BEA junior Ava Petersen joined 605 other students from schools across Minnesota for a performance with the MMEA All-State Choir at their Midwinter Convention on Feb. 15th. While much of her rehearsal was done at home, she did have occasional rehearsals with her choir director, Paul Johnson.
For junior Ava Petersen, preparing for All-State Choir was an effort years in the making.
“I had my audition for All-State last February, as a sophomore,” Petersen explained. “You have to audition a year in advance, since the event isn’t held until the next year.”
Now, Ava holds the honor of having been a member of the Minnesota Music Educators Association (MMEA) All-State Choir 2025 alongside 605 of her peers from across the state, who all performed together for the MMEA Midwinter Convention on February 15th.
“We try to get at least one student a year into All-State, if not more,” Blue Earth Area choir director Paul Johnson said. “If we can get more students in, that’s great, but we always try to have at least one All-State nominee from the band, choir, or orchestra.”
Peterson, who is a section leader for the altos in the BEA Concert Choir, was the only BEA student to make it into All-State this year. However, MMEA Honor Choir is not the only honor choir that student musicians can be nominated for during their time at BEA.
“We have had students in all sorts of honor choirs in the past,” Johnson says. “MMEA is the big one, of course, but we’ve also had students in the Big South Honor Choir.”
For students looking to audition for MMEA All-State Choir, which is open to juniors and seniors in choir all across Minnesota, the audition process starts in the winter of their sophomore or junior year. Students must submit three different recordings – a two-minute prepared vocal solo of their choice, an unaccompanied excerpt for their vocal part from Alma del Corè (as provided by the MMEA website), and a series of scales.
Audition tracks are submitted by the student’s choir director, which are then reviewed by a panel of judges from MMEA. Students’ submissions remain anonymous, though the panel does take into account the number of student submissions from each school so as to allow for a wide range of students from across the state to be a part of the choir.
“Students are generally informed of their audition results at the end of March or early April,” Johnson explained. “After being accepted into MMEA All-State Choir, they gain access to a packet of music to start learning, as well as recordings of the full pieces so they can practice with accompaniment.”
Furnished with their music, students are then able to rehearse on their own for a few months prior to the next big event: a group rehearsal with all of the other All-State students in the summer, usually set in late July, or early August.
“Last year, rehearsal was held at St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota,” Petersen said. “Getting to meet all of the other members of my section was a little overwhelming – there are so many of us all meeting each other at the same time, and we’re from all different corners of the state.”
While all 606 students are members of the MMEA All-State Choir, students are divided into different ensembles based on their vocal part, comprising the Soprano-Alto-Tenor-Bass, Tenor-Bass, and Soprano-Alto choirs. Each choir is led by a different guest conductor from across the state, and the choirs get to spend a whole week rehearsing their music with this guest director leading up to a combined concert on the final day of the camp.
“I was a member of the Soprano-Alto choir as an Alto 2, so my ensemble’s guest director was Judy Sagen,” Petersen recalled. “She’s a really big deal in the choir music scene right now, so getting to work with her was a really exciting experience.”
After performing together for the August concert, students in All-State ensembles don’t see each other again until their final performance at the next year’s MMEA Midwinter Convention in February, where all seven of the All-State student groups – all three choirs, the orchestra, and the symphonic, concert, and jazz bands – perform as featured ensembles.
“Getting to be a part of this experience is really cool, especially when you’re really passionate about music,” Petersen says. “Everyone there is like-minded, and you’re all just trying to make the best music you can there. It’s an entirely different level of music-making compared to what you do in school with your classmates.”
The Soprano-Alto All-State Choir performed a total of five pieces at the MMEA Midwinter Convention, including From Dusk to Dawn by Gwyneth Walker, There Will Come Soft Rains by Kevin A. Memley, Kuka nukkuu tuutussasi by Anna-Mari Kahara, By Night by Elaine Hagenberg, and an arrangement of Children Go Where I Send Thee by Kevin Phillip Johnson.
“Getting to hear all of these songs with the acoustics at St. John’s in their chapel was really cool,” Petersen recalls. “Fast songs and complicated lyrics tend to get lost in all of the echo, but our slow songs sounded amazing.”
Choir director Johnson was especially proud of Ava’s participation in All-State Choir, citing her status as a leader in the alto section at BEA.
“Ava is a strong leader in the alto section here, and always has the best interest of the choir in mind,” Johnson says. “Her making All-State is a huge honor, and I couldn’t be prouder to have someone like her represent our school on the public stage at MMEA. I’m glad she had this opportunity to get to make music with some of the most talented students in the state, and I hope she carries it with her for the rest of her musical career.”
“I would have to agree with my choir director when he says I’m a leader in my section,” Petersen added. “We have a pretty strong alto section here, and I’m proud to be a part of it. Choir can get a little cliquey sometimes, but I think we have a good group of students who love the music we make and genuinely want to be a part of this ensemble.”
While choir is undoubtedly a large part of Ava’s musical career, it is far from her only musical involvement at BEA. Ava also plays string bass in the BEA concert orchestra and jazz band, and has been doing both choir and orchestra since middle school.
“I’ve been doing choir for about six years now, and I’ve been playing string bass for about as long,” Petersen says. “My entire family does music, and I took a lot of inspiration from my older brother in particular – he’s a string bass player, too, and I decided at a very early age that I wanted to play bass like him.”
Along with her musical involvement, Petersen stays busy with several other extracurricular involvements, including tennis, acting as a peer helper, and serving as vice president for the BEA chapters of both Business Professionals of America and the National Honor Society. She is also a board member of the Blue Earth Town & Country Players, and participated in theater for a time as well.
When asked if music would be a consideration when looking at higher education, Petersen said she wasn’t sure just yet.
“My current plan is to go to college, and maybe major in business – I’m not sure yet,” Petersen remarked. “I don’t want to be a music major, but I would like music to be a part of my college education to some degree. Maybe that will be a consideration when I’m trying to decide on a college.”