Eddie Healy began playing guitar at the age of 13. He attended Eastfield College before completing his Bachelor of Music in classical guitar performance at The University of North Texas. He subsequently completed a Master of Music degree at Southern Methodist University.
He is a faculty member specializing in guitar and music theory studies at Dallas College. He has also taught at the Preston Harmony School of Music since 2002. He is the director of the youth competition at the Texas Guitar Festival and Competition and serves as the Director of Education at the annual Houston Classical Guitar Festival and Competition.
Eddie performs regularly in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. He has also performed live on WRR-Classical 101.1. He traveled to Spain in 2008 for a series of concerts and twice to Mexico in 2009 to perform at the 19th Annual International Guitar Festival of Morelia and the 4th Festival Internacional de Guitarra Ramón Noble. He has appeared on national television and radio programs in Mexico. Healy returned to Spain in 2014 as a member of the faculty of the annual ChamberArt Madrid Festival and has done so several times since alongside his students and his duet partner, mezzo-soprano Dr. Brandi Estwick. Estwick and Healy have performed together in many venues in the DFW area, Houston, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and in Spain. The duo were featured performers and lecturers at the 2024 Romero Institute. Many of the selections they program are Healy’s own arrangements. In 2022 they founded Motivata Music, an online music tutoring service designed to help middle school, high school, and college students in the areas of guitar, music theory, ear training, music history, diction, and vocal performance.
Eddie’s original compositions have been performed all over the world. He has composed the theme to a series of podcasts produced by The University of Texas at Dallas titled “A Conversation With…”, the theme for the Arts-Based Learning for Business video series, scores for several video games produced by the UTD Arts and Technology Video Game Lab, and the alma mater for Rogers Middle School in Prosper, Texas. In 2012 Healy released a CD consisting exclusively of his compositions titled, Direction. James Scott of minor7th.com said that the recording, “…is a triumph, offering the listener accessible compositions matched by immaculate performances.” Healy has taken many more commissions for new compositions and arrangements in recent years. Likewise, he published the sheet music for several of the compositions from Direction with Joachim-Trekel-Musikverlag in 2010 and has 0073ixteen publications with Les Productions d’OZ to date. Eddie is a member of ASCAP.
All-State Program for the Guitar Ensemble
Selections to be chosen from:
De antequera sale el moro Miguel de Fuenllana (c. 1500-1579)
Minuet Robert de Visée (1652-1730) arr. Eddie Healy
Passapeid Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) arr. Paul Gerrits
Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) arr. Eddie Healy
Etude-Op. 35, no. 3 Fernando Sor (1778-1839) arr. Eddie Healy
Andante Justin Holland (1819-1887) arr. Eddie Healy
Quartet Eddie Healy (b. 1977) As You Like El último minute “Ah, the music…”
La guitarra (World Premiere), text by Federico García Lorca Special Guest: Dr. Brandi Estwick (Louisiana Tech University), mezzo-soprano
La guitarra
Empieza el llanto de la guitarra. Se rompen las copas de la madrugada. Empieza el llanto de la guitarra. Es inútil callarla. Es imposible callarla. Llora monótona como llora el agua, como llora el viento sobre la nevada. Es imposible callarla. Llora por cosas lejanas.
Arena del sur caliente que pide camelias blancas. Llora flecha sin blanco, la tarde sin mañana, y el primer pájaro Muerto sobre la rama.
¡Oh, guitarra!
Corazón malherido por cinco espadas.
The Guitar
The weeping of the guitar begins. The cups of dawn are broken. The weeping of the guitar begins. It is useless to silence it. It is impossible to silence it. It cries, monotonously, as the waters cry, as the wind cries over the snowfall. It is impossible to silence it. It weeps for things far away.
It asks the sands of the south for white camellias.
It cries for the arrow without a target, for the afternoon without a morning,
and for the first bird who dies on the branch.
Oh, guitar!
Heart wounded by five swords.
LMEA All-State Guitar Ensemble
There is a single live monitored audition for All-State Guitar Ensemble. All auditions will be audio recorded by the District Director or his/her designee and submitted to the All-State Guitar Chair as an mp3 file.
District directors will verify that teachers of all students participating in these auditions are current members of LMEA.
DEADLINES for 2025-26:
District Deadlines – District Directors will provide procedural information and set the deadline for receiving checks and student information from schools in their district. This deadline may be before the state’s deadline.
Saturday, October 11, 2025 – Deadline for completion of all auditions and the receipt of all student registrations and audition fees by the district director or his/her designee.
Tuesday, October 21, 2025 (by 11:59 pm) – Results for the All-State Guitar Ensemble will be posted online. Registration forms for students selected to an ensemble will be opened once rosters are posted.
Students auditioning must be enrolled in a Louisiana-accredited high school and must be an active member of that school’s instrumental ensemble or guitar program. Click for a list of Nonpublic Accredited Approved Schools 2024-25. Students’ ensemble directors must be current full LMEA members.
In a situation where there is no guitar program in the school, the student must be enrolled in a Louisiana-accredited high school and certified by the eligible music teacher at that school or a private teacher who is an LMEA member.
District directors will verify that teachers of all students participating in these auditions are current members of LMEA.
Students are eligible for membership in only one All-State ensemble.
DATE and LOCATION: Each district director will schedule the date, time, and location for recording the guitar auditions in his/her district.
STUDENT RELEASE OF INFORMATION FORM – this form will need to be printed, signed, and submitted to your District Director. Follow your his/her instructions for submitting it. Auditions cannot be adjudicated without this form.
AUDITION FEE and REGISTRATION:
$15 per audition
Ensemble directors should follow their District Director’s instructions and deadline for submitting school checks and registration information.
District Directors must confirm the receipt of all audition fees and forms by the date the audition files are uploaded. An audition cannot be adjudicated if the audition fee has not been received.
All auditioner information will be submitted by the District Director or his/her designee. This includes: Name, School, Grade, Instrument or Voice, All-State Ensemble preference, T-Shirt Size, Audio audition file, Verification of receipt of the “Release of Information” Form.
All audition recordings and registration forms must be uploaded via the Google form by 11:59 pm on Monday, October 13, 2025 by the District Director or his/her designee. (Links will be sent to the District Director.)
Students auditioning for more than one ensemble must indicate their preference of ensembles when their audition registration information is submitted. This information will be used should he/she be selected to participate in more than one of this year’s LMEA All-State ensembles.
The audition includes scales and prepared selections. There will be a 4-year rotation cycle of materials.
Scales – Required scales have been written out in the current year’s “set” materials.
Prepared Selections – There is a 4-year rotation cycle of prepared materials, each set containing two selections carefully chosen to highlight different styles and tempos.
There is a single audition, recorded at the district level, for All-State Guitar Ensemble.
MONITORS and AUDITION:
All guitar ensemble auditions will be audio recorded (.mp3 file).
Each District Director will assign one or more monitors to record the audition and certify that each auditioner played the material without any restarts.
Monitors should be carefully selected by the district director to ensure procedural continuity of the audition.
An audio test of the recorder and room should be done before any auditions begin. Be sure the student will be clearly heard.
Be sure that the instrument and audition number announced on the recording are accurately entered on the track sheet.
Monitors should verify that the recording is on the recorder before the auditioner leaves the room (if possible). (This can be done by playing a few seconds of the recording and checking the length of the file on the recorder.)
Audition restarts will only be allowed if there is a technical issue with the recorder.
Each recorded audition must be unedited and made in one single file – do not dub any portion of the audition.
AUDITION INSTRUCTIONS and ORDER:
Start the recording.
Identification Information:The monitor will read the following script to announce and identify each auditioner:
“On guitar,this is Audition Number (Insert Audition Number).”
Scales: The student will perform the current set’s scales as written.
Prepared Selections: The student will play the performance selections in the order listed on the current year’s Set page.
TRACK SHEET
A track sheet will be shared via Google Sheets to enter the audition information at the “room” level. This includes: Room Number, Recorder Number, File Name, File Duration, Last Name, First Name, Instrument/Voice, Audition Number.
The Room Number, Recorder Number, File Name and Audition Number are to be determined by the District Director or his/her designee.
There should be one track sheet for each room used at the audition.
RECORDING EQUIPMENT
The recommended recorder is a typical “voice recorder” like those used for adjudicators at large ensemble assessment. District Directors have received information about these recorders.
AUDITION FILE SUBMISSION PROCEDURE:
Each district director (or designee) will be responsible for submitting auditioners’ information and uploading all audio audition recordings (.mp3 files only) into the Google form provided by the audition coordinator.
All student registration information and audition recordings must be submitted by Monday, October 7, 2024 (11:59 pm). District Directors will communicate to their district regarding how they want to receive student information – name, school, grade, instrument, All-State ensemble preference, t-shirt size, audio audition file, verification of receipt of the “Student Release of Information Form.”
Google Drive is one of the easiest and most accessible platforms to use for file sharing. However, some school districts restrict the sharing of files from their school google drives. Files must be accessible to the chairperson to be judged for inclusion in the group. Discussions with your school district’s IT department may be necessary to ensure usage in the All-State audition.
Audition Results: Results will be posted on this website as soon as possible once they are finalized for all ensembles. For 2025-26, results will be posted on Tuesday, October 21, 2025 (11:59 pm).
Ranking Scores: At the completion of the adjudication process, students will be ranked according to their final scores.
Tie Breaker: Any ties will be broken by the scale score. If the tie remains, it shall be broken with the toss of a coin.
2026 ALL-STATE GUITAR CLINICIAN: Eddie Healy