Tristen Avant, a senior choir member, attended Texas Music Educators Association Area Auditions on Jan. 7. She was one of four students from the choir program who auditioned for the All-State-Choir. 

“Tristen has been participating in this process since she was a freshman,” choir teacher Tanna Bills said. “To see her experience this kind of success is really exciting because she works really hard.”

The next step for Tristen is the TMEA convention where she will perform with the All-State treble choir on Feb. 11 in San Antonio.

“I feel proud and honored to be a member of the All-State Choir,” Tristen said. “I’m excited to perform in the concert at the TMEA convention.”

Her audition consisted of two main parts: singing parts from three songs, and sight reading eight measures of music she had never seen before, with only 30 seconds to practice. A positive factor after the audition was that results came out the same day, so there wasn’t much of a wait for Tristen. 

“I think the hardest part of any audition is just waiting for results, because you put it all out there and now it’s what the judges think,” Tristen said. 

Bills began coaching Tristen, and the other choir students, in August with workshops and masterclasses where they went over the music. 

“The music’s very difficult, [it’s] music I would’ve sung as a college student and some of it’s even more difficult,” Bills said.

Before Area auditions, Tristen attended Region auditions and then Pre-Area. There were a total of 18 students auditioning for Region, and only 13 made it. Then those 13 made it to Pre-Area, where only four made it to Area. Tristen was the only student that made it to All-state.

 “It’s been a goal of mine since freshman year to make it to the All-State Choir and get to participate in a concert with the best musicians in the state of Texas,” Tristen said. “It’s crazy to think four years later it’s all come true.”