“It feels nerve-wracking, but exciting!”, says senior Alecs Asencio, after being asked what being a part of the All-State choir means to him.
For context, BDCHS recently found out that Alecs was selected to be a part of the All-State Reading Choir, composed of the top 100 scoring sight-readers from across the state of Florida, after all districts have completed the first round of All-State Auditions. This is not the first year Alecs has been selected, as last year he performed in the Tenor-Bass choir.
Sight-reading is the process of singing/playing music at sight with little-to-no prep time. Alecs successfully sang 33/40 measures of music correctly at his audition! In an interview, Alecs described the audition process, saying that it began with a written musical theory exam, which he felt quite confident on, thanks in no small part to his time in Choir and Band classes with Mr. Crenshaw. The second part of the test was composed of a sight-reading portion, where auditionees are given a sheet of music to perform for the first time in front of interviewers, which accesses applicant musical note knowledge and rhythm capability/understanding. Alecs described feeling nervous on the sight-reading audition, but feeling proud of being selected for the choir.
During the All-State weekend in January, the Reading Choir will perform nearly 100 pieces of music, followed by a concert of songs one which they have only performed once or twice, some of which are in foreign languages they will perform on stage for the very first time.
Only 25 students from each were selected. “Only a total of 4 students from Hillsborough County were selected for this elite ensemble!” writes Music Director Mr. Crenshaw “We have NEVER in our school's history had a student selected for this ensemble and it is a very high honor! Please wish him congratulations for his extremely hard work! He practiced sight-reading every day leading up to the audition!” For now, Alecs is set to practice his sight reading through sources of digital sight reading and audition materials from past materials open to students across the state.