The Women’s Choir, Chamber Women, Advanced Middle-School Choir and Beginning Middle School Choir all earned straight superior evaluations at the county MPAs on Monday at Heritage High School. Each of the ensembles performed its songs on stage in front of three judges, and afterwards, performed a sight-reading portion in front of one judge.

“I was shocked when we all received straight superiors,” freshman Kathryn Burgess said. “I knew that the Chamber Chorus and Women’s Chorus sounded good, because I knew our capability, but I didn’t know [the capability] of the middle-schoolers.”

Achieving straight superiors took a great deal of initiative, according to Burgess.

“We have been singing the same songs every day since the beginning of the semester,” she said. “We would also hold rehearsals during Power Hour, along with a couple of after-school rehearsals.” 

While being pleased with the results, director Amy Davis said she looks on MPAs primarily as a learning experience.

“We don’t really go [to the MPA] for scores,” she said. “It’s more for comments than the ratings. So to me [the scores] didn’t really matter that much, and for some students, it didn’t really matter either.” 

By Alyssa Dumbra