WABASH COUNTY, Ind. – Three Wabash County music students were selected to sing in the Indiana All-State Honor Choir at the Indiana Music Educators Convention in Fort Wayne.
The High School All State Honor Choir will perform on Saturday, Jan. 13 at 5:30 p.m. in the Embassy Theatre, 125 W. Jefferson Blvd., Fort Wayne. Admission is free and open to the public.
Southwood High School will be represented by Tyler Robison and Hannah Miller. while Manchester High School will be represented by Mikayla Genovese also will perform.
A junior, Miller, is the daughter of Kenneth and Antonita Miller. This is her first year to audition and be selected for the high school All State Honor Choir. She has earned gold medals at the ISSMA contest each year for piano solos and vocal ensembles. She has consistently been a member of Southwood choirs and Vocal Impact. She has participated in band, dance and piano lessons, FAME festivals, musical theater productions, Worship Band, Wabash County Honor Choir, and the Honeywell Vocal Arts Institute Program.
Robison, a senior, is the son of Diana and Gary Robison. This is his first year to audition and be selected for this choir. He has consistently been a member of the concert choir and the band. He has also been selected for the County Honor Choir each year in high school. He has earned gold medals at the ISSMA vocal solo & ensemble district and state contests.
Genovese, a senior, is the daughter of the late Bonnie Genovese. This is her second year to audition and be selected for Indiana All State Honor Choir. She has consistently been a member of choir and band throughout her career at Manchester Community Schools. She has also participated in Wabash County Honor Choir and Band several years, as well as the Vocal Impact youth choir. Genovese has earned gold medals at ISSMA solo and ensemble district and state contest, earning a perfect score at state as a sophomore. Last June she participated in the Vocal Arts Institute, co-sponsored by the Honeywell Foundation’s Visual & Performing Arts program and Heartland Sings.
Indiana’s Area 4A, which includes Kosciusko, Wabash, Huntington, Whitley, Wells and Adams counties is allowed a quota of 10 singers to be selected, but 12 students were selected due to close scoring. Approximately 250 students are chosen from the state of Indiana through an audition process of sight-singing and performing a prepared song. This choir will rehearse all day on Jan. 12 before performing in concert on Saturday.
The guest choral conductor for the Indiana High School All State Honor Choir is Dr. Janet Galván, Director of Choral Activities at Ithaca College, who conducts the Ithaca College Choir, Women’s Chorale, and is the Artistic Director for the Ithaca Children’s Choir.
Galván has been a guest conductor and clinician in the United Kingdom, Canada, Belgium, Austria, the Czech Republic, Greece, and Brazil as well as national and regional choral and music education conferences and the World Symposium on Choral Music. She was on the conducting faculty for the Carnegie Hall Choral Institute, the Transient Glory Symposium in February of 2012 and the Oberlin Conducting Institute in 2014. Galván has been recognized as one of the country’s leading conducting teachers. She has been an artist in residence at many universities, leading masterclasses, working with the university choirs, and presenting sessions. Dr. Galván was a member of the Grammy Award-winning Robert Shaw Festival Singers (Telarc Recordings).
Mrs. Susan Keefer is the choral director at Southwood Jr.-Sr. High School.