30 Valley students make All-State choir

Frontiersman

MAT-SU — When you think of All-State nominations you may immediately think of football or basketball, but the band and choir teams get their time to perform as well on the All-State level.

On Nov. 21 at 6 p.m., the Alaska All-State Concert will be held at West High School in Anchorage.

Singing in the concert will be 30 Valley students who have made the All-State choir. Selected were 11 students from Palmer High School, 14 from Wasilla High School and five students from Houston High School.

Those students have participated in what Palmer High School music teacher Stanley Harris believes is an extremely rigorous and competitive process.

“The students who are interested in trying out for the All-State nominations perform vocal exercises and songs that they record. These recordings are then submitted to Alaska School Activities Association and then sent out to voice teachers and coaches for them to grade and judge,” Harris said.

Once the recordings are graded, the results are released and sent back to the schools and nominees, a process Harris said takes two to three weeks.

“Just to be prompt, we had all our selections mailed by Sept. 30,” he added.

Harris, who has been teaching for more than 35 years, 28 of which have been in the Mat-Su School District, believes all the students selected worked very hard to be nominated.

“I am so very proud of them,” he said. Harris added that of the 11 students from Palmer High School, many are repeat nominations for All-State choir selections.

One student in particular will be receiving a medal for her selection.

“Irene Fry has been selected four years in a row, and this year is a top-rated first soprano,” Harris said.

The All-State choir nominees may apply for the All-Northwest States choir team if they want to, Harris said.

“It is kind of like the next level up after the state selections, and takes place around spring break,” he said.

Contact Lanier Hutcheson at lanier.hutcheson@frontiersman.com or 352-2265.

Palmer High:

Irene Fry

Carolyne Auerman

Kendra White-Hunt

Heather Bachelder

Jeanette Carrick

Kary O’Loughlin

Sierra Wilson

Eric Wolford

Joshua Anderson

Isaac Courson

Nancy Means

Wasilla High:

Carlie Jones

Julia Cannon

Audrey Perl

Amy Coonrod

Sara Cannon

Kaityln Baker

Jamie Otto

Linnza Holbrook

Saeva Chamberlin

Alysha Divine

April Gehring

Fiona Guiley

Brian Hackaman

Dylan Spargo

Houston High:

Dylan Webb

Heather Boyce

Lacie Wright

Anessa Katzenberger

Allyssa Miller