As we lined up in our concert black outside of the Stars at Night Ballroom, I couldn’t believe how fast the past three days had gone by. The choir I had dreamt of for the last four years was already about to begin our concert.
After arriving in San Antonio on that Wednesday, the all-state musicians from every group had a meeting at the Lila Cockrell theater, welcoming us to the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) convention and preparing us for what was to come.
My favorite part was getting to watch a performance from the Jason Max Ferdinand singers. The sound of their voices was rich and full, and they sounded like hundreds of people even though there were probably only about 30 or 40 adults. Watching them made me even more excited and inspired to work hard and make music over the next three days.
After a break for dinner, we went straight into registration and rehearsal until 9 p.m. We got to practice with the all-state symphony orchestra which was really cool. The next morning we performed three pieces with them at the general session, including the national anthem.
I loved the rehearsals. Our conductor Richard Bjella was so attentive to all the little details of each piece and so knowledgeable in choral singing techniques. He chose every song for the concert very intentionally and did lots of research on the background of each of them.
Working with him was probably one of the best and most valuable parts of my time at TMEA. I learned so much about the voice and performing in a choir.
While most of my time was filled with hours of rehearsals, when I had some free time I enjoyed walking around the exhibit hall. It was this huge room with all the sheet music, instruments, band uniforms and merchandise you could imagine, and so much more. Sometimes there would be random performances and those were always fun to watch too.
By Saturday I was really tired, but looking forward to performing that night inside San Antonio’s convention center. We still had to rehearse in the morning, but then we got a long break in the afternoon to eat and get ready.
Before I knew it, it was time to go onstage. Everything happened so quickly and I couldn’t believe we were able to put together such a difficult concert in such a short amount of time. I genuinely had so much fun onstage and loved every minute of it.
I went through so many rounds of auditions since my freshman year to be up there, and in that moment, I felt so grateful for the whole experience. Not just of that week, but the time I spent making it into the choir.
Even when I faced setbacks and rejections, all of it made me a better musician, and in the end it made my time with the all-state mixed choir even more valuable.
