Four local students selected for All-State band, choir

Four area students have been accepted to All-State Choir and All-State Band this year to perform at a special concert at the Lied Center for Performing Arts in Lincoln.

Sidney High School sophomore Abbie Fraas and juniors Jonathon Stokes and Megan Neal will be singing with some of the best choir students in Nebraska on Nov. 21 under the guidance of Craig Jessop, best known as the musical director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir from 1999 to 2008.

Senior Ethan Nelson, alto saxophone player from Dalton, has also been chosen to perform in Lincoln as part of the All-State Band, conducted by Colleen Richardson.

According to Sidney High choir director David Mead, being selected to be in All-State Choir is a big deal.

About 2,500 students from all over the state auditioned for the honor, and only about 430 were chosen. Mead said Sidney usually sends about three or four students each year, and has sent as many as eight.

"Three students is a real good number for a school this size," he said.

Mead said that rather than push students to audition, he presents the opportunity to them and they can choose whether to pursue it.

"I leave it up to the kids," he said. "If I press them hard on it, it would be my thing, and not theirs."

The students are required to follow a strict set of audition rules to be considered by the Nebraska Music Educators Association, or NMEA.

Hopeful applicants must record their audition on a video taken by their instructor, which cannot exceed six minutes. During the video, the choir student will sing scales both with instrumental accompaniment and without, two arpeggios and selections from the All-State Chorus repertoire. Band students must play memorized scales at certain speeds in concert pitch.

The auditions are then submitted via the internet, along with an application fee.

Before the big concert at the Lied Center on Nov. 21, the Sidney students will rehearse here at home as a group two or three times before heading up to Lincoln on Nov. 19. Then, according to Mead, the students will join with the rest of the All-State Choir members from around the state and rehearse as a full choir.

The choir will give their performance at 4:30 p.m. on the 21st, and the All-State Band concert will follow at 7:30 p.m.