Choir readies for all-state auditions

Just a few weeks into the school year, choir students are already diving straight into All-State choir music and auditions on Thursday.

Wingspan recently sat down with choir director Bruce Stevenson to talk about the details of All-State, as well as his teaching processes and beliefs.

Wingspan: When are All-State auditions?

Stevenson: “They are October 1st and region auditions are October 5th.”

Wingspan: How does the All-State process work?

Stevenson: “The process works for All-State that students sing in a blind audition before five judges who they don’t see. The students have been told a couple days earlier what they’re supposed to sing, so they have a couple days after having learned all the music to really prepare those sections. Then they sing to a taped piano accompaniment at one excerpt each out of three pieces of music for these five judges who evaluate them and score them.”

Wingspan: What is the general type of music that the audition requires the students to learn?

Stevenson: “I would call it very high level choral music. It’s the kinds of things that very advanced choirs in college would do or high school. Classical music sometimes, modern compositions, but a very high level of choral training and rehearsal is required.”

Wingspan: Since the music is so advanced, what are your expectations regarding the student’s success in the audition?

Stevenson: “Oh, that’s a good question. My expectations, first of all, are in one way very general. I expect that those who audition will be there because they really wanna make a serious effort of auditioning. I am reasonably sure that we will have students who will make the region choir which is made up of our region. Frisco, Carrollton, Lewisville, The Colony and so forth. It’s a really good choral experience that takes place in November when the region choir spends a weekend singing together and rehearsing and performing. I would love to see some students that would get into the pre-area audition and move beyond that because that’s, like, the next level up to where you get to that point. If you get out of area, you are actually in the all-state choir so it’s kind of a multi-tiered thing and it’s always our objective to have students place as highly in that process and do as well as they can every audition.”

Wingspan: What is your favorite thing about teaching choir?

Stevenson: “I would say my favorite thing, I have two favorite things if that’s possible. One of them is kind of that experience when a choir comes together and really gets that something. That moment where everyone goes ‘Oh, that’s how it’s supposed to sound like!’ Eyes light up and you kind of think ‘Okay, we’re really starting to get this.’ The other part of it really isn’t musical. It’s the fact that I see a lot of students in my classes for four years in a row. English teachers see a freshman class, then they see the next freshman class and so forth. I get to see students for four years in a row. I get to know them, we share a lot of life together. So I think it really has to do with the relationships. The fact that we really become well acquainted with each other over four years because music is emotional and there’s that connection of emotional things and experiences we share together. Any choral singer, I think, kind of knows that experience where you have a concert and you just have this high because you pulled it off and everybody worked as a team. It’s really a very wonderful thing for me to know that the students I’ve got this year I’ll have as sophomores, juniors and seniors. When they leave, it’s really an important part of my heart and my life. I’m a very relational person, I love people and so that’s a real huge thing for me.”

Wingspan: How long have you been teaching choir?

Stevenson: “This is my 9th year. Well, my ninth year in school but then 30 years directing youth choirs and adult choirs and orchestras and things before that too.”

Wingspan: Were there any moments where you doubted your musical ability growing up? What advice do you have for students struggling with the same thing now?

Stevenson: “Oh, that’s a really good question too. Music is the kind of thing that some people do very naturally and do well naturally. Some people really have to work at it. They say when writing a piece that writing and composing a piece of music is ten percent inspiration and ninety percent perspiration. Very, very few people just are naturally those who excel at it. So I think my challenge is to take what you’ve got, take what you can do, and then build on it and improve it. Have lessons, go hear other choirs sing, go hear other artists sing, practice your craft whether it’s singing, playing, or doing something like conducting, writing, whatever it is. Have people listen to you sing or perform or have them look at your music that you’ve written and give you constructive critique on it so that you can say ‘Okay, I see what I didn’t do well on and I know how I can do that better. Even the world’s greatest performers in any genre didn’t get there without practice. They all had to put the sweat into it and, you know, the time and the practice in it. I heard a story about the guitarist Eric Clapton one time. He spent one whole week working on a four measure phrase. So that every time he could play it, it would be perfect. And I thought ‘Okay. One week on four measures, that’s a lot of repetition.’ But that’s how the best ones get to be the best ones. Even if they’re really loaded with a lot of natural talent, they still make that talent work for them by practicing, by getting better. Diligently working at that.”