Trey Fawcett, a junior at Brownwood High School, recently completed the All-State Choir audition process and has qualified to sing with the men’s choir at the Texas Music Educators Association Conference in San Antonio on February 16th.
Fawcett is the first BHS student since 2004 to make the All-State Choir. “It’s a four audition process,” said Fawcett. “You have to audition four times to in order to make one of the all-state choirs.”
The process starts at the district level with three pieces of choral music judged at a blind audition. “You sing for judges and you can’t see them and they can’t see you,” explained Fawcett. “You sing these three cuts for the judges and once everyone sings they tabulate the results and you’re given chairs.”
At the district audition, places one through 30 advance to the next round of auditions at the region level. “Once you get to the second and third rounds they add sight reading in,” said Fawcett noting the increased difficulty. “The top 12 advanced to the next round and the top 14 make the region choir.”
The region choir performs a combined concert where it’s decided who will move on to the area auditions. “After the concert they announce who made it to the area audition, which is the last audition for the all-state choir process,” said Fawcett. “At that [area] audition you get all new pieces of music.”
Following the area level auditions the top eight men and two alternates qualify for the All-State Choir. “For men, they take the top eight and two alternates for the All-State Choir,” said Fawcett adding that he is done with the competition portion of the process. “The next step is to go to the conference and sing with the choir.”
The conference features a men’s choir, women’s choir, and a mixed choir. Fawcett is a tenor and will be performing in the men’s choir. “You have three days of practice with that choir,” said Patricia Garrett, BHS Choir Director. “They bring in a professional conductor, normally from out of state.”
Fawcett has been honing his vocal skills for the last three years and utilizes private vocal lessons and choir camps to help him prepare, “Several universities around the state host camps where you go and sing with a choir for a week,” said Fawcett. “It really helps to get that practice.”
The All-State Choirs will perform at the Texas Music Educators Association Conference held February 13th through 16th.
“I am so excited that all of his hard work has paid off,” said Garrett. “There has been no young man who has worked harder through this process.”
