ALL-STATE CO-CHAIR UPDATE

Branden and Megan Hansen OMEA All State Co-Chairs

What a year this has been! Words cannot begin to encapsulate what has truly been one of the craziest and most difficult times to be a teacher in recent history. As of this publication there is still much uncertainty surrounding several OMEArelated events as we look forward. Despite that, there are several updates we can offer regarding All-State as well as the experiences of our students state-wide.

We want to make sure to thank the ensembles managers and all-state screeners for their efforts earlier in the year. Although we were not able to host a traditional all-state event, several students did submit auditions and received valuable feedback from screeners who offered helpful recorded or written comments. Although this was a far cry from the normal experience, we hope your participating students appreciated the feedback and learning opportunity.

As we have mentioned before, even though the 2021 All-State event was cancelled, the planning and energy that was put into that event was not “wasted.” Connections have been made with conductors and a good groundwork was laid which will be rolled forward to the 2022 event. As always, if you have suggestions for changes to the student experience at our annual conference, please don’t hesitate to email us at allstatechair@gmail.com. Implementing changes and