Liberty student selected for National Honor Choir
MADISON – Tejas Iyer at Liberty Middle School was selected by blind audition to perform with the prestigious National Honor Choir.
“I was the only student from Madison who got selected after the auditions,” Iyer said. “I was selected for the 7-10 grade Tenor Bass Choir.” Most participants in that group are in higher grades and older than Iyer.
The choir was featured at the 2025 National Conference of the American Choral Directors Association or ACDA in Dallas, Texas, on March 22. The choir’s performance venue was the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, considered one of the world’s best concert halls and well known for its exceptional acoustics.
Founded in 1959, ACDA is a nonprofit music-education organization whose central purpose is to inspire excellence and nurture lifelong involvement in choral music for everyone with education, performance, composition and advocacy. (acda.org) More than 5,000 students in middle and high schools auditioned from across the country to vie for the choir’s 250 seats.
“Selection for the National Honor Choir is truly humbling and reflects the artistry, skill and dedication of the students and their mentors, who make up the choir given the thousands of talented vocalists from around the country who audition,” according to ACDA’s press release.
Liberty Choir Director Stacy Daniels mentored Iyer.
“Our Mr. Daniels nominated a few choir students from Liberty to audition,” Iyer said. “With the accepted nomination, we recorded our auditions with Mr. Daniels, who submitted it to ACDA back in September 2024.”
The National Honor Choir performed six songs. The musical mix included classical, Black, metal, Latin house pop/ rock, Japanese folk/traditional song and choral victory chant.
Performing with the choir “was a world class experience . . . to learn from one of the best choir directors in the country and perform with amazing choir students from all over the country and sing different genre songs,” Iyer said. His part for voice range was ‘Tenor 1.’
“I am very thankful, honored and humbled for the opportunity and the experience of performing with the choir. It was a hard audition, followed by selection and about two months of self-practice at home with practice tracks,” Iyer said.
“I was very nervous to perform at such a big stage with different performers, whom I did not know. I am glad it all came together. It was an experience of a lifetime,” Iyer said.
“I am very thankful to my choir director Mr. Daniels for the nomination and audition help; Dr. Alicia Moreno Mulloy, my previous choir director; and Mr. Shannon Brown, our principal, for giving me the tools and support to succeed in choir,” Iyer said.
In other honors, Tejas is set to perform at Carnegie Hall for the second time with the Honors Performance Series this summer.
