Three AHS students have been selected to represent Allen in the Texas All-State choir. They will perform with the choir at the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) Convention in San Antonio on Feb. 14.

Junior Keerthy Benny, first alto; senior Gabby Krueger, second alto; and senior Madeline Sterrett, first alto; auditioned for All-State on Jan. 10, and received the results that same day.

“I was ecstatic,” Benny said. “I’ve been wanting to make All-State since freshman year.”

The auditions start with two phases of All-Region, from which the top 16 from each voice part move on to Pre-Area auditions. From there, the top five from each voice part advance to Area. The top 10 from Area are then placed into one of the three All-State choirs.

“I started learning the music in July,” Krueger said. “I spent at least an hour a day practicing.”

The All-Region auditions had a total of more than 60,000 participants, and the seven songs necessary to audition for All-State were “the hardest they’ve been in a long time,” according to Benny.

“It wasn’t stressful, because I’ve been doing this for several years now, but it was hard work,” Sterrett said.

The three girls will be traveling to San Antonio on Feb. 11 to attend the TMEA Convention, where they will rehearse for three days and conclude with a concert. The convention, with more than 26,000 attendees, is the largest music educator convention in the nation.

“It was really satisfying to make it in,” Sterrett said. “I felt like all of the time I spent was worth it.”