Brecklyn Carey and Rachelle Wagoner

All- State is an honor choir and honor band that high school students ages 9-12 grade may audition for. Students start rehearsing for All-State as early as Aug., three months before the audition date in Oct.  Last year, two students made All-State out of the 16 who auditioned, with four students getting recalled.

In order to audition, students must learn the dynamics, accents, embellishments and rhythms of the All-State music, as well as how to blend with other choral singers. So essentially, a whole lot of dedication. Unlike OPUS (which is an honor choir for 6-9 graders) only 9-12 graders may audition.  Each school may send 48 students to audition, which is 4,000 students auditioning for the 600 spots in the choir. Nine to twelve weeks go into rehearsing.

AHS is rehearsing by voice part sectionals and mass rehearsals once a week, on top of traveling to camps for rehearsals with outside directors.  Students auditioning will be split into quartets, trios, duets or solos on Sept. 9. Auditions are Oct. 26.

Choir director Jennifer Gaesser said, “(All-State) is a great learning process. Something I’ve noticed in students who audition is that they become better musicians and also become leaders in the choir later on- especially the underclassmen.” After the initial All-State process, students may automatically make it, or there is a chance they may be recalled to sing by themselves for the judges.

Junior Justin Somers has been recalled before and gave us his opinion on recalls. “It’s a very stressful experience where you’re put under a lot of pressure and you have to give it your everything if you actually want to actually get into it. You need to put absolutely everything you have into your music to make it sound beautiful.”

Senior Hannah Jespersen has been accepted into the All-State choir two times. “It’s one of the best feelings that I’ve ever felt. It’s just makes all the work worth it. Honestly, if you set your heart to it, anyone can do it. If you work hard enough, anyone can make it,” said Jespersen.