LAKELAND — They don’t often get the acknowledgments that athletes receive but the 93 student musicians selected for one of the Florida All-State Music Ensembles have one of the highest honors for a student enrolled in a band, orchestra, chorus or other music group.
In early December, 9,790 Florida music students auditioned for 22 different Florida All-State Music Ensembles, and of those, 2,384 Florida All-State students were selected to perform at the Tampa Convention Center and Marriott Waterside Hotel during the Jan. 10 to Jan. 13 Florida Music Education Association Professional Development Conference.
The FMEA's component organizations are Florida Vocal Association, Florida Orchestra Association, Florida Bandmasters Association and Florida Elementary Music Education Association.
Kathleen Sanz, FMEA executive director in Tallahassee, said the audition-based All-State Ensembles are high select groups of choral, band, orchestra, guitar, elementary chorus and Orff students — music, movement, drama, and speech — from Florida schools.
“It’s definitely an honor to sing for All-State chorus. I’m very happy I was given this opportunity,” said Joseph Gill, a member of the Lakeland High School Chorus.
Gill, 17, a senior, sings tenor and has been in the chorus since his freshman year. He plans to study music education at Florida State University with the goal of becoming a choral director.
“I was very happy and it shows our school does have the same talent as schools with a focus on music and the arts. It’s possible to make it without being at one of those schools,” he said.
At the FMEA Professional Development Conference, more than 10,000 individuals from Florida will attend, including about 158 Polk County educators, according to Sanz. During the three days, approximately 250 workshops and sessions highlighting music technology, classroom teaching techniques, observation of teachers, instrumental and vocal techniques and performance comprise the conference.
In a written statement, Sanz said taking part in an All-State ensemble offers a chance to collaborate and perform with peers from other regions in the state, enhancing their music curricula.
“They develop relationships with other students that may not have been afforded to them in other settings,” she wrote.
During the conference, the days are divided into concert performances by the various school All-State ensembles. Those include: guitar, intercollegiate bands, reading choruses, middle and high school jazz ensembles, orchestras and choruses, men’s and women’s choruses, honors bands, honors orchestras and concert and symphonic bands.
The process for getting into one of those groups takes a keen ability to focus, said Regina Register, Lakeland High School choral director. She said she was impressed with Gill and other regular public school students’ abilities to make All-State, despite not having any private instruction.
“He (Gill) had to work twice as hard as students in music academies. He’s very driven with his personal goals and takes all the steps to reach those goals,” she said.
Gill and the All-State Men’s Chorus repertoire will include: “Bound for the Promised Land,” J. David Moore; “O Sacrum Convivium,” T.L. Victoria; “I Carry Your Heart with Me,” David C. Dickau; and “Come and Go to That Land,” arranged by Brandon Waddles.
No matter which discipline a student is in, being in an All-State Ensemble is the highlight for any Polk County student’s music education experience, said Beth Cummings, Polk County School District director of fine arts. She called the process for making an ensemble quite rigorous.
Cummings, who is a past president of FMEA, said instrument and vocal students have similar but different processes for getting into All-State ensembles. For example, she said, choral students must go through written and sight reading tests and vocal quality performances. Band students go through recorded auditions and must play scales and etudes, judged by adjudicators from throughout the state.
It’s common for many All-State ensemble students to go on to become music educators, said Cummings.
“These ensembles show these students’ musicianship skills are the highest in the state. For these students, it’s a high, personal honor to themselves, their parents and their schools to be an All-State musician,” she said.
Christina Bowles, a fifth-grader at Carlton Palmer Elementary School, Lakeland is the only elementary school All-State ensemble member in the county, according to her mother, Tiffany Bowles.
Christina said she's proud to have made it through the All-State auditions, but also was happy when it was over.
“I was nervous but I thought I did a good job,” she said. “I was sick the day of the audition but I was still confident. I think all the students there are very talented and what they all did was very impressive.”
Each of the 93 students will be brought together to rehearse and perform selected music with guest conductors.
The FMEA conference is the second-largest of its kind in the United States for music educators, with a trade show of nearly 275 local, state, national and international music industry companies, vendors, colleges and institutions represented.
Paul Catala can be reached at paul.catala@theledger.com or 863-802-7533. He can be reached at Twitter @pcat0226.