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EHS students named All-State Chorus
All State Chorus- Jacob Smith left Sam PottsWeb
Eastside High School students Jacob Smith, left and Sam Potts, right were selected to participate in the Georgia All State Chorus. - photo by submitted photo /The Covington News

Only two high-schoolers in Newton County made the cut to participate in the Georgia All State Chorus, and they are both Eastside High students.


Sam Potts, a senior, and Jacob Smith, a freshman, were chosen based on their auditions for two judges, which included performing a pre-memorized solo, reading three pieces they had not seen prior to the audition, singing three memorized scales and completing a written test with listening examples, Italian vocabulary words, tempos and key signatures.


And that was just for the first audition.


“It’s definitely one of my proudest achievements throughout middle school and high school,” Potts said. “The singers there are really talented and have a driving passion to get the work done.”


Potts made All State Chorus all six years he was eligible, beginning in middle school. He said he plans to pursue his passion for music at Mercer University in the fall by majoring in music education and hopes to become a choral teacher.


Smith, on the other hand, does not yet know if he wants to make a career out of music, as he said he understands how hard it is to “make it.”


“You go there and there’s a greater expectation,” Smith said. “People have practiced the music before they get there, and they’ve practiced it almost for fun, yet it’s even more professional than a chorus class.”


“Being selected for All State once is no small task,” said Bart Buff, assistant principal of Eastside High School, “but to have been selected for this prestigious honor multiple times, as both have, is truly amazing. It’s a fitting reflection of their talent and skill, as well as Mr. Singleton’s direction of our choral program.”


Joel Singleton, Eastside’s choral director, also expressed admiration for the two students and their being selected multiple times in a row.


“These two young men continue a long-standing tradition of Eastside High School being represented at the annual All State event,” Singleton said.


Whether both honored students pursue music in college and as a career is yet to be determined. But both have a little while to decide.


“Music by definition,” Smith said, “is passion.”