We are honoring two very outstanding young ladies at Sylvan-Lucas Unified High School as they are representing our school at the State Kansas Music Educator’s Convention as members of the All-State Mixed Choir and the All-State Treble Choir.
Addie Wallace, a senior at Sylvan-Lucas, will participate in the All-State Mixed Ensemble. She is the daughter of Tamera Wallace and Jason Wallace. In November, Addie was also recognized at the Northwest District Kansas Music Educator’s Mini Convention, held at Fort Hays State University, for four years of participation in the Northwest District’s Honor Choir and Band.
Hannah Pahls is a sophomore at Sylvan-Lucas and is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Brent Pahls. She will represent the Sylvan-Lucas Choir Department in the All-State Treble Choir.
Approximately 250 of our Kansas High School’s finest musicians will be performing in these two elite groups at the Century II Performing Arts Center in Wichita, Kansas on Saturday, February 25 at 11:30 a.m. in the Convention Hall.
Students are selected to the All-State Choirs by a rigorous live audition process which begins at the District level. Students with the top audition scores at the District audition are then eligible for selection to the All-State Choirs. These musicians are truly the “best of the best” high school musicians from the state of Kansas. Just from the Northwest District, alone, over 200 students usually try out for the District Choir. Out of these auditions, only 16-32 students are selected as representatives of the Northwest District Honor Choir to go on to perform with the State Choirs. The students in the All-State Choirs come from all classes of schools from the State and a study of ACT scores from these two choirs show that these students are also in the top of Kansas academics as well as music.
Addie’s clinician is Z. Randall Stroope, an American composer and conductor who has served as Professor of Music at three universities, conducted 47 All-State Choirs and directed over 40 times at Carnegie Hall and 16 times at Chicago Orchestra Hall. He has 190 choral works in print and, internationally has had recent conducting engagements in Hong Kong, Rome, Barcelona, Singapore, Canterbury, Berlin, Salzburg, Vancouver and Dublin. He performed music for mass at the Vatican at least once every year since 2008. He is one of Mrs. Seehafer’s favorite composers and the high school choir has performed some of his works at Music Contest.
Dr. Michael Hanawalt is Hannah’s conductor for the Treble Choir. He is the Director of Graduate Choral Studies at Florida State University, where he conducts the Chamber Choir, teaches graduate courses in conducting and choral literature and serves as Artistic Director for the Tallahassee Community Chorus. Dr. Hanawalt has also had choral assignments at Wichita State University and St. Olaf College. He has been a past Messiah soloist at Bethany College in Lindsborg for their Messiah Festival of the Arts. He also is a published choral arranger.
Hannah and Addie will leave on Thursday, February 23, 2023, to spend 3 days at the KMEA State Convention where they will rehearse in preparation for their concerts and attend the President’s concert on Friday evening. We congratulate these two fine musicians from Sylvan-Lucas on this great accomplishment, Both Hannah and Addie are vocal students of Mrs. Janet Seehafer and are active in all of our school music programs and events.
By being a part of these state choirs, both Addie and Hannah will be eligible for automatic music scholarships from many colleges in the State of Kansas.
