Straight Superiors, a Superior Achievement

On Thursday, February 26, all choirs from our school, led by director Mr. Embrich, participated in the Music Performance Assessment (MPA). For their performances, all four choirs received straight superiors, which is the highest ranking a choir can get! This hasn’t happened for JMS since 2017, so we are extremely proud of all of the students who participated. 

What is MPA?

MPA stands for the Music Performance Assessment and is organized by the Florida Vocal Association (FVA). Each year, all choirs in grades 6-12 in Florida participate in it and are rated on a multitude of qualities by professional judges. MPA is usually in late February or early March. To participate, the choirs learn a selection of music that their director picks to perform onstage at a certain location. They also practice sight reading, which includes rhythm reading and solfege reading (solfege assigns specific syllables such as Do, Re, Mi, to pitches to simplify sight reading). They then go to the MPA location and sing their music for the judges before going to the sight reading room and performing two exercises of their director’s choice. 

The scale for judging both onstage and in sight reading goes (from best to worst) Superior, Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor. The judges also fill out a judging sheet that is composed of three categories: Tone Quality, Technical Preparation, and Musical Effect. They then rate those categories A, B, C, D, or E, and whatever those scores average out to is the overall score. For example, if a judge put two A’s and a B for the categories, then that choir would still get a Superior from that judge. If they got one A and two B’s, they would get an average Excellent from them. 

There were three judges for the onstage performance and one judge for sightreading. The onstage judges make recordings as they are listening to the performances and share their notes and tips for the choirs to listen to later. All three of the judges gave all four of our choirs straight Superiors for their onstage performance. Most of the choirs also got a Superior in sightreading! For all of our choirs to get Superiors onstage is a very high achievement, and we are all very proud of them. “I was shocked by their focus and energy, but I was not shocked by their musicianship, because they are really brilliant students.” Stated Mr. Embrich, the director of the choirs at JMS.

The Process

The students started learning their music in January after they got back from winter break. MPA is a rigorous process that requires much preparation to be able to sing and sight read flawlessly. “I think the most challenging part of MPA this year was the lead up to the event itself.” Mr. Embrich said. All of our choirs performed two songs, and this year Mr. Embrich chose at least one song per choir that was sung in a different language!

The choirs got to First Presbyterian Church, which is where Palm Beach County had MPA this year, at 12:30 pm on Thursday, February 26. Our 8th grade choir, SirenSong, was the first to perform their songs Kala Kalla and Si Verias a La Rana. They then moved on to sightreading, where they got an Excellent. “The most challenging part (of MPA) was getting everything together and perfecting it.” said Kensington Jones, an 8th grader in SirenSong.

After they returned to the audience, the boys choir, Mariner Maelstrom, performed their songs Wishing Star and Niska Banja and then transitioned to sight reading, where they got a Superior. Antonio Cruz Ros, a 7th grader in the boys Mariner Maelstrom choir stated that, “The challenging part [of MPA] would be that people were nervous, like it was very intense. When I heard we got Superior, I was very proud of my choir and everyone else because I really thought we were gonna get Excellent.”

Following the boys choir, the 7th and 8th grade choir, Mariner Melody, performed their songs Beneath the African Sky and Ciranda Da Lua. They then moved to sight reading, where they got a Superior as well. “Learning a new language, like Portuguese with our song, was very difficult. When I found out we all got Superiors I felt proud of myself and everyone for everything we’ve done and everything we’ve overcome.” Shared Emma Patterson, a 7th grader in the Mariner Melody choir.

The last choir to perform their two songs Goin’ to Boston and Kommt, Seelen, Dieser Tag, was our 6th grade choir, Seaspray, who after their onstage performance, also got a Superior in sight reading. Madison Hernandez Montejo, a 6th grader in the Seaspray choir, said that “The songs were hard to learn because we were singing in a different language, and we were learning and singing stuff we haven’t done before.”

Again, this is such an incredible accomplishment for all of the students in the choirs, and for their incredible director Mr. Embrich, who led them through the whole process and ensured their achievement. Mr. Embrich states, “I will remember this group of students in each of these choirs this year at MPA, and this year for the rest of my life. They are the first year that all of my choirs receive straight Superiors, and so they will forever be in my heart.”