barber all-state cut
TCHS Choir students (left to right) Paisley Rasmussen, Amanda Barber, and Caroline Norton were three of the seven Timber Creek singers that advanced to the All-State level. (Photo from Amanda Barber)

Seven Timber Creek singers have advanced to the All-State level following the Area competition on Jan. 8-9, 2016.

Timber Creek choir tied with Colleyville Heritage High School with the most singers that qualified per school in our area. The seven singers and alternates include:

-Savannah Porter, first chair soprano one

-Cecilia Masikini, eighth chair soprano two

– Caroline Norton, second chair alto one

– Amanda Barber, third chair alto one

– Paisley Rasmussen, fourth chair alto one

– Adam Thomas, eighth chair tenor two

– Colin Block, third chair bass one

– Nam Nguyen, first alternate tenor two

The talent above did not just happen on the first day of school. It took a long time to prepare so that they could go to all-state.

All-State qualifier Amanda Barber has been preparing since July. She took a camp at the TCU campus during the summer. This was only a week long camp, but everything they had to learn was packed into that small amount of time. Timber Creek also provided a camp for All-State and Barber made sure to attend.

“The first audition is in early September so if you start when school starts, you’re not going to learn the music fast enough,” Barber tells us.

There is more practice the farther the student continues in the competition. Once the student gets closer to the end of the competition, there is more attention to detail in the music such as tempo, style and dynamics.

The whole event was intense for everyone, but the fourth and final round had to be the toughest for those competing. Only ten girls out of 20 could be accepted, and for the boys, only eight. With the last round, the students auditioning sing their cuts in a different room than they sing their sight reading.

“It was different than any other round because you sight read and sing in the same room all at once. But in this [fourth] round you had to wait in between singing and sight reading so it was really nerve-wracking because after you sang you had to wait for a couple hours and then sight read,” Barber comments.

Once everyone had sang and done their sight reading for the judges, at the fourth and final round of auditions, they find out who was accepted into the All-State choir. The choir kids were very supportive, so while they waited for their results, the students sat in a circle and held hands. Even when kids don’t get accepted, the students who did make sure to encourage the others and let them know they did a fantastic job and that the sophomore and juniors can once again take a shot next year.

[Editor’s Note: This story originally had the headline “I Knew You Were Treble When You Walked In,” which is hilarious.]