Columbus High School sends 12 to All-State Band and Choir performance
Just like being on an all-state football or basketball team, being a member of an all-state band or choir is a big deal, too, Columbus High School Band Director Jeff Peabody said.
This year, 12 CHS students have that honor.
"It's one of the most rewarding three days these kids will ever have working with an all-star cast of performers as well as a very talented conductor," Peabody said.
Representing the CHS choir at this year's Nebraska Music Education Association conference in Lincoln are Emily Niles, soprano II; Fatima Munoz, alto I; Gabe Sepulveda, tenor I; Aidan Ballentine, tenor II; Yazhir Chavez, tenor II; Joshua Marquez, bass I; and Nathaniel Navarrete, bass II.
The choir will be performing with CHS band members Greta Roberts, trumpet; Reese Carlson, alto saxophone; Raj Gone, alto saxophone; Isabella Hill, clarinet; and Keedyn Krepel, percussion.
Lakeview will also send Alicia Mueller for the choir section as a soprano II.
"It's a selection of the best performers of that event within the state of Nebraska there," Peabody said. "The big bonus for this, though, is that kids that are selected actually get to spend three days in Lincoln where they rehearse together and actually do a performance with the best of the best with the all-state ensembles."
The conference, scheduled for Nov. 20-22 at the Cornhusker Hotel in Lincoln, not only brings in the best musicians and singers, but conductors. This year's all-state band conductor is T. André Feagin of Central Washington University.
Feagin has appeared as a guest conductor with numerous all-state honor bands, professional bands and orchestras throughout the United States, Canada, Central and Southwest Europe and Southeast Asia. As a clinician/presenter, he has been invited to speak on conducting, diversity and inclusivity in music education and leadership at numerous music educators' conferences across the United States and around the globe.
Columbus usually sends a number of singers to the state conference, Choir Director Jacob Ritter said, though CHS is sending slightly fewer this year than previous years.
All the students who are invited to attend have worked hard to get on the roster. Out of more than 2,500 applicants, only about 350 are chosen each year, Ritter said.
"They're very select and the amount of time that goes into preparing the auditions is very strenuous," Ritter said. "The choir students who have been working on it have taken lessons during the summer, literally dozens of hours over the summer, then we have six weeks of lessons in the morning before school."
As the band and choir directors, Peabody and Ritter said they're proud of their students. The most rewarding part of sending them to the state conference isn't in the sending, but in telling the students that they made it.
"I'll tell you, that morning, going to tell those kids, 'congratulations, you made it,' that was an amazing time, because ... they work so hard and even a kid who's put in all of the hours and work into it, it's still no guarantee that you're in," Peabody said.
With only eight alto saxophones in the all-state ensemble, sending two is a big deal for those two students, Ritter said.
He added that students don't get a trophy or medal or anything like athletes would receive at a sports competition, but they will go home having taken part in a big conference that relatively few get to experience.
"Even if they went on to one of the greatest choir or band programs at the collegiate level, they still would never get a chance to play with 160 people or 300 singers," Ritter said. "That in and of itself, it just makes it one of those benchmark moments in a person's life that they'll never forget."
