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TMEA All-State Performance by Area

5/23/2014

3 Comments

 
As I look towards coaching groups of students and preparing my own private students for the TMEA All-State orchestra this year, I thought it might be enlightening to take a real accounting of where most accepted TMEA All-State students are coming from.

Every year, I discuss with my teacher friends the extremely uneven distribution of students by area, but as students are grouped by school district, rather than area, it's difficult to have an accurate picture of reality. The data I used is publicly available, and accurate to the best of my knowledge.   

I think it's common knowledge that Houston and Dallas perform much better than San Antonio.  I don't think it's common knowledge that Houston performs better by more than a factor of 10, or that El Paso produces nearly as many All-State students as San Antonio.

One could argue that the areas that do best (Fort Bend, Plano, Round Rock) are the most affluent and developed in Texas, or that those areas also have more prominent non-profit music schools and symphony orchestras.  

However, this massively uneven distribution should begin a serious conversation about the whole point of an All-State Orchestra.  What can be done to increase student acceptance in San Antonio and across the state?   Why does this competition favor wealthy, well-developed areas, that obviously have no lack of music opportunities?

When I participated in PMEA (Pennsylvania's equivalent) All State, students were drawn in nearly equal numbers by region.  The entire state was represented.  Students from out of the way counties had an equal shot.  Something's amiss here in Texas.

Matt


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Edit:
Might as well include the breakdown by ISD.  It was sometimes difficult to group ISDs to a metro area.  My line of thinking was: Where are these kids driving to lessons? If they were within an hour of a major city center, they got grouped there. It's impossible to separate Dallas and Fort Worth, or Dallas from Plano.
San Antonio and Austin are 90 minutes apart in ideal conditions, so I don't see the point in grouping them together.

San Antonio only had students from Northside, Northeast, and Judson.
I certainly could have include students from Boerne or surrounding suburbs of San Antonio, had there been any All-Staters from those areas.

Breakdown by ISD:

Violin
112 violinists total.

Houston: 46 Accepted Students
Fort Bend 17, Humble 1, Clear Creek 5, Katy 7, Houston 6, St. Agnes 1, Spring Branch 1
Alief 1, Cypress Fairbanks 2, Conroe 1, Klein 1, “Non-ISD #23” 2, “Non-ISD #27” 1
Dallas/Fort Worth: 32 Accepted Students
Arlington 3, Plano 12, Frisco 7, Richardson 1, Allen 2, Lewisville 1, Dallas 2, Northwest 1, Hurst Euless Bedford 2, “Non-ISD 7” 1
Austin: 18 Accepted Students
Austin 2, Round Rock 15, Leander 1
San Antonio: 3 Accepted Students
Northeast 1, Northside 2
College Station: 3 Accepted Students
College Station 2, CSISD 1
McAllen TX: 2 Accepted Students
South TX 2
Lubbock: 2 Accepted Students
Lubbock 2
El Paso: 2 Accepted Students
El Paso 2
Tyler: 2 Accepted Students
Tyler 2
Beaumont: 1 Accepted student
Beaumont 1
Home School, location unidentifiable: 1


Viola: 42 Total
Houston: 20 Accepted Students

Pasadena 1, Humble 1, Fort Bend 6, Clear Creek 2, Houston 4, Katy 2, Conroe 1, Klein 2, Tomball 1
Dallas: 14 Accepted Students
Plano 4, Frisco 2 Arlington 5, Dallas 1, McKinney 1, Hockaday School “non-isd 20” 1
San Antonio: 3 Accepted Students
Northeast 1, Northside 1, St. Anthony Catholic 1
Austin: 2 Accepted Students
Round Rock 1, Eanes 1
El Paso: 1 Accepted Student
El Paso 1
Waco: 1 Accepted Student
Midway 1
Amarillo: 1 Accepted Student
Amarillo 1


Cello: 42 total
Dallas: 12 Accepted
Plano 7, Arlington 1, Frisco 2, Lewisville 1, Carrolton Farmers Branch 1
Houston: 19 accepted
Spring Branch 3, Fort Bend 3, Clear Creek 3, Klein 2, Houston 4 , Katy 3, Branch 1
Austin 8: accepted
Round Rock 6, Georgetown 1, Lake travis 1
San antonio: 1 accepted
northwest 1
Lubbock: 1 accepted
lubbock 1
El paso: 1 accepted
Socorro 1


Bass: 41 Total
Houston: 17 Accepted students
Houston 2, Humble 1, pasadena 1, clear creak 3, Klein, 2, Katy 3, Fort Bend 3, Cypress Fairbanks 2
Dallas: 9 Accepted Students
Plano 2, Dallas 2, Lewisville 2, lovejoy 1, arlington 2
Austin: 6 accepted students
Austin 4, Round Rock 1, Lake Travis 1
McAllen area, 3 accepted students
Harlingen 1, Edinburg 2
San Antonio 2 accepted students
Northside 1, Judson 1
El Paso 2 accepted students
Socorro 1, El Paso 1
Waco: 1 accepted student
Midway 1
Denton: 1 accepted student
Denton 1

3 Comments
Mary Ellen Goree
5/23/2014 08:00:51 am

Thank you so much for writing this post. I don't know if you are including all All-State students (band, choir), or just strings, but the band division also has problems. In that case, each area can send a fixed number of students on each instrument, and the auditions are held live in each area, judged by band directors. If (for example) one area has a fine oboe teacher and produces many fine oboe students while another area has a dearth of oboists, there will be some exceptional players shut out in the former area while lesser players from the latter will make All-State. Additionally, while it is easy to find band directors whose specialties are flute, clarinet, trumpet, percussion, etc., instruments such as oboe or bassoon are often judged by band directors who do not actually play those instruments and who do not know what to listen for. At least the string tapes are all judged at the same time by the same people, in competition with each other.

Reply
Martha Bryant
5/24/2014 05:47:53 am

Fascinating. Thanks for looking into this . . . the disparity does seem worth exploring.

Reply
Julie Post
5/25/2014 02:48:26 am

Wow, I had no idea. Thanks for figuring all this out!

Reply



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    Matthew Zerweck

    Violinist in Camerata SA, Former asst. CM of San Antonio Symphony, Eastman School -BM, MM, Teaching Asst. to Prof. Charles Castleman, Performer's Certificate.

    Hi!  I'm Matthew Zerweck.  
    I love reading all of the old and new violin pedagogy manuals in my spare time.  Capet, Leonard, Auer, Galamian, Dounis, Havas, Fischbach, Rolland, Kempter, Gerle, Fischer, Ricci, Flesch Hauck Siegfrid, Cutter, etc.  Those teachers all thought that by simplifying, using the right language, the right tone, addressing the right problems, asking the right questions, they could more easily overcome the profound struggles of great violin playing.  I'm convinced that violin playing and teaching is still in its infancy, and that there's still a lot of room for improvement and clarification.  Teaching in the 21st century, the age of the Internet. can be done better than ever before. 

    I Iove reading posts on Suzuki Blogs, on violinist.com, and on reddit.com/r/violinist.  I'd like to use this blog as an opportunity share my own experiences and struggles with the violin, especially as it relates to teaching the violin

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