Mission High School students, Frankie Chaires and Oscar Salinas have been selected to perform with the Texas All-State Mixed Choir in San Antonio, Texas on Saturday, February 13 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center as a part of the 2016 Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) Clinic/Convention.
Chaires and Salinas were chose for this honor through a competitive process held this year across the state at District, Region, and Area levels. This will be Chaires’ third time and Salinas’ second time to perform as a member of a TMEA All-State Choir. The two have been under the direction of Kat Callaway and Pablo Mata.
High school students selected to perform in the All-State concerts have competed through several levels of auditions beginning in the fall of 2015 to qualify at the state level. All-State is the highest honor a Texas music student can receive. Over 1,600 students are selected through a process that begins with over 64,000 students from around the state vying for this honor to perform in one of 15 ensembles (bands, orchestras, choirs).
The competitive process starts with auditions hosted by 28 TMEA regions. Individual musicans 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 seven 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 3% of musicians who initially audition become All-State musicians.
These All-State students participate in three 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 schedule and conductor information, go to the Performances section of, www.tmea.org/convention.