Hanna Varsity Women's Choir to perform

The Homer Hanna High School Varsity Women’s Choir has been invited to perform for the Southwestern Division of the American Choral Directors Association in what is regarded as a major honor for Hanna’s choral music program.

The program has more than 200 singers in six concert choirs. They are the Hanna Chorale, Varsity Women’s Choir, Varsity Men’s Choir, Junior Varsity Treble Choir, Junior Varsity Tenor-Bass Choir and Freshman Treble Choir. There are also three show choirs — the Hanna “Jive,” “Take Note” and “Sound Check.”

The Hanna choirs perform a wide variety of music including standard choral repertoire, music of historical significance, world music, gospel music and spirituals as well as show tunes and popular music for seasonal, contest and community concerts, said Dennis Pitcock, the Brownsville Independent School District’s administrator of vocal music.

Students are encouraged to challenge themselves through competition with the emphasis on building vocal technique, musicianship and leadership. The Hanna choirs excel each year at Texas Music Educators Association and University Interscholastic League events.

The choirs earn consistent UIL Sweepstakes awards and each year place multiple members in the TMEA All-State Choirs.

The Varsity Women’s Choir will make its first convention appearance on March 2, at the Southwest Division of the American Choral Directors Association at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Hall in Dallas.

The Varsity Women’s Choir is a select group from the Chorale, Hanna’s top performing group, and rehearses entirely outside the school day. The young women have practiced together for many, many hours to prepare for the upcoming convention performance. They consistently exhibit grace, patience, respect and commitment to each other as well as to their directors in their pursuit of choral excellence, Pitcock said.

The Hanna Choral Department is under the leadership of Gene Holkup, who also conducts the Hanna Varsity Women’s Choir. Also providing instruction to the Women’s Choir are assistant choir directors Victoria Crossan and Lizette Ochoa-Maldonado. Crossan is a recent graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University. Ochoa-Maldonado is a recent graduate of the University of Texas-Pan American in Edinburg.

Holkup is in his 23rd year of teaching choral music in Texas. He has been the head choral director at Hanna since fall 2007. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance from the University of North Dakota and a Master of Music degree in choral conducting from Sam Houston State University. He is active as a guest clinician and adjudicator for UIL events and music festivals throughout Texas.