USC senior selected for All-Eastern Honors Choir

Upper St. Clair High School senior Carly DeCock has been selected to perform in the All-Eastern Honors Treble Choir. Carly, a soprano 2, joins more than 800 of the most musically talented high school students in the eastern United States who will perform in the 2017 National Association for Music Education All-Eastern Honors Ensembles.

With assistance from her music teacher, Lorraine Milovac, Carly will prepare challenging music that will be performed under the leadership of prominent conductors during this biennial event. Students will spend three days rehearsing with one of five conductors during the Eastern Division Conference of the National Association for Music Education. Performances will be held April 7-8, 2017, in Atlantic City.

The All-Eastern Honors Ensembles – consisting of a concert band, symphony orchestra, mixed chorus, treble voice chorus and jazz ensemble – are organized by members of the National Association for Music Education. The concert band and symphony orchestra will each have approximately 150 instrumentalists, the jazz ensemble will have 20 instrumentalists, the treble voice chorus will have 120 vocalists, and the mixed chorus will have approximately 350 vocalists. Student participation from each state is determined by a percentage of the total NAfME Eastern Division membership, with no state given less than two percent representation.

NAfME Eastern Division is comprised of Connecticut; Delaware; Maine; Maryland; Massachusetts; New Hampshire; New Jersey; New York; Pennsylvania; Rhode Island; Vermont; Washington, D.C.; and Europe.

Each of the state music educators associations within the Eastern Division oversee the selection process in its respective state during the spring and early fall of the year before the event and compile ranked lists of recommended juniors and seniors for consideration. The method used to compile the lists varies from state to state, although all recommended students must have participated or will be participating in their home all-state festivals.

The committee builds the ensembles from the state presidents’ ranked lists, trying to mimic the state population percentages in each group. The Jazz Ensemble, due to its size and instrumentation, is formed to represent every state in the division.

The 2017 NAfME All-Eastern Honors Ensembles will perform for an audience of thousands on Friday, April 7 and Saturday, April 8, 2017, in the Adrian Phillips Ballroom in Historic Boardwalk Hall, and the Atlantic City Convention Center. For program and ticket information, visit www.nafme-eastern.org.