By Ashley Berrones, Special to the herald
The Harlingen High School Varsity Women’s Choir was invited to perform at the Texas Music Educators Association Conference. Every year, ensembles submit their music to the TMEA board for a blind audition process. Hundreds of auditions are submitted annually in the women’s, men, or mixed categories for choir. Only two varsity women’s choir ensembles from across Texas are selected to perform at the conference.
“The girls know how huge of an opportunity this is,” Harlingen High School Head Choir Director Ginger Wheelock said. They stepped up, and they have been excited, and it’s been a journey.”
This year, like many other events, the conference will be held virtually.
“Normally, they would sing live in front of a thousand attendees. We are expecting the same number, but now they are just going to be online,” Wheelock said.
The girls have been hard at work for months to prepare for this performance. Being a virtual event, the preparations for video and audio have been slightly different.
“In a normal concert setting, it would be live, and we would do the audio and the digital at the same time,” Wheelock said. “This year we are doing the audio and then we are going to the PAC and doing the video portion for our program.”
The Harlingen High School Varsity Women’s Choir, made up of girls in 10th-12th grade, has been learning the music since the beginning of the school year.
“We started our recording process little by little every week, “Wheelock said. “There are so many moving parts and we have had so much help and resources from across the district. It’s really a multidepartment, multi-team effort.”
The performance will be on February 12, 2021 at 12:20 p.m.
“There has been so much growth throughout these last couple of months, and we are really proud of them for being willing to do something new and unknown,” Wheelock said. “This performance is going to be a huge reflection of HCISD and HHS. These girls’ commitment is going to be shown throughout the state. It’s remarkable.”
