Musicians place at All State competition

Sarah Abdallah, Journalism 1 Writer|February 25, 2014

Senior Shelagh Haney with American composer Frank Ticheli

The All State competition was held on Feb. 12-15 at the River Walk in San Antonio. The Texas Music Educators Association holds a convention and concert every year for the best players in the state of Texas.

The auditions were held Wednesday night, when students were ranked and put into ensembles. Sectionals were on Thursday and rehearsals were on Friday, both leading up to the concert on Saturday. During free time, students could go to the convention center to visit booths and buy music or accessories for their instrument.

Junior Charlotte Collins placed 6th out of the top 14 oboe players at the All State competition. This was her first time at the competition.

“It was great to represent Plano,” Collins said. “It felt crazy to play with people from all over Texas, it felt like we’ve all played together before.”

Students also had the chance to meet famous composers.

“I enjoyed meeting some of the best people in the music world, like John Mackey and Frank Ticheli,” Collins said. “It was nice to be with people who love music and have a passion for their instrument.”

All students were assigned rooms according to instrument to audition side by side.

“The auditions were a little intimidating,” Collins said. “Everyone is at such a high level and you don’t know what excerpts the judges are going to pick until you enter the room.”

Drum major senior Shelagh Haney placed 13th out of 63 clarinets.

“It was an honor to play in the All State band,” Haney said. “To get recognized for my playing by judges from all over Texas encourages me to keep on pursuing band and music.”

Overall, 8 students from the band made it into All State bands — junior Cristian Cave, junior Charlotte Collins, senior Eshan Dabak, senior Jacob Ehrhardt, junior Matthew Frerck, senior Shelagh Haney, junior Elise Hawkes and junior Connor Walker.