KHS Students Set to Attend All-East Choir

KHS ensemble students practice daily for All East.

Holly Van Dyke

KHS ensemble students practice daily for All East.

Holly Van Dyke

All East is an annual event held by East Tennessee Vocal Association (ETVA) that allows the most talented choir students of East Tennessee to showcase their abilities. KHS choir director Seth Tinsley explains, “There’s the National Association for Music Education, that’s NAfME, and through NAfME, the different regions have their own individual organizations. Ours is the East Tennessee Vocal Association,” he continues, “Each region of the state holds an honors choir for their region.” Students must go through an audition process to be accepted. It spans over three days total, and it allows students from all over the region to make connections with each other and work on something they are passionate about: music. 

 

Auditioning for All East and attending is a significant part of choir classes at Karns, particularly the Ensemble. Students in the Honors Ensemble are required to audition, and other members of the Ensemble are pushed to do so. Tinsley states that, “It’s a good opportunity for students that are in different programs… to get to sing with master clinicians, work with other students in the area, and learn from someone besides their own teacher.” Tinsley also points out that, “It’s important because it can get you scholarship money.” Getting into All East is seen as highly regarded for a student, so earning a spot is taken seriously by students. Tinsley explains that the audition process is very strenuous, especially in a typical year, but with the pandemic the process has changed. Under normal circumstances, students wishing to audition must learn two pieces of music and sing a selected part of each song to five judges. They must also complete a sight-reading portion of the audition, which reveals their ability to read off pitches and rhythms from a piece of music they have never seen before. Assuming they make it, they must then learn the repertoire and go to a screening to ensure that they know their music.  “It takes a lot of outside work for students. I think it makes students have to become self-reliant and self-sustaining,” Tinsley says.

 

Covid-19 has had a significant impact on All East the past two years, and it also prevented All State Choir from happening the past two years, where the highest scoring students in their regions are invited to participate in an honors choir in Nashville. “That’s a big, big thing for students who get invited to All State, and the fact that they didn’t get to go was heart wrenching for them,” explains Tinsley.  All East also did not occur last year. Although students were still able to audition, no performances were held. Despite these “devastating” blows, things are improving. Tinsley says that the audition process has been held online this year, but that there will be an in-person performance with regulations.

 

Several KHS students will be participating in All East this year after making through their auditions, and they are very excited to be going back in person. Tinsley says that there are nine students who made it, and another three who are alternates with the possibility of getting in. Freshman Jack Pinkston explains that he is looking forward to being in a choir of hand-picked students who know what they are doing. “I’m a little bit nervous,” he says, “but I feel like I’ve been prepared, especially with my siblings.” Jack has two older brothers, Lee and Sam Pinkston, who have been in the Ensemble and have also gone through the All East process. Senior Emily Seibel is happy to be back one last time. “It’s just a lot of fun because I get to see lots of people who love to do what I love to do, and we all get to come together and we get to make music.” She continues that she’s grateful that All East will have “human interaction” this year explaining that she is, “really excited to be able to go back to semi-normal…and that we’re moving back towards the original experience of what All East was [before the Pandemic].”

 

All East will be held at Maryville College for the students who made it on the roster. They have registration on Thursday night, Nov. 18,  and rehearsals on Friday and Saturday. Their performances will be on Nov. 20, from 2:15 p.m.- 4:15 p.m. at the Clayton Center at Maryville College. Masks are required for anyone attending the concert, but it will be livestreamed for those who cannot attend.