HARLINGEN – It was a long time coming.
But David Cavazos and Michelle Andrade have finally achieved their coveted goal: a position in the lofty Texas All-State Ensemble.
“It is an incredible honor,” said Michelle, 17, a senior at Harlingen High School South where she sings soprano 2.
“It’s something I’ve worked toward for many years and it’s unbelievable,” she said.
Ever since 18-year-old David Cavazos learned about All-State – he started playing trumpet in sixth grade – he’s dreamed of becoming an all-stater. He feels a great deal of accomplishment at having achieved his dream.
“There’s a lot of hard work that goes into getting the title with the music that I have to prepare for five months,” he said. “I feel extremely honored.”
Shane Shinsato, band director at Harlingen High School South, commended Cavazos and the other two band students from South for making All-State.
“They definitely concentrated on perfecting their music and dedicated a tremendous amount of time since August in perfecting,” Shinsato said. “They have mature sounds and approaches to their instruments.”
The all-state auditions are held each year by the Texas Music Educators Association to give students a chance to perform in a live concert with players from throughout the state.
Because of COVID-19, this year’s all-state winners won’t get to travel to San Antonio to perform. Even auditioning presented its own challenges.
“Given the situation with the pandemic,” Michelle said, “we had to prepare a certain amount of selections to which the TMEA board, our region chair and such, they choose a specific cut as they call it, a section of the song to audition with. They would choose the platform called Music First to submit our audio recordings.”
Before COVID-19, she and her fellow performers would audition in person before judges who were hidden behind a screen.
So much has changed, said Ronnie Rios, director of music for the Harlingen school district.
“COVID-19 has taken many things away from ordinary life,” Rios said. “One of the things it has taken away is live performances, so students are at home in their bedrooms or their dining rooms, recording themselves performing and submitting them to teachers or submitting them for different purposes.”
He pointed out how discouraging this could be for performers and how easy it would be for many to give up performing altogether.
So the nine Harlingen musicians who made all-state showed remarkable courage and determination.
“These are the students that persevered, that still wanted to create excellence in music performance and be competitive amongst their peer group around their area,” he said. “These are the kids that are going to do incredible things in their future because of what they went through to make all-state.”
The following students are 6A Texas All-State Musicians:
Harlingen HS Band:
- Jazmin Juarez, 12th grade, Bass Clarinet
- Roman Hernandez, 12th grade, Trombone
Harlingen HS Choir:
- Cadence Carpio, 11th grade (3 years in a row)
- Emilia Bautista, 10th grade
- Christian Briones, 11th grade
Harlingen HS South Band:
- David Cavazos, 12th grade, Trumpet
- Daniel Hernandez, 11th grade, Trombone (2nd time)
Harlingen HS South Choir:
- Michelle Andrade, 12th grade
- Jessica Torres, 11th grade
