On Saturday March 21, 2015, Harrisonburg High School was officially declared a blue ribbon school, courtesy of the honors choir and symphonic band for achieving superior ratings at their assessments. Not only have they reached superior ratings this year but they have now held the streak for seven years.

“It is so exciting that our choirs have been doing so well the past seven years, and our bands also. It’s a combined rating between our symphonic band and the honors choir, so both choirs have to achieve superior ratings and we’re so proud that we’ve been able to do that the past seven years,” choir instructor Bethany Houff said.

The choir is assessed based on seven elements: tone, intonation, diction, musical affect, balance and blend, stage presence and sight reading abilities. Houff believes that the key to success in these categories is to stay confident and practice on a daily basis.

“I think making sure that we have all our music memorized and that we feel confident on stage is really important. I also think it’s really important to practice our sight reading skills on a daily basis so that we can be ready to sight read successfully,” Houff said.

Their  music preparation for the assessment began in January but everything since day one has been geared towards getting a superior rating. With all of that work they have managed to keep the streak alive, and Houff is hopeful for another great year that may just turn seven superior ratings into eight.

“I am very proud [of the choir’s performance]. It’s hard to predict a whole year out because I don’t know who will be singing in choir yet next year but certainly we hope to continue our streak.”