The Waxahachie choir program has seven people advancing to the next round of auditions on Nov. 28th after placing in the top ten. Seven others made the All-District choir.

“I’m honestly here for the ride,” advancing choir student, junior Maci Davis said. “It’ll be awesome to go all the way to state, but my attention has been divided, so I’m just trying to do my best.”

There are three rounds of auditions that take many hours of hard work and preparation outside of school.

“We had sectionals on Mondays after school, and every day in tribe if I had time, as well as on my own outside of school,” Davis said.

Most of the work is done by the students by themselves, by listening to tracks of the songs and memorizing them by the time the audition date comes around. The program continues to have more students advance every year.

“I believe the success is based on the kids we have,” director Carrie Forehand said. “They are pushing each other to come in and practice when they have free time. The only thing I have changed is adding an extra two hours of rehearsals after school on Mondays and Tuesdays.”

The directors require students in the top choir to audition for at least the first round every year, and the choirs below have an option on whether they want to audition or not. Last year they had four people make it to the Pre-Area auditions, and one made it to state. This year they have seven make it to Pre- Area and the auditions for state will take place later this month. The directors are hard at work getting the students ready.

“I provide tracks for them to rehearse at home and at school,” Forehand. “I will give them phonetic breakdowns of their foreign language pieces to ensure they are saying the words correctly, and I will also listen to them before school, during tribe, or after school.”