This year was TMEA All-State Orchestra’s first auditions to be conducted completely online – students had a window of five days to record their pieces and submit them to TMEA. Four students from CPHS were placed into All-State under this system.

Kai Gray of percussion, Jacob Cohen of alto saxophone, Adalia Siglich of the harp and Lauren Washburn of the English horn were part of 43 students in Leander ISD and 1,800 students in Texas to have made it to All-State. The available categories were choir and band – senior Caden Taliha also qualified in the choir category. 

“In a normal non-virtual year, all students would meet at the audition location and would each play a selected excerpt of the music in a randomly selected order for live judges,” Gray said. “Now, you can record some takes and send the one you think is best to TMEA. Once you deal with recording equipment, I think it definitely helps your chances of getting a high-quality recording.”

Each student was given a packet full of etudes for their respective instruments, which they received about six months beforehand and practiced diligently for weeks on end. For freshmen like Washburn, such an accomplishment required dedication. 

“I think that my etudes were fairly difficult,” Washburn said. “I had to work on them constantly from around August all the way to December. I haven’t ever made All-State before, and I ultimately think that the work that I put in as well as being able to record multiple times contributed to my success.”

Now that TMEA is over, the students do not have much to look forward to, since most in-person contests have been canceled. However, they are still optimistic about improvements. 

“At this point, I’ve gotten fully used to the online format,” Gray said. “It’s a big honor reaching the TMEA All-State in my sophomore year. Unfortunately, a lot of events and auditions that would have happened at this point in the year have been canceled, so the main contest I am looking forward to is the Cedar Park Young Artist Contest in March.”