by Divya Kumar
News Editor
As part of their annual series of competitions, select members of the CHS band are travelling to San Antonio for the majority of this week to participate in the yearly All-State convention. After making it past the region, pre-area and then area competition, hosted by the Texas Music Educators Association, these select CHS band members will be gone from Wednesday, Feb. 9 to Sunday, Feb. 13 to attend the clinic. Approximately 260,000 band students try out, and only 350 are selected to participate in the All-State band.
While in San Antonio, these select students will have the opportunity to audition for the “chair” they wish to be in for their respective orchestra or band. Because there were so many rounds that these students had the make the cut in before reaching this phase, the group of kids from around the state that will be at this convention in San Antonio are among the toppers. The area that Coppell is located in is known as the “death area” because of the high level of competition that students face, however CHS has more students in All-State Band than any other area school.
But rather than phasing CHS senior flute player Angela Song, who attended All-State last year as well, this fact is more of a galvanizing factor.
“It’s exhilirating to be able to do this again this year,” Song said. “It’s great to go to San Antonio for this TMEA conference because when we’re there, we’re training and playing music like professionals would, rather than high schoolers. It’s a great experience and I’m lucky to have been able to do it more than once. I look forward to the trip.”
The 12 students from CHS chosen to attend All-State Band were: Emily Hyslop, senior, bassoon; Cinnie Lin, sophomore, E. Flat clarinet; Ginnie Ko, junior, B Flat clarinet; Ashvin Rai, sophomore, alto clarinet; Sean Nelson, sophomore, bari sax; Brandon White, junior, trumpet; Alex Kersey, senior, euphonium; Aaron Fisher, senior, Percussion; Angela Song, senior, flute (second time); Phoebe Walden, senior, B Flat clarinet (second time); Landon Grissett, junior, bass clarinet (second time); Eric Piontek, senior, tenor sax (second time).
