Lane Coble

Last year was a tough one for Powell High School senior Levi Hawley. 

Hawley grew up with musical parents and has always loved making music, even when he’s been in situations where not all of his fellow students feel the same. That’s why he loves going to All State and All Northwest, as it’s a chance to meet with others as devoted to music as he is. 

But in his junior year, for the first time, Hawley missed All State Band after making a mistake in his audition. He still made All Northwest, but unlike that competition, in All State auditions you only have one shot to make it right. 

So, being one of 10 singers to make All State or All Northwest this year — Hawley was one of three to nab both, along with Natalie Black and Kaylee Harris — was a sweet reward for his final year in high school. 

“I do it because it’s creating amazing music with people who take every bit of it as seriously as I do,” he said. “In a normal choir classroom, you have people that are there for just an easy A, but in something like All State and All Northwest, you have people there because they truly and fully want to be and it creates the best music that I’ve really ever heard.”

It wasn’t just Hawley feeling the redemption, as no one made All State choir last year, so second year choir teacher Drew Murray said she made some changes to try and ensure more of her students were chosen. 

She said it’s been a learning curve to transition to being a full time choir teacher at both the middle and high schools, so she asked around as to what other teachers do to figure out a good strategy to get more of her students qualified. Then, she made some changes.

“I did a prescreening process, so kids had to submit videos of portions of their audition to get approved to audition,” she said, noting that it was tough to weed out kids who had done their best but weren’t up to the level needed, although she has high hopes for those students next year. 

“So what I ended up with was the group of people who auditioned [successfully],” she said. “I was able to give them more of my attention in preparation. And so I think that worked out a little bit better, because they were both the motivated ones and the higher level singers. And then we got to work more one-on-one and prep their audition.”

The work paid off. 

Harris, a sophomore, is an All State and All Northwest selection for the first time this year — she was too nervous to try out last year. 

“I talked with Murray a lot about the process, and I would double check things. So I knew that I was prepared,” she said, although she said she didn’t realize she had to perform a song excerpt, but she learned it in five minutes and, clearly, sang it well enough. She was surprised at making All State after no one made it last year.

“Last year we had zero people make it in,” Harris said. “So to get four people is really, really exciting. And even I was surprised when I saw my name on the email list.”

Like Hawley, Harris comes from a musical family and said the honors she and her fellow students received will be helpful for college resumes. It’s also a general boost to the program. 

“It’s just been like a huge bolster for confidence,” Hawley said. 

All State choir

Natalie Black

Kaylee Harris

Levi Hawley

Lane Coble

All Northwest Choir

Natalie Black

Geo Dilworth

Kaylee Harris

Norah Startin

Ruth Bucher

Deeanna Gibson

Levi Hawley

Austin Sears

Justin Dusenberry