Choir back on the map
Jan. 22—Under the direction of John Krystyniak, senior Marissa Yates is bringing recognition back to the Huntsville High School Chorale as the school's first student to place in the Texas All-State Choir since 2017.
Through an area competition that took place earlier this month, Yates was selected as one of 140 students who will perform with the Texas All-State Treble Choir Saturday, Feb. 12, in San Antonio at the Henry B. González Convention Center as part of the 2022 Texas Music Educators Association Clinic/Convention.
The high school students selected to perform in the All-State concerts have competed through auditions to qualify at the state level, which is the highest honor a Texas music student can achieve. Through a process that began with over 70,000 students from around the state vying for the honor to perform in one of 18 ensembles, only the top 2.6%, or 1,875 students, have been named All-State musicians.
"Not only are you going up against this area, you're going up against people from five or six hours away, so it's a really good indicator of skill, it's good to know that your passion pays off," Yates said.
In her first year to audition, Yates was chosen for this prestigious honor through a competitive process held this year across the state at District, Region and Area levels.
Sponsored by the Texas Music Educators Association, the Texas All-State competition auditions begin throughout the state with a competitive audition process hosted by 33 TMEA Regions. 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 eight TMEA Area competitions. The highest-ranking musicians judged at the TMEA Area competitions then qualify to perform in a TMEA All-State music group.
In August, Yates began working towards the District auditions, learning nine pieces of technical music on her own and with Krystyniak's assistance to help polish her performance.
"Because it's chorale music and it's done by the book, it's very technical, so you have to be really sure to do it precisely," Yates said.
"As an artist, she's very detail oriented and so that helped her to reach this certain level of success," Krystyniak added.
Yates noted that she found an interest in choir after performing in her third grade talent show singing an unplanned acappella rendition of "Home on the Range," after forgetting to bring her music track to accompany her performance.
"I thought I was going to bomb it, but everybody loved it and just from that moment on, having people piping me up and having affirmation that I was good or had a talent, I just really delved into it," Yates said.
She then joined her intermediate school's choir in the sixth grade, moving to Huntsville ISD two years later, where she said she has found a good match with her director.
"She has always sort of had this potential there, but as she's gotten a little bit older, she's been able to sort of simulate some of the things and put together a very polished performance," Krystyniak said, adding that Yates is a leader through example and that she never faces difficulties in striking out on her own.
Yates and her fellow All-State students will participate in three days of rehearsals directed by nationally recognized conductors during the TMEA Clinic/Convention, with their performances for thousands of attendees bringing this extraordinary event to a close.
"I get all new music for this," Yates said excitedly. "For past auditions, they give us a packet of about 10 songs and you have to learn them all throughout one point or another during the audition, but this one is all fresh music, it's all new, I still have to learn everything and I'm very excited to be able to work on more difficult and abstract pieces with a really large choir."
"If you've got a love for it, it doesn't feel like a chore, you get to spend an hour looking at a book of music and it's a dumb thing to get excited about unless you're really into it and then it's not that much of a chore if you really like it," Yates added.
As Yates approaches graduation, she will continue to pursue her passions with a degree in music and is hoping to become a choir director someday.
