Rachel Carson’s (RCMS) orchestras will be having their assessment on March 8 and 9 at Kenmore Middle School in Arlington to be assessed on how well they perform. 

Chamber and Symphonic orchestras will be performing on Friday, March 8, while String Ensemble, Concert, and Philharmonic will be performing on Saturday, March 9.

RCMS’s five orchestras have consistently achieved the highest possible score of superior in assessments for several consecutive years.

“I think they have the capability to do so, but we’ll see on the day of the event,” said Ms. Devyn Wilcox, RCMS’s orchestra director.

All orchestras have already performed at Pre-assessment on Feb. 21-22 at Oakton High School. During the pre-assessment, all five orchestras were given comments by mock judges to help them improve for assessment.

“You never really know how it will go but the day of the performance, they handle situations differently,” said Ms. Wilcox. “And I am really proud of their growth; I know that they will make great music together.” 

Gautham Agilan, an eighth-grader on the Dream Team, believes that their orchestra has the capability to get superior in assessment. 

“I feel that we could improve our intonation for assessment,” he said. “I also feel that the lower strings could show more contrast in dynamics.”

At RCMS, each of the orchestras vary in size. For some orchestras, there can be up to 55 people whereas in some it can be as low as 25. Depending on the orchestra, each ensemble will always have a challenge. With larger ensembles, it is challenging to have a quieter sound while on the contrary, for smaller ensembles it is more challenging to make a larger sound. 

“As the biggest orchestra out of all five,” said Gautham. “I feel that our pianissimos weren’t soft enough.”

Vaneesha Vijayram, an eighth-grader who is on the Dream Team and in Philharmonic, agrees that her orchestra could be better during assessment. 

“I’m in Philharmonic and we’re a pretty big orchestra. I’d say that our pianos could be softer and that we could play with more confidence and count during assessment,” says Vaneesha. 

Assessment is a program that brings together orchestras from various middle schools and high schools, placing them in different venues for evaluation on a scale of 1 to 5 based on their musical performance. Achieving a score of one indicates a superior level of playing, showcasing exceptional musical proficiency for their skill level. Conversely, a score of five is the lowest rating possible at the assessment. Typically, orchestras perform one to two pisces during the evaluation, with both the performance, which is scored, and a warm-up piece.  

 “I think pre-assessment went really well, definitely room for improvement but it went really well considering the time we had,” said Vaneesha.