Hannah Lane, a Denton High School senior, is slated to perform in Saturday’s Texas Music Educators Association All-State Mixed Choir, for her fourth year in a row.

Hannah Lane

She is the second student at Denton High to qualify for the choir all four years of high school, said Mark Baker, the school’s choir director.

The only other person who has made it all four years was Shaun Haywood in the early 1990s.

By coincidence, Baker said, Haywood “was also a redhead.”

Lane said she enjoys going to the convention each year in San Antonio. There are “seven- to nine-hour rehearsals every day, but I have lots of fun,” she said.

Five other choir students from Denton High will be at the convention, Baker said.

Lane said she meets other high school students who share her passion at the convention, making the experience even more memorable.

The competition started in September, but students received their music a few months earlier. Students first compete at the district level and then progress to the region, pre-area and area levels.

The students have to be familiar with about seven pieces of music, and the field is narrowed to three as the competition draws closer.

Once at the competition, students are told what section of each piece they will have to perform, and they also will be asked to sight-read a piece.

A total of 15,395 vocal students entered this year’s competition, according to a TMEA news release, and 504 will perform with the various all-state choirs, which include the men’s, women’s and mixed choirs.

The first all-state choir organization was in 1939, according to association officials.

As a freshman, Lane said, she set a goal to make state all four years.

She has been singing since she was about 10 and joined the choir in middle school because her friends were joining and she had a passion for singing, she said. She takes voice lessons from Vicki Baker, a Texas Woman’s University music professor, who she’s studied under throughout high school.

“I love performing,” she said. “I love it.”

She recently played Nellie Forbush in the high school’s performance of South Pacific.

Lane said the TMEA competition is not just about the music, but also about how a person handles himself or herself when performing for the judges. She said performers need to have a lot of confidence.

Mark Baker said Lane’s success has encouraged a lot of female students to try out, though he encourages all his students to do so. About 35 to 40 of the 190 choir members decide to try out, he said.

“I would like to have 100 more like her,” he said of Lane.

Lane also is involved in the Denton High student council, Chorale Choir, Chamber Choir and Show Choir, and is a member of the Texas Future Music Educators.

She also performed in the Denton Community Theatre production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers last summer.

“That was so much fun,” she said.

She also has performed in past high school productions including Fiddler on the Roof and Pirates of Penzance.

After graduation, Lane plans to attend the University of Oklahoma. She said she would start with a major in vocal performance and eventually wants to study musical theater.

Lane said she has had a lot of support from her family and her music teachers.

RACHEL MEHLHAFF can be reached at 940-566-6897. Her e-mail address is rmehlhaff@dentonrc.com .