The Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) annual conference in San Antonio is to choir like winning four state championships is to volleyball.
Choir director Bethany Green, who has now been head of the choir department for 7 years, submitted the choir for a chance to perform in the spring of the 2012 school year and received the news before school let out that they were one of the two high school women’s choirs in the state of Texas to perform this past weekend.
“Choirs from all over the state submit live recordings, and they can’t be edited,” Green said. “It’s 15 minutes worth of music and its not divided by size of schools. You compete against every 5A, 4A, 3A school and every kind of choir.”
Although the TMEA annual conference isn’t a competition and offers no prize, the invitation to perform is considered the highest award a choir, especially a high school choir, can receive, and the varsity women took this honor very seriously.
“When we found out we were invited to perform at TMEA this February we all immediately knew we had to buckle down and work hard all year until the concert,” junior Kaylin Carmichael said. “We put in countless hours of rehearsal time, but it was so worth it. We all love what we do everyday with Ms. Green.”
From the beginning of the school year, there were countless hours of preparation. Every Thursday morning from 7:15 to 8:45 a.m. the choir was rehearsing. On some occasions, for two hours after school, the department would have recognized directors in the choir community come and host a clinic and rehearse song selections. Not only that, but the women stayed over night two Fridays this year and rehearsed late at night and the following morning.
“It takes a lot of work so I’m really thankful it was this group of girls because there wasn’t a day that everyone didn’t have a great attitude. Everyone cares about artistry, musicianship, and doing the you can possibly do,” Green said. “I didn’t have to drag anyone to the finish line, we all ran there together, it was such a joy and it was fun because the girls in varsity women are fun people.”
Listen to performances by the varsity women’s choir below:
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