All-State band, choir students perform on Saturday
Special to Leader-Press
Copperas Cove High School band members Lillian Peterson and David Sweetwood will perform with the Texas All-State 6A Band in San Antonio on Saturday and CCHS choir student Parker A. Reed will perform with the Texas All-State 6A Choir as part of the 2020 Texas Music Educators Association Clinic/Convention. This is an honor that only 2.6 percent of musicians who initially audition actually achieve.
Peterson and Sweetwood, who are both members in the CCHS Wind Ensemble under CCISD Director of Bands Tony Chapa, were chosen for this prestigious honor through a competitive process held this year across the state at district, region, and area levels.
Sweetwood is a trumpet student of S. C. Lee Junior High School Band Director Kenneth Marina and Peterson is a flute student of Copperas Cove Junior High School Band Director Kathryn Kelley, a band director at Copperas Cove Junior High School. Reed began studying music at age 12 both in school and through private lessons. She competed in the All-State competition as an Alto 1.
This is Peterson’s second time be selected for the All-State Band performance.
“After achieving all-state status for the past two years, I have learned how to manage my time more efficiently, which has improved not only my musical abilities, but almost every aspect of my daily life,” Peterson said. “I have been able to achieve a higher ranking in my high school class and it has allowed me to become a more effective leader in the band program.”
This will be Sweetwood’s first time to perform as a member of a TMEA All-State organization.
“I was very anxious to get the audition music at the beginning of the school year,” Sweetwood said. “I worked on it about two hours a day to prepare for the region band and orchestra audition.”
It has been a banner year for Reed who qualified in November to compete at the International Thespian Festival in Bloomington, Indiana in June with a solo musical theater piece and ultimately landed one of the coveted spots in the All-State Choir under the direction of CCHS Choir Director Jim Barker.
“Thousands of students from all over the state of Texas compete for a seat in the All-State Choir,” Parker said. “My ultimate goal is to become a Broadway performer.”
All-State is the highest honor a Texas music student can receive. 1,795 students are selected through a process that began with over 66,800 students from around the state vying for the honor to perform in one of 15 ensembles including bands, orchestras, and choirs. The 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.