Battlefield High School is in the 9th district of the state of Virginia. Every district holds an assessment of all the music departments in its respective area. So every year, the band, choir, and orchestra from each high school travels to a certain high school in their district to be judged on their performances and sight reading/ playing abilities. The judges will give ratings to each group based on each aspect of their performances on a 4-1 scale. 1 being superior rating, 2 being excellent rating, and so on. If each top group from a particular school receives superior ratings in all aspects of performance and musicianship (sight reading/playing) then, that school will be rewarded with the Blue Ribbon for music; which deems the school’s music department stellar, and superior, filled with their district’s best musicians.

This past weekend, the Battlefield choirs traveled to Osbourn Park High School in Manassas to sing for the District 9 Choral Assessment. The choir program was the last of the three music departments to be assessed this year. Last year the Battlefield Choir Department left the school having left it all in the stage and bringing back to Battlefield, straight superior ratings across the Board.

This year, with an eye on the prize, BHS Choir Director, Mr. Doug Burney, had his singers rehearsing their assessment music in December to prepare for March 17th and 18th. “Blue Ribbon is on the line, and we are going out for straight 1s”, said Burney. Blue Ribbon is awarded to high schools that achieve overall superior ratings (or score 1s on a 4-1 scale) in all music departments. Last year Battlefield missed Blue Ribbon Award by an extremely small amount. But this year, Band and Orchestra showed up and represented Battlefield High School in the best type of way and received this straight 1s that they needed.

This left it up to Mr, Burney and the rest of the choir program to finish the job; and that is exactly what they did. “Also proud to announce… the top band and orchestra making superiors in performance and sight singing, the Blue Ribbon is coming back to Battlefield High School!”, said Mr. Burney.

“It is honestly such a fantastic feeling”, says junior, Kenny Chou, “being a part of this huge accomplishment for our school and to sing with such talented and passionate singers is a huge privilege”.

A huge congratulations to all our BHS musicians and their enormous accomplishments! You have all made your directors and your school very proud!