As a Chorus student, the MPA’s, music performance assessments, are tests where the performers are evaluated on the skills they’ve learned. However, before the MPA’s, students must practice their performances so that they have a chance to be evaluated by music educators and receive effective criticism on how they can improve upon their performance skills.

   Every year chorus students prepare for the MPA’s, where they receive criticism on the skills they’ve learned like breath support, pitch accuracy, or simply their overall performance. Reaching the MPA’s means a lot of training, and students sometimes struggle to prepare. Choir performer Isabella Alonso says, “Seventh period is a bigger choir so there are more people, and students will struggle and collectively to get all together it gets a little bit harder.” This shows that the bigger the choir of students the harder it is to practice effectively when having so many students.

   Not only is it challenging for students themselves, but their teacher Ms. Combs, must also put in a lot of work to have her students ready for the MPA’s. When Ms. Combs was asked what her biggest challenge was when training her student’s, she said “Making sure that they really understand the value of what we’re doing and the purpose of it.” Meaning that she really wants her students to show their full potential and talent so that they can see just how important chorus should be to them.

  With every struggle though comes a reward. That’s exactly what the students receive when their practice pays off and it’s time to perform. When asked about what the most rewarding part of preparing for the MPA’s is, Isabella Alonso also says, “When you struggle with a piece and then you end up getting it right and you sound amazing.” Clearly, hard work pays off.

  All in all, there are struggles when preparing for the MPAS but in the end, it’s all worth it when they can finally go up and give it their all.

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