A TWHS quintet—a musical group of five—won fourth place in UIL State Chamber Music Finals on March 28. The group, named the Concentration Quintet, featured Jordan Honore, Myles Honore, Benji Frease, Ellie Moorad, and Amara Lewis.

The Concentration Quintet first learned about the competition from their band teacher Carter Frederick, who encouraged all his students to form a musical ensemble. The name “Concentration Quintet” came to them by accident. The group realized they needed a name for themselves as they were submitting the video, so they played a game of concentration, a children’s game where players say words in a category. In the middle of playing, they figured “Concentration” would be a good, professional name.

“Going in, we weren’t sure what to expect because none of us had been to the contest before. Our goal was to get on stage and perform the music we’d learned the best we could, and we would have been proud of that on its own,” junior Jordan Honore said.

This competition began with a video audition, in which each quintet submitted recordings of two or three songs; approximately 85 groups submitted, and only 20 — 10 in wind and 10 in string — were selected to perform at state finals.

The second requirement for Chamber Music Finals was participation in the UIL Solo and Ensemble Contest Feb. 21, where quintets had to earn a Division 1 rating to qualify for selection.