SAN MARCOS HIGH SCHOOL
Thomas De La Cruz, a member of the San Marcos High School varsity choir, has qualified to rehearse and perform with the 2026 Texas All-State Tenor-Bass Choir. Thomas will perform on Saturday, Feb. 14, at San Antonio’s Henry B. González Convention Center, during the Texas Music Educators Association Clinic/Convention.
Thomas was chosen for this prestigious honor through a competitive process held this year across the state at District, Regional and Area levels. He is a voice student of Mackenzie Powell and sings tenor at school under the direction of Dawn Sheridan and Brigitte, who are both members of the Texas Music Educators Association.
THOMAS DE LA CRUZ
This is Thomas’s first time to perform as a member of a TMEA All-State organization.
Thomas serves as Student Council President, Choir President and Vice President of the National Honor Society at San Marcos High School. He is a member of All-Varsity Choir, Varsity Theatre, the Superintendent Student Advisory Council, and RYLA. He is also enrolled in dual credit courses through the Early College High School (ECHS) program.
He plans to attend the University of Texas at Austin, where he hopes to pursue a career as a Child Clinical Psychologist. He is the child of Paola Ibieta and Ivan De La Cruz .
When asked what advice he would give his younger self, Thomas said, “It’s okay to make mistakes. I personally thought mistakes were a bad thing, but you need them to learn and grow. I wish I could go back and tell my younger self that it’s okay to make mistakes.”
All-State is the highest honor a Texas music student can achieve. Students are selected through a multi-level adjudication process that begins with about 60,000 students from around the state vying for this honor to perform in one of 18 ensembles. Only the top 3% of musicians who initially audition become All-State musicians.
This competitive process begins throughout the state in auditions hosted by 33 TMEA Regions. Individual musicians perform selected music for a panel of judges who rank each instrument or voice part. From this ranking, a select group of musicians advances from their Region to compete against musicians from other areas in eight TMEA Area competitions. The highest-ranking musicians judged at the TMEA Area competitions qualify to perform in a TMEA All-State music group.
Directed by nationally recognized conductors, All-State students participate in four days of rehearsals during the TMEA Clinic/Convention. Their performances for thousands of attendees bring this extraordinary event to a close. For the All-State concert and conductor information, go to the Performances section of www.tmea.org/convention.
Texas Music Educators Association, an Austinbased organization with more than 20,000 members, sponsors the Texas All-State competition. Founded in 1920, TMEA is a nonprofit professional association that supports high-quality music education for all Texas students.
TMEA advocates for fine arts instruction and offers professional development through online courses and its annual clinic/convention. The association also provides scholarships and programs for high school and college students pursuing careers in music education.
