Take a deep breath. Have good posture. Remember the techniques you’ve practiced. These are the thoughts that go through every choir student’s mind the moment they step into that room of judges. 

Saturday, October twelfth, many Bowie choir students participated in the Region competition at Bowie to qualify for the Region choir and advance to the Pre-Area competition. In order to prepare for this competition, choir students must practice their music tirelessly if they hope to do well.

“I personally practiced for Region by singing [the songs] whenever I had the chance,” said junior Cleo Singleton. “Whether that be with other Region students in my choir, at home in my bedroom, or in class when I was working.” 

Region students need to learn four songs selected by the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA). From those four songs, segments from three of the songs will be used for the audition. These segments are called “cuts.”

“You’re typically competing against about 60 other people from 9th through 12th grade depending on your voice part,” said sophomore Joy Boyer. “It pushes me to improve more with harder music, and makes me want to improve more so I can be on par with the far more talented and practiced singers around me.”

The process starts all the way at the beginning of summer. Students can either practice it on their own or practice at Region-focused camps.

“You just intensely learn music for three or four days straight,” said senior Anika Scoma. “There’s some at colleges, like Texas State, and you stay there overnight, and you are just constantly working on the music.”

Once the school year starts, Region competing students are allowed to take time out of their choir class to study and practice the music. The choir director, Aaron Bourgeois, helped guide them through this process.

“A lot of times, I would give the students time to work on figuring out their individual voice parts,” said Bourgeois. “And then I would eventually check on them, see if there’s anything else that needed cleaning up.”

At the actual competition, singers audition for their spot in front of three judges. These judges are behind a tarp in order to calm a singer’s nerves and prevent any bias in the scores they give.

“Before I go into the region room, I think to myself, ‘What happens, happens. Know the past, but do not dwell on it, and remember what lays ahead,’” said Singleton. “I let myself know it’ll be okay, and if they don’t like what I did, it won’t be the end of the world.”

No matter what she ended up scoring at Region, Singleton knows she would continue with her passion for music, and looked ahead into the future.

“The feeling music gives me is unimaginable if you’ve never been in a choral ensemble,” said Singleton. “Mixing your voice with others, making beautiful harmonies and gorgeous sounds from something that is a part of you is such a fantastic experience. That’s what makes me passionate about music – the way it moves the heart.”

Below are the results of the Region Competition:

Soprano 1:

Hannah Cherukuri: 5th Chair (Pre-Area)

Hannah Bohannan: 13th Chair (Pre-Area)

Soprano 2:

Tennyson Tole: 2nd Chair (Pre-Area)

Cat Hill: 8th Chair (Pre-Area)

Cleo Singleton: 10th Chair (Pre-Area)

Kaelie Douglass: 18th Chair (All-Region)

Alto 1:

Esther Ko: 6th Chair (Pre-Area)

Joy Boyer: 14th Chair (Pre-Area)

Alto 2:

Camila Sotelo: 10th Chair (Pre-Area)

Tenor 1: 

Ethan Moyer: 6th Chair (Pre-Area)

Bass 1:

John Demopoulos: 14th Chair (Pre-Area)

Bass 2:

Jackson Bloder: 7th Chair (Pre-Area)

Ethan Bao: 10th Chair (Pre-Area)

Elijah Hinahon: 13th Chair (Pre-Area)

Miles MacGregor: 14th Chair (Pre-Area)