Robinson Orchestra got scores of superior, the highest score possible, across the board at the annual Hillsborough County Orchestra MPA (Music Performance Assessment) on February 7. Just a month later, on March 7, the Robinson Band received Superiors across all of their categories at the Band MPA.
Robinson hosted MPA this year for Orchestra, and more than a dozens of schools arrived on campus to be scored on a scale from 1-68 across categories including intonation, dynamics, rhythm and musicality; then they received a second score out of 20 for sight reading, in which they had to perform a brand new song after seeing it for the first time, with no prior preparation.
“I was a little surprised, [when we got superior] cause I feel like right after you perform, you always feel like you did really bad,” Ella Pluckhahn (’28), a viola player for the Robinson Orchestra, said. “But then, like, you look back on it, and you realize you actually did pretty well.”
A month later, the Robinson Band arrived at Blake High School with heavy nerves awaiting their own scoring. Band is scored similarly, through their performance and sight reading. The Robinson Band is composed of a Wind Ensemble and a Concert Band, both of which were scored.
“The overall thing that I think we’re really good at is just, like, having a collective sound, and feeling very natural with everything. We’re very together. But one thing we should probably work on is intonation,” Marquetta (28′), a trombone player, said.
