In early March, the Pine Crest school band, orchestra, and chorus ushered in the yearly District Music Performance Assessment (MPA). As always, Pine Crest students did a great job. Both the orchestra and the band received straight “superior” marks from the assessment judges, while the chorus received “excellent” scores.

It is worth mentioning that the Upper School band hasn’t achieved this level in twenty years. With the perfect conducting of Dr. Nicolson, the Upper School band played straight through the three musical pieces that they had been practicing since the beginning of second semester.  Based on their extraordinary performance, the band won the chance to play in the State Band Music Performance Assessments in May. Everyone in the band put in a lot of time and effort both in class and at home in order to succeed. When Dr. Nicolson told the news to the band, all the young musicians cheered happily, because they knew their efforts had paid off.

As for the orchestra, they improved from last year. Instead of getting a high “excellent” mark, they got a “superior,” the highest mark. The judges used comments such as, “great energy and very precise” and “very musical” to describe their wonderful performance. The orchestra conductor, Mrs. Shapiro, also highly praised her Pine Crest musicians. She was really satisfied with their performance, and she thought they played incredibly well.

The high achievement of the Pine Crest musicians showed their high overall skill levels. As we all know, to play music well, not only are skills required but also affection. For a group a musicians, it’s even harder to collaborate. Finally, congratulations to musicians and their conductors.  Hopefully, Pine Crest students will continue to achieve more honors in the future.