Senior Holden Spears and junior Joey McCreight were two of 12 Humble ISD students to be TMEA All-State recipients this year.

In order to qualify for this recognition, students had to go through several rounds of auditions to make it up to the All-State level. They started from a pool of over 70,000 students from across the state, going through district, region and area before getting to the state level.

Spears earned the All-State honors for the second time, while McCreight earned it for the first time.

“That’s basically the hardest thing to make state in because we’re in Texas, which is the hardest state for music in the country,” band director Bre Osbourn said. “If you can make All-State in Texas, you’re pretty much guaranteed a scholarship to any school in the country you want to go to, even private schools. It’s pretty difficult, it takes a whole lot of work, and there’s only a handful of people that make it that level. So it’s a really, really, really big honor.”

Holden Spears

How long have you been in band for?

“This is my fourth year to do it in high school, but 7th overall, so all through middle school.”

How did you originally get into music?

“Well it was sixth grade when we were choosing our instruments, and they came to play at my fifth grade. The guy that demonstrated the euphonium he played the song sail by AWOLNATION and something about that just resonated with me. I thought it was pretty cool, so I figured that’s what I wanted to do. And then I also figured out that they go on a Splashtown trip, so I was like, ‘Oh, yeah.'”

Did you have the idea in your head that you were going to do that before they visited the school?

“No. Actually, I really didn’t know what I wanted to do. I remember my older sister going into middle school and doing art. And then my younger sister was big into sports, like soccer. I knew I wanted to do something different, so I could stand out – something other than those two.” 

What instruments do you play?

“Euphonium. It’s kinda like a tuba but a little bit smaller. Most people don’t know about it.”

What is TMEA All State?

“So it’s this big competition across all of Texas between all high school musicians, basically where they were given audition music and they prepare it as well as they can. Then through a series of auditions, they get it down to the top few. TMEA specifically is like the best of the best. If you make it to the finally round, you go this convention in San Antonio at the end of the year and that’s what I went to.”

What’s the name of the piece you play?

“So there are three audition pieces. They don’t really have names, but they’re from this preparation book.”

Did you have to get picked to audition or did everyone in the band get to be in it?

“You can choose if you want to audition, but I think most people do. A lot of people like doing it, because it’s really individual like you just showcase all your talents.”

How long have you been practicing for the auditions?

“It came out in July, so I think about 6 months.”

When did the auditions first start?

“The first audition was in December and then next one was in like January.”

What has been your favorite part about this whole process?

“My favorite part is probably all the people you get to meet, because you get to go to those auditions with other schools. You know, where there’s friends who play the same instrument as you and people in band. Really the best part is making friends.”

How has it been being in an ensemble of this level?

“It’s really nice playing with people of that level. That’s probably my favorite part of it. Just playing with people who are as skilled as I am and be up to par with the music I like to play. It’s really nice.”

How do you plan on continuing music in the future?

“I really hope I can find time in my schedule to keep going with it because I really enjoy it.” 

Do you want to play in college or just like outside of it?

“I think I would go outside, it depends how it goes. I don’t know how I’m gonna have the time to do it in college, but I hope to. I want to keep playing whether it’s official or not.” 

Joey McCreight

What instrument do you play?

“My main instrument is the horn, but I’m also in choir. And I can play trumpet in a jazz environment.”

What are some of the biggest accomplishments you’ve had in music?

“Making All-State, which is a pretty big one because only about 1.6% of auditions make it into the actual All-State.”

Could you describe some of your thoughts and feelings about the audition process? 

“I feel like I kind of feel the nerves backwards. The most nervous I was throughout the entire process was the first audition in the all-region room. So one of the first auditions we had to go through, that’s where my nerves peaked, because just after that, after playing through my first thing, I realized, oh, I’m definitely in competition here to be the best in this ensemble.

“So doing that and then hearing all the other people play, it calmed my nerves, then that carried over to the second round of region and then the area audition and then the state one.”

How many pieces did you play for your audition? 

“We had three etudes, each about three to five minutes long. But in the audition room, they chose different cuts of the pieces. So if it’s 128 measures long, we’ll be like playing from measure 38 to measure 52, and then you’ll have that 12-measure chunk, and they’ll judge everyone based on that. Because they don’t want to sit through 40 different people playing five minutes for three different pieces.”

How long did you practice your pieces for?

“So I got back from Drum Corps halfway through August, but they released the pieces in the beginning of July, and the first audition is in the beginning of December. So I spent that four month span from the middle of August to the beginning of December just practicing these etudes. I felt like I was at a little bit of a disadvantage because I missed a month and a half, but it obviously didn’t matter that much.”

How many practices did you get with the All-State Ensemble? 

“We practiced from the Thursday before the concert to Saturday. I believe we practiced for about 900 minutes total. We had three blocks, about three hours each, and in that time, we went through all the pieces. We went through a little bit of the parts, so we got a unified approach. On Friday, we had two blocks that were about three hours each, and we did the same thing. Then Saturday was the actual day of the concert, and we had one block, which was about two hours. Then we went, got changed, got food and got ready for the concert. Then we had about an hour warm up before the concert, and we didn’t change anything during that hour because that would be counterproductive. So we didn’t practice as a unit until three days before the concert.”

What was the most difficult part of performing in the All-State ensemble?

“So I had a solo in one of the songs, and the most difficult part was definitely playing that in front of the entire ensemble, fully exposed for the first time. Because it’s just scary, like there’s 126 amazing musicians here, and I have to play alone in front of them. It’s nerve-wracking.”