At the beginning of March, Band, Orchestra, and choir attend their yearly assessments. Assessments require the performing group to play 3 pieces of music and they get graded on how well they do. The assessment is their version of the students SOL. The orchestra had returned from assessment with a superior rating.

 Senior Alexa Martinez, who plays the cello in String Orchestra, shares her experience with us

 “ Overall, I thought the assessment went really well. I think it was definitely our best run of each piece. I think we’ve improved from our first concert to now, so I thought it went well.”

 Martinez says that the pieces they had played for assessment had taken them about 2 months to learn

 “Our piece ‘Fantasia On A Theme From Thailand’ was pretty hard, but I’ve played Fantasia before. Some parts of ‘Andalusian Adventure’ were a little difficult, mostly with the rhythms and because the cellos had the off beat of the song. “

 Martinez says that she felt pretty nervous to be on stage, but once she started playing the nervousness slowly went away. She adds on saying that she felt more nervous during the cello solo and when its only her section playing

 “I definitely think our performance was good this year. I think our performance was better than our preassessment concert. I was more prepared for this time than last time.”

 Martinez says that when the orchestra had to sightread, she thought it went okay. She comments on that saying that  the rhythms and bowing were pretty hard during sightreading.

 Martinez also says her favorite song during assessment is a piece called ‘Andalusian Adventure’

 “My favorite song is probably ‘Andalusian Adventure’, I mean I like our song Fantasia but I liked Andalusian more.  Especially with our cello solo and the different styles that are in that song”