BULLARD, Texas — **EDITOR'S NOTE: The video above is from Dec. 2021.
More than any year before, eight Bullard High School student musicians have earned Association of Texas Small Schools All-State Band and Texas Small Schools All-State Choir honors.
These students will join other All-State band and choir students in San Antonio in February when they perform concerts during the 2022 Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) Clinic/Convention.
High school students selected to perform in All-State concerts have competed through auditions to qualify at the state level. All-State is the highest honor a Texas music student can receive. This competitive process begins throughout the state in auditions hosted at the Regional level. Individual musicians perform selected music for a panel of judges who rank each instrument or voice part. From this ranking, a select group of musicians advances from their Region to compete against musicians from other areas in Area competitions. The highest-ranking musicians in the Area round qualify to perform in a TMEA All-State music group.
Bullard students selected for the All-State Choir are Sadie Brems-Soprano and Caleb Brooks-Bass. This is the first time Sadie and Caleb have received the honor.
Qualifying for the All-State Band are Anthony Foto-Trumpet, Caden Garrick-Trombone, Reilly Ogrodnik-Percussion, Aiden Skanes-Euphonium, Audrey Rhyne-Clarinet, and Keegan Watson-Euphonium. Ogrodnik and Watson both received 1st chair honors in their Area competitions. Additionally, in the Area round, only 20 schools had at least one student qualify for All-State with at most only 3 students qualifying. Bullard doubled that number with 6 band students.
“Having six band students and two choir students selected to All-State is a huge accomplishment,” Gary Jordan, Bullard ISD Fine Arts Director, said. “Not only are we up against very talented schools in our Region and Area, but we also had fewer opportunities this year to qualify. Our students performed very well.”