Two choir students have advanced to Area, making making their path to the TMEA Texas All State Choir one step closer.

“I was hoping that I would advance, but I knew that there are many talented singers who try out for these auditions, so it would be a very tough round,” sophomore Megan Guidry said. “I’m hoping to get a spot in the All-State Choir at my auditions this upcoming January. The competition gets increasingly difficult at each round, so I will have to continue working hard at practicing the songs.”

Despite having a short period of time to prepare, senior Jessica Gordon worked persistently over the span of a few weeks to polish her singing.

“I spent lots of time practicing and learning the music for my audition,” Gordon said. “I only had a few weeks to learn 3 pieces of music that were all almost 10 minutes long and so a lot of time and effort went in to my preparation.”

Choir director Toni Ugolini worked alongside the students during their preparation leading up to auditions to help them refine their skills.

“They can come in during homeroom or they can come in before school and I’ll just listen to them singing through their stuff,” Ugolini said. They’re pretty much responsible for learning all of the notes and rhythms and words by themselves and they have tracks that will help them and either they can play at home. Both of these girls in addition, take voice lessons so they have another instructor one on one, so they’re kind of getting two different viewpoints on it which is really helpful.”

While Gordon is happy to have made it this far, she is already looking ahead and hopes to advance to the Texas All State Choir.

“I feel really happy to know I advanced. This is the farthest round I have ever made it to, and so I’m really excited to go to the final audition in January as confident and prepared as possible, because making the Texas All State Choir has been a big goal of mine,” Gordon said. “My goal in the future is mostly just to practice and perfect my music. I have a little more time to practice and so I really hope that the extra time will pay off!”

Ugolini believes that the success that the singers had in their auditions attests the choir’s work ethic and devotion.

“I think it’s really awesome I knew that they had a shot but it’s always difficult because everybody’s working really hard but it just goes to show you put your mind to it and you put the time and that I know they both did and it pays off,” Ugolini said. “I think making it past the Pre-Area round from this region is a really strong indicator of the kind of talent and strong singers we have here at Liberty.”