by JIM CULLEN
Dahlstrom Middle School Choir Director Tanna Bills and her award-winning Mustang Choir display their 2010 UIL Sweepstakes trophy, the peak of a successful showing for the district’s five middle school choirs. (Photo by Jim Cullen)
The Hays CISD Performing Arts Center is one of the most popular venues in the area for choral events because of its “fabulous acoustics,” according to Hays High School Choir Director Nancy Cavendish. That’s certainly fine with her and Lehman High School Director Daniel Arredondo – as well as the district’s five middle school directors, as they continue to get the opportunity to compete in their home environment.
The setting worked once again for the 2010 Region 18 UIL Choir Concert and Sightreading Contest, the event’s fifth consecutive staging at the local PAC, with both Lehman and Hays High School recently scoring Sweepstakes, complemented by a Sweepstakes for Director Tanna Bills’ Dahlstrom Middle School Choir.
Lehman’s Arredondo expressed pride in his choirs’ success since the school opened its doors and says he feels that taking four successful choirs to contest “is a huge accomplishment when compared to schools state-wide.” He adds he’s “blessed with dedicated and motivated students.” Cavendish admits all directors “pour so much of ourselves” into the annual contest, and notes that it “is not the ‘whole’ of what we do.”
Hays High School Treble Choir performs its Concert selections in the recent Region 18 UIL Contest competition in the Performing Arts Center’s Gerald Babbitt Auditorium. Nancy Cavendish directs the group. (Photo by Cyndy Slovak-Barton)
Forty-five choirs from 20 Central Texas high schools (both 4A and 5A) competed in the competition’s first two days and more than 50 middle school choirs followed the next two days.
Both Hays and Lehman Varsity Mixed Choirs took Sweepstakes, as did Lehman’s Varsity Treble (from the women in Varsity Mixed), and both schools scored Sweepstakes in Non-Varsity Treble. Lehman’s Non-Varsity Mixed Choir took a first division (Superior) in Concert and a second division (Excellent) in Sightreading.
Dahlstrom’s Sweepstakes led the way for the district middle schools, a feat celebrated by the Mustang faithful. The district’s middle school showing included Simon’s Wolverines participating in their first-ever contest under Adrian Reyes, Barton’s Treble Choir and Chapa’s Non-Varsity Treble taking a Sightreading first divisions, and Wallace fielding three competing choirs, the Ranger Treble scoring “Excellent” in both Concert and Sightreading.
Katherine Moore, who once again coordinated the middle school competition, directs the Barton program. Yvette Vasquez is the director at Chapa and Kelly Reyes directs the Wallace choral program.
