Abilene ISD will be well-represented the weekend of Feb. 10-11 at the Texas Music Educators’ Convention in San Antonio. Four students will be playing in all-state band and choir concerts, reserved for students who earn all-state recognition through a series of auditions throughout the year.
Cooper band seniors Owen Bailey and Aaron Brokovich each earned all-state honors and will play in all-state band concerts. Abilene High choir students Hope Arrazola and Mattie Spaulding will each be singing in all-state choir concerts on Saturday at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center.
Bailey, who missed making all-state by one chair in each of the two previous years , placed first chair on the oboe at the Class 6A area round of competition and earned third chair for the Class 6A symphonic band, which will play Saturday at 7 p.m.
Brokovich, who missed making all-state band by one chair last year, placed first chair at the Class 5A area audition on percussion and earned sixth chair in the Class 5A all-state Symphonic Band, which will play Saturday at 1 p.m.
Meanwhile, Arrazola is an all-state choir member for the third straight year and will sing Saturday at 5 p.m. as first chair Alto 1 in the Large School All-State Mixed Choir. Spaulding earned third chair as an Alto 1 in the Large School All-State Treble Choir and will sing at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Bailey’s all-state nod is the culmination of hours of hard work after two near-misses in his sophomore and junior years at Cooper. Like Brokovich, he received the music to work on last summer and spent hours throughout the summer and fall preparing for his shot at making all-state, which came at the area auditions on Jan. 7 in Odessa.
Bailey decided to try out for the Class 6A band for two reasons: 1) more spots were available, and 2) there was no recorded audition after the live audition. The decision paid off as he earned the all-state nod in the Class 6A band, even though Cooper is a Class 5A high school.
“I’ve been working for this my entire high school career, and this was my last chance to make it happen, and it was something I wanted to make happen,” said Bailey, who hopes to attend Baylor University in the fall. “The feeling after I learned I had made it was a bit more relief than excitement. Then it hit me that I get to play in the all-state band concert at TMEA and do all the things down there (in San Antonio) with the band.”
Brokovich has also been working toward this goal for four years, and even though he missed out on all-state recognition by one chair as a junior, that didn’t change his focus.
“I didn’t think too much about missing out last year; I just wanted to make it this year,” said Brokovich, who played a snare drum piece, two-mallet piece, four-mallet piece, and timpani piece for his all-state audition. “This was a lot of hours of practice at school because I can’t take those instruments home, but it was worth it. I didn’t feel like I had it until the last bit before the audition. But I’m excited about this opportunity and looking forward to the chance to perform at TMEA.”
Arrazola is now a regular at earning all-state status, although she said it took her a while to get this year’s music to a point where she felt comfortable with her tryout. She and Spaulding began working toward their auditions in June when they received music. Then they went to choir camps at Texas Tech University and Abilene Christian University, where they started working on each piece.
“We’re working on pieces with multiple movements, so you’re trying just to piece it all together, and that’s how it starts,” Arrazola said. “The pieces we audition with get tougher the farther you go. I didn’t feel very prepared for the all-state audition until the last two weeks before the audition (Jan. 7 in Midland).”
As a first-time all-state selection, Spaulding, a sophomore at AHS, said that she was determined to make the all-state choir this year after not making it past the pre-area round last year.
“There are so many stages to this audition process, but I don’t know that I ever hit the point where I thought I had it,” she said. “Right before the pre-area audition, I was singing and practicing about three or four hours a day; I mean, I was cramming. Then I just realized I just had to sing it. Then at the state audition, there was much anxiety about it, but I was super-determined to make all-state. I put a lot of pressure on myself to make it this year.”
