Eleven high school students have been named to this year’s Texas All-State Choir and Orchestra. The All-State recognition is the highest individual honor awarded.Tens of thousands of high school students audition for All-State Honors yearly. Only about 1,300 Texas students win the prestigious ranking each year.
Named to the Texas All-State Choir are Dominic Spencer of Spring Woods High and Marlen Nahhas of Memorial High. Dr. Terry Morris leads the Spring Woods High Choir; Kerry Talley directs the Memorial High Choir.
Nine Memorial High students earned All-State Orchestra honors this year. On violin, they are Soo Jin Cho, Gene Hu, Hannah Moore and Junji Wiener. Viola player Shawn Banon, and cellists Danny Cho and Daniel Kim were also named to the All-State Orchestra. Binjiee Shiu is the Memorial High orchestra’s director.
Stratford High student cellists Kristina Ko and Placido Wang were also named to the All-State Orchestra. Stratford High’s orchestra director is Michael Fahey.
The Texas Music Educators Association sponsors the All-Region and All-State bands, choirs and orchestras. Auditions are held at the region, area and state level. All-State Choir and Orchestra members will rehearse and perform at the annual music educators association’s convention, which will be held during February in San Antonio.