Band, choir students selected to all-state
The Pea Ridge High School Band and Choir each had a student selected to the All-State Honor Ensemble.
Junior Ashley Hansen, a member of the Ridgetones advanced choir at the high school, was selected to the ArkCDA Women’s Treble Choir. Hansen is the first Pea Ridge student to be selected to the All-State Choir since Caleb Duvall in 2006.
Senior Quentin Mathis was selected to the ASBOA Symphonic Band on String Bass. This is Mathis’s second year to be selected to the all-state band.
Hansen and Mathis, along with six other Pea Ridge students, traveled to Arkansas State in Jonesboro on Feb. 2 and 3 to audition for the All-State Honor Ensembles against more than 1,000 instrumental and vocal students throughout the state.
Both students attended the All-State Music Conference in Hot Springs Feb. 15-17. Choir, orchestra and band students from all over the state attend the conference to rehearse with their respective groups and perform a concert that Saturday in the Hot Springs Convention Center Arena. In addition to rehearsing and performing in the honor ensembles, each student and their directors attend a multitude of concerts throughout those three days featuring groups such as the intercollegiate choir and band, the all-state jazz bands, chamber orchestra and select honor bands and choirs from schools that submit application for consideration by the state organizations. Being a member of the all-state bands and choirs is the highest honor an individual music student can achieve.
An important part of the all-state conference is, the students get to visit with representatives from all the colleges and universities in the state of Arkansas about music scholarships. Schools such as Arkansas Tech, UCA, U of A-Fayetteville, Arkansas State and many others attended to recruit students. Both Hansen and Mathis were able to take the time to visit with those schools and make connections with them for the future.