Five choir students are one step closer to being chosen for All-State after advancing out of the Pre-Area auditions held Wednesday at Plano Senior High School.

“We had 15 students competing to make the top 5 chairs in each section,” choir teacher Bethany Stuard said.

The competition process began with All-Region, where students competed with choir students from Plano, McKinney, Wylie, Allen, and other nearby areas. 29 students placed in All-Region choirs with the top 15 chairs moving on to Pre-Area where the students had to really challenge themselves.

“They had to learn extremely challenging university-level repertoire in Latin, German, and Spanish,” Stuard said.

The road to the auditions has not been an easy one, consisting of a lot of preparation.

“The people auditioning put in a lot of practice time for their auditions,” choir student Savana Hanson said.

Out of the 15 students who auditioned, 5 will be moving on to Area with 1 alternative:

Shelby Johnson- Third chair, Soprano 1

Rebecca Bradley- Second chair, Soprano 2

Jonathan McInnis- First chair, Tenor 1

Shane Gentry- Third chair, Tenor 1

Ben Meaders- Third chair, Bass 2

Anna Claire Goodroe- First alternative, Soprano 2

“The students who placed in the top 5 chairs will go on to the Area round in Commerce in January, competing with the top 5 chairs from all of the surrounding regions,” Stuard said. “The top chairs at that level will be placed in the Texas All-State choir.”

The choir program is thrilled with all of the students who are competing.

“We are so proud of all of the Lovejoy students who learned this incredibly complicated choral literature and represented us so well,” Stuard said.