An American tale

Students from Archbishop Beck Catholic College, Liverpool travelled to the Henry B Gonzalez convention centre, San Antonio, Texas for the Texas Music Educators National Convention.

The annual convention features over 200 workshops for band, orchestra, vocal, elementary and college educators and more than 50 performances (from elementary through college and professional groups), including performances by TMEA honour orchestras and honour bands, middle school and high school ensembles selected through a multi-tiered audition process.

The convention also showcased over 1,000 exhibit booths representing all facets of the music education industry.

Over 25,000 people from Texas and beyond attend the clinics, concerts, research sessions and presentations by internationally recognised educators.

The convention culminated with the TMEA All-State concerts sponsored by the band, orchestra, and vocal divisions.
Rachael Patterson a Year 13 student on the tour said: “After our visit to the mid-west conference in Chicago, a few years ago, I knew that this would exceed our expectations on music education, I knew we would learn so much.”

Director of music Bruce Hicks said, “Music education is so important to students in our schools. We must provide them with the skills, knowledge and motivation to develop outstanding instrumental and vocal ensembles in our schools.”

Mr Hicks added: “As Andre Previn said in 1972 ‘There are a million things in music I know nothing about. I just want to narrow down that figure’. This conference is a way of narrowing the gap.”