“I started in the third grade” Geyasri Kondapaneni said, an aspiring choir member in her junior year at Clements. “It’s just something I was born with.”

Geya was selected to be a Texas All-State Choir Member on January 31st, along with eight other Fort Bend ISD students. The ensemble was set to perform at the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center in San Antonio, on Saturday, February 17th.

Texas All-State Choir is a prestigious choir that thousands of people audition for each year. There are multiple levels of auditions, starting from the region auditions at the beginning of the school year going to State auditions.

Every year, over 70,000 students audition to be a part of the Texas All-State Orchestra Ensemble, out of which a mere 1,780 students are selected to perform. Geya said making the final cut felt “surreal.”

However, despite, the promise she shows in music, she intends to major in biology or another science and minor in music.

“I do want to make it a career, but I also don’t want to do something that I’m going to be stressed about in the back of my head,” Geya said.

While almost 2,000 students make through, there are several others that don’t.

Even though Geya is very excited to be part of this year’s All-State Choir, she also addressed the thousands of students who didn’t make the cut.

“You’re not a bad singer, because you didn’t make one competition,” Geya said. “That happens to the best. I would tell them to just not stress about [it]”

As for this year, the performance at the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center is the last step for All-State, surely students have already started preparing for next year’s audition in hopes to get even further, and hopefully make it to the final Texas All-State choir.