Do you ever sung in the shower? Or hum around the house? Have you ever thought about singing in front of others or even in a group? Well, chorus would be the right place to start! Apopka Chorus has recently had some big achievements, such as attending an event called MPA. For those who have no idea what that is, it stands for Music Performance Assessment and it is a big event for secondary music programs in which a musical performance is evaluated on specified criteria. For chorus they are graded on sight reading, overall performance, etc. It is a big event but also an important one for the singers and the chorus director/teacher. The Blue and White had a chance to ask them how MPA went for them.

We had a chance to interview both Nathan Mitchel, a sophomore and Mason Unwin, who is also a sophomore. Who are both members of the Men’s choir. We first asked if they believed MPA to be hard, they both had different opinions on it. Nathan said, “MPA is the most difficult part of chorus, but not overwhelmingly so.” Mason doesn’t find it to be hard due to “how well Ms. Shafer prepares us.” They have both been in chorus for a while, Mason has been in choir for 2 years and Nathan has been in chorus since 6th grade. They both definitely believe MPA is stressful. Mason states, “MPA is stressful, because we all just want to make sure that we get the highest scores possible, to reflect on how great of a chorus teacher Ms. Shafer is.” That is most definitely important to think about, because how you do can affect the person who is leading, and you most definitely want it to be a good reflection on them. Nathan also says, “MPA is definitely stressful, from getting your song list and watching the judges writing down comments while performing music you’ve worked on for months, but when you see the scores and see its paid off, is worth it.” Nothing’s better than being rewarded for something you’ve worked very hard on.

And rewarded they were. They were scored straight superiors! Scoring a superior means worthy of being recognized as among the very best. Since they received these scores, they qualify for state level MPA. Which huge step forward for them. Big congratulations to chorus from The Blue and White! We also had a chance to interview the amazing Ms. Shafer herself.

We asked her how she believed the kids performed in her opinion, and her EXACT words were, “We slayed, we ate and left no crumbs! They did a wonderful job, they showed up and stage and kicked butt and did everything they practiced and I was very happy.” She also didn’t find it to be stressful because her focus is the “process, versus the product” though they celebrate the product being as good as it was, but it was stressful to keep the process of practicing a certain way, every single time, and when the day comes it’s just the time of showcasing what they have. They sing in different languages, including French and Latin and different music styles including traditional and classical style.

The scores the different choirs received are as follows: Freshman Girl Choir received Overall Excellent (which means one judge gave a superior while the other 2 gave excellents), Intermediate Girls received an overall superior (meaning 2 judges gave them a superior and 1 gave an excellent), last but not least, the Men’s Choir and the Advanced Treble Choir received straight superior. Every choir received a superior in sight reading, meaning in how they read their music.

One last thing we asked Ms. Shafer was if she was proud of her choir and she proudly replied, “HECK YEAH!”