Every year, choir students have the chance to participate in the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) All-State choral competition. To make the All-State Choir, participants must advance all the way through a tiered series of auditions.

Junior Bella Cuminato was the only Bowie student to make it all the way to the All-State Choir, while freshman Hannah Cherukuri, junior Blake Moyer, and seniors Noah Sheets and William Bohuslav advanced to Area.

“We generally have about fifty students auditioning for the Region Choir, and about half make it in. Of the 25 that make it in the Region Choir, about five to ten of them make it to Area,” choir teacher Caitlin Gasco said. “What’s so cool about Bella is that we actually haven’t had a Bowie student make All-State in seven years.”

A long-time choir member, Cuminato has been involved with competitions like this before. In middle school, she was a part of the Region Choir. During her freshman year, she made it into the Treble Choir, and her sophomore year into the Mixed Choir.

“It was just something really amazing to strive for,” Cuminato said. “A lot of the people who I look up to as singers had done this competition before, like my mom and my voice teachers, so it made me feel very inspired. I knew it would be an amazing performance opportunity.”

At the competition, the first 400-500 students audition for the Region Choir, and only 120 are selected. In the second round of cut auditions, Region Choir members must perform a different song and sight-read as well. The top five move onto Area, where they audition with another set of music within their small groups. The top three remaining contestants earn spots on the All-State Mixed Choir.

Most students received their music, and began to practice at the start of the school year.

“I actually went to the UT Music Camp over the summer so I could get an early chance to see and work on the music,” Cuminato said. “I also got a really good voice teacher to help coach me and practiced a lot in school because it’s where I felt the most comfortable.”

Freshman Hannah Cherukuri advanced to Area auditions along with some of her fellow choir students.

“This process helped me grow as a musician, I learned a lot from the music and just from the technique. I feel like my voice actually really matured over the period of doing all the music. I didn’t expect to advance as far as I did at all, I didn’t even think it was a possibility.” Cherukuri said.

Although they did have the chance to work with teachers, the singers learned the TMEA music largely on their own time.

“We do expect that students are going to learn the region music mainly on their own, or be working with private voice teachers, but we still hosted sectionals every week and then a giant mixed rehearsal every Friday,” Gasco said. “I remember Bella, and a few other students, coming to me and singing for me to let me assess the musicality of the piece — like the sensitivity, phrasing, and style — just to make sure that it was something that the judges would like.”

Cuminato said that being in competition with her peers helped give her a deeper motivation to work hard and do well in her auditions.

“I was absolutely inspired my by classmates. There were so many people who I knew were working harder than ever, and being surrounded by talented people gave me a drive to do better,” Cuminato said.

In their auditions, the participants receive a cut of music from the given songs and are expected to sing before a panel of judges, which they cannot see.

“First I actually got really nervous,” Cuminato said. “But then I realized that when I’m just standing there behind this black tarp, it’s not really about the audition. So I thought about it like that, and performed the music with the love and passion that I’ve always had for it.”

Other students had different ways of coping with nerves.

“My friends helped me a lot with the whole process. I almost had a breakdown at Pre-Area, but all the other participants were nice and gave me support. It was nice to have a community even though we were all technically competing,” Cherukuri said.

This competition allowed for students to be recognized in their vocal abilities, and gave them the chance to perform with other talented singers from all across the state.

“I just perform that music with the love that I’ve always had for it, and that’s all that matters. Without a doubt this made me better as a singer,” Cuminato said. “I am really happy to have achieved this, and to learn that if I just keep on practicing and embrace my voice, that makes a difference more than anything.”