{"id":2345,"date":"2022-03-22T10:25:16","date_gmt":"2022-03-22T14:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/?p=2345"},"modified":"2022-03-22T10:25:17","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T14:25:17","slug":"assessing-music-assessments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/assessing-music-assessments\/","title":{"rendered":"Assessing Music Assessments"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Claire Fagan, Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*At the time this article was written, RHHS bands had not yet performed their assessments.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

River Hill assessments for the school\u2019s bands, orchestras, and choirs are rapidly approaching, and students are excited for this opportunity to show off their talents and be recognized. There are some major changes to the format of assessments this year, but this doesn\u2019t diminish students\u2019 excitement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arguably the most important performance by music students every year, assessments are a chance for high school musicians to be seen and judged by officials. River Hill music assessments are in March\u2014band March 9th, orchestra March 15th, and choir March 24th. Students\u2019 dedication to music during this crunch time before assessments is crucial to finalize the way different pieces sound. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been putting in extra time\u2014If I feel like I\u2019m not up to par in class then I\u2019ll go home and review everything so I\u2019ll be good for the next day,\u201d sophomore Jazzy Dong explains. As a member of Vocal Ensemble, Jazzy is singing three songs at her assessment, and she is working extra hard to fine-tune the more difficult music to ensure her performance shines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Junior Preston Passamonti elaborates, \u201cA lot of us in symphonic band have been putting in the work individually to make sure things are ready to go over in class.\u201d Perfecting a performance before assessments requires more than just focus during rehearsals. Students also practice outside of school to improve their individual skill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This school year, assessments are being performed differently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditionally, during a week in the spring, students from all over the county come to one school, perform three pieces, and watch other schools perform. A panel of three judges stay at the one school and score every incoming group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  However, due to the ongoing pandemic, having all music students visit one school and increase the risk of COVID-19 seems reckless and unnecessary. As a result, this year\u2019s assessments have the judges traveling to individual schools rather than the other way around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only one judge will be at each assessment, and no score will be given. Instead, the judge will give the group advice and work with them to improve their performance. As sophomore Harrison McCarthy from String Ensemble says: \u201cWe\u2019re having more of a masterclass, a clinic, than an assessment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These changes have been met with mixed reactions by River Hill students. Jazzy is excited and appreciates the change, remarking, \u201cEither way, our assessments would have been here, but I know the judges are going to the schools instead of the schools going to them. I kind of like that. I feel like we\u2019re on our home turf, we feel more comfortable, less nervous.\u201d HCPSS choirs normally have assessments at River Hill anyway, but Jazzy believes that every school feels more at home in their own auditorium, which could improve this year\u2019s overall performances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preston disagrees, explaining, \u201cThe removal of the score frustrates me slightly because I like being validated for the progress I’ve made. It’s like if you went to take a pen and paper test that you really studied for, and then you get nothing but a \u2018pass\u2019 in return. It feels kind of empty.\u201d Preston wishes that Symphonic Band could receive more recognition for their efforts throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harrison understands both positive and negative opinions, arguing, \u201cThe experience of actually being able to perform in front of others and know what you need to do better on from multiple views\u2026is much more helpful than just having one person\u2019s feedback. I think it\u2019s mostly a benefit because it removes some of the stress because we\u2019re only performing for one person.\u201d In a year full of additional stressors within an uncertain world, minimizing stress for students can definitely be a good thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the changing style of assessments, students from band, orchestra, and choir are still elated to have an opportunity to perform. Preston announces, \u201cWe are attempting to put our best foot forward in order to make this performance as good as past performances.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

RHHS Band receiving guidance for improvement from adjudicator\/clinician Colonel Timothy J. Holtan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Claire Fagan, Staff Writer *At the time this article was written, RHHS bands had not yet performed their assessments. River Hill assessments for the school\u2019s bands, orchestras, and choirs are rapidly approaching, and students are excited for this opportunity to show off their talents and be recognized. There are some major changes to the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":2348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Screenshot-2022-03-22-102451.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2345"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2349,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2345\/revisions\/2349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}