Thanksgiving break will not be a week off for everybody as four orchestra students will be practicing after being named to the TMEA All-State Orchestras that will be performing in May at the 2017 TMEA Clinic/Convention. For senior Grace Leung (4-year All-State Orchestra member), juniors Meghan Le and Logan Hong and sophomore Megan Lin, the road to San Antonio has been a long one.  

“The four students who are accepted into All-State orchestra begin the process in May with learning two professional level etudes that are quite lengthy,” orchestra director Julie Blackstock said. “They have May, June, and July to work on perfecting the etudes and at the end of July they are given professional orchestral excerpts to learn in two months.”

From thousands that begin the audition process, only a few make the cut.

“From our region we compete directly with Plano for the opportunity to record and we had five students who recorded this year but ultimately four were accepted,” Blackstock said. “So the process starts with probably about 2000 students and is whittled down to about 200, if even that many.”

The process is anything but easy as the material is well-above high school level playing.

“They are similar to what a professional musician would audition on for a symphony level job,” Blackstock said. “Somebody who might be interested in auditioning for the Dallas Symphony these are the excerpts that they would do. So they have about a six month process that they learn all of this music to compete against all the other students in the state.”

For the four that made it, the lengthy audition is worth it.

“I feel really good and happy and I’m proud to represent Liberty,” All-State orchestra selection junior Logan Hong said. “I like to play music and it’s fun to do what you like with your friends.”