Join us for a special series of Jacket stories. March is Music In Our Schools Month and we're taking the moment to recap and highlight some of the robust opportunities available to our students to participate and grow in the performing arts. Step to the stage and give a listen.
Yellow Jacket choirs achieved All Superior excellence and record-breaking honors in the 2025 competition season. The Starkville Oktibbeha Consolidated School District's Choral program completed the MHSAA 2025 state evaluation performance this month earning All-Superior ratings as well as three Sweepstakes awards. At the competition, SOCSD received superior ratings in Treble Sextet, Tenor Bass Sextet, Varsity Tenor Bass Choir, Varsity Treble Choir, and Chamber SATB Choir. They also earned superior ratings in Sightreading, with Tenor-Bass Choir and Chamber Mixed Choir receiving the honor at Level 4 and 5. These results brought SHS a coveted Triple Sweepstakes.
Ensembles must reach three benchmarks to earn a Sweepstakes award: Receive a superior rating from all three concert judges; earn Superior in Sightreading; and sightread music at an advanced 4, 5 or 6 level.
These ensemble honors come on the heels of outstanding statewide recognition for individual performances as well. A record-breaking 61 SOCSD students were selected as members of the 2025 All State Honor Choir by the Mississippi chapter of the American Choral Director's Association. Students in Yellow Jacket 6th-12th grade choirs who chose to participate prepared two audition pieces and completed a sightreading exercise to be evaluated anonymously by judges.
The number of SOCSD students earning a spot in the Honor Choir is one of the highest accepted by a single district in the state. At 61 – the most ever for Yellow Jacket choirs – participation in the 2025 Honor Choir exceeded last year's total of 57.
Visit a PHOTO GALLERY of students selected to the 2025 All State Honor Choir
"Congratulations to a record number of our very deserving Jacket choral students for earning spots in this year's All State Honor Choir and to the entire program for its Superior ratings again this year," said SOCSD Superintendent, Dr. Tony McGee. "We know a lot of time and effort goes into choral auditions and performances each year, and we are very proud to see their hard work pay off as they represent the Jacket Family with these statewide honors."
The annual state assessment is part of the choir's participation in the MHSAA Choral Department which sets uniform standards and requirements for participating districts and provides statewide evaluation of programs. SOCSD Director of Choral Studies, Jennifer Davis, says the department gives schools a foundation for high expectations.
"Our school program has chosen to be part of the MHSAA Choral Department," she said. "Participation gives us these kinds of opportunities that we think are really critical in identifying what a good program should look like."
For Davis, the qualities of a "good program" begin well before students reach high school. When she joined the SOCSD staff in 2018 as Director of Choral Studies, Davis says she had the benefit of building on the work of previous outstanding choral instructors who set a precedent for excellence and who are still advocates of the Yellow Jacket program. District leadership and administration has made a commitment to ensuring that students at every level from PreKindergarten through 12th grade have the opportunity to experience general music classes. All elementary students attend music rotations every week, giving a strong foundation in learning different types of music, trying out instruments and having opportunities to prepare for performances.
"Our upperclassmen have all benefitted from a strong middle school and elementary program," she shared. "And so we are reaping those benefits, having the highest number of All-Staters and then our choirs performing really well in solo and ensemble and at our state performance evaluation."
Students accepted into the All State Honor Choir had the opportunity in January to join other students from around the state to participate in the 2025 All State Honor Choir Clinic and performance at the University of Southern Mississippi. SOCSD's own choral instructor, Jordan Durham was selected by MSACDA as coordinator for this year's honor choir and worked with colleagues from around the state to plan activities. During the weekend event, students worked with clinicians from USM as well as performed, but Davis says those activities are just a part of what choral students experience through competition.
"For our individual singers, trying out for Honor Choir gives them the opportunity to be ranked among the best singers in the state," Davis said. "During the All State Clinic weekend, they can tryout for college scholarships and connect with professors. They also get to work with musicians from across the state and gain experience with a well-known conductor."
For students interested in All State, preparation begins months before the auditions take place as students access music selections and begin practicing on their own. SOCSD teachers coach choral students during and outside of class to help them prepare. This process has indirect benefits for students, Davis says.
"Students are actually starting to learn about the audition process in 6th grade," she noted. "Going through the process and building each year helps them to grow. We have students who have now been in All State multiple years. It's a part of their routine for preparing for that. We love that this high standard is their normal."
Superintendent Dr. Tony McGee connects the pursuit of those high standards with the district's responsibility to inspire students.
"As a high performing school district, we want to provide students with opportunities to excel not only academically but in other areas like the arts and extracurricular activities –– areas that allow their individual talents and interests to grow," he said. "Our music programs under the leadership of Mrs. Davis really exceed those standards, often putting students in the spotlight at the statewide level. Beginning even in PreKindergarten, our music teachers are giving boys and girls a strong foundation to build on as they explore their interests in the arts."
Though schedules for auditions, rehearsals and performances can be time-consuming, Davis and the SOCSD staff see benefit in giving students the opportunity to compete.
"We joke that there are no second strings in choir," she laughs. "Every kid walks on the stage. Every kid performs two songs. Every kid goes into a room to sightread. What that does is build community."
Davis says that through choir, students can learn to work together and problem solve. They listen to each other and tap into something larger than themselves. With each year that students participate, the Yellow Jacket choir program becomes more challenging academically as well, so students who want to sign to participate in choral activities at the collegiate level are better prepared.
Although shepherding the best singers in the state has tremendous reward, Davis says her staff finds equal motivation in helping students discover talents they didn't know they had.
"For the student who didn't know that they had a skill, or didn't know they had a talent, helping them cultivate that is really fun. Also, just exposing them to music," she shares. "The more technological our culture becomes, the more creative people need to be. If we can teach our students to be creative and use music as a tool, I think it's really a lifelong skill. It teaches them to think critically, to be creative, and I think those skill sets are very important. In a future that is going to be heavily technology driven, we really need to find more ways to remind us how we can be human and connect with ourselves. Music does that."
