photo/Chelsea Weeks
Countless notes and hours of practice turned into a special experience for nine Chandler Schools students.
Seniors Tate Radcliffe and Kaylin Wright and junior Sam Duncan got to sing at the Oklahoma Music Educators Associations All-State Concert Saturday, Jan. 18. Senior Glennon Selke qualified as an alternative for the Mixed Choir.
Freshmen Grace Myers and Brayden Hilgenfield, eighth grader Julianna Stout, seventh grader Elizabeth Myers and sixth grader James Kerr got to sing at the Oklahoma Choral Directors Association All-State Concert the weekend before.
Chandler High School Choir director Laura Watson said it was special getting to watch her students fight and learn the music in order to be a part of this concert.
“It’s just awesome to see their excitement,” she said.
Whether it’s full-day workshops, summer camps, private practices or hours spent at home rehearsing, Watson said these students have to work hard to qualify for All- State, since the music they try out with is one level harder than what they sing in class.
“They put in so much effort,” she said. “That’s really why they make it. I have tons of talented students and mostly, I don’t ask them if they have a beautiful voice, it’s more like ‘Are you willing to put in the work?’ because that’s what’s going to make or break you.”
The other directors and teachers that helped these students include Adrianne Deklotz, Jennifer Green and Jana Telford.
In order to qualify to sing in the All-State Concert, students have to make it through three rounds of auditions.
Once they make it, they have six practices within two and a half days to learn several new pieces – some in another language including Latin, Italian and Sweden.
Wright, who has been singing for nine years, said her favorite aspect of being in the Treble Choir was singing as one strong unit with other women and feeling every emotion that came with it.