Music participation and academic achievement have long been of interest to educators, researchers and policy makers. The literature is replete with studies linking music participation to higher state assessment scores, grade point averages, and Standardized Achievement Test (SAT) scores. If students from quality music programs academically outperform students from deficient music programs, and if school-level variables impact academic achievement, the question remains: is there a link between a school's overall academic achievement and its overall music achievement? If so, is this relationship consistent for each type of music participation? For the purposes of this study, the author operationalized music achievement as scores earned by middle school ensembles at the Concert & Sight-Reading Contest (C&SR) hosted by the University Interscholastic League (UIL) of Texas. The UIL is a statewide interscholastic organization created to provide educational competition in academics, athletics, and music. Each year, the UIL hosts a C&SR Contest in which secondary bands, choirs, and orchestras compete within prescribed regions. Per the C&SR Constitution and Contest Rules (University Interscholastic League, 2014), competing ensembles perform three prepared musical selections, comprising the concert portion of the contest, and one unfamiliar selection, comprising the sight-reading portion. Two panels of three judges adjudicate each portion. Judges assign ratings on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the highest. Judges' scores are averaged to yield one contest score and one sight-reading score. Findings reveal that academically high-performing schools earned significantly higher Concert & Sight-Reading scores. Readers are cautioned to avoid overgeneralizing the findings of this study, however at the very least, it can be concluded that musical excellence did not detract from the academic performance of students in these 122 schools in East Texas. Local administrators and policy makers may benefit from this knowledge as they allocate limited time and resources for the education of Texas's youth.