On March 14, 2025, for the second time in Tuscarora’s history, the fine arts department secured the Blue Ribbon Award, an accolade that recognizes the excellent work of high school music programs. To earn this prestigious designation, a school’s band, choir, and orchestra ensembles must score Superior ratings at Assessment.
Music educators throughout Virginia prepare their students for Assessment, where VMEA (Virginia Music Educators Association) judges assess performances with SOL (Standard of Learning) criteria. On Assessment day, teachers and their ensembles go to a local school and perform their pieces for judges, who then rate them on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being Superior and 5 being Poor.
The last time that Tuscarora’s department earned the Blue Ribbon Award was in 2021, so this is the first time that many of our newer fine arts faculty are experiencing this win. “I feel a sense of community of support, dedication, and grit from the full Music Department. It is great to have top-level educators and musicians within our department!” says Mckenzie Durgin, Tuscarora’s band director.
Durgin began teaching at the school in the 2022-2023 academic year, and she quickly took action to lead her students and encourage excellence. “I think the band is young and always working to be the best. I am stoked we earned a superior rating!” Durgin emphasized.
The school’s new orchestra director, Brittany Dinsmore, came into Tuscarora this year with only 6 months to meet her students and prepare them for Assessment. Dinsmore quickly set out to assess her students’ strengths and build community as an ensemble. “I could see a lot of strengths across our group, but what kind of music would showcase those strengths? How could we level up the quality of our performance and musicianship? What would help us take pride in our work and find value in what we’ve accomplished?” Dinsmore asks. Her solution was combining all her classes into one large ensemble that would perform at the Assessment. She also took various actions to encourage leadership and community. “To foster connection across the group, we formed an orchestra leadership team with representation from every ensemble class and every grade level, so that our leadership team reflected the group as a whole. The team has planned several orchestra breakfasts this year, each with an amazing spread of breakfast treats for a room filled with our Tusky orchestra family,” Dinsmore explains.
After the orchestra earned straight superiors from all judges, Dinsmore described the victory as “such a sweet reward for all the hard work every student and music staff member has put in this year.”
Also new to Tuscarora this year is the school’s choir director, Anthony Colosimo. Colosimo had a difficult task: not only did he have to prepare his ensemble for Assessment, but he also had to recruit. “What to work on was immediately evident because there simply were not enough [choir students]. We immediately jumped on the task of recruiting other singers just as capable and passionate about singing who were not enrolled in the chorus in the fall. Convincing singers to join was somewhat challenging, but working with them was a joy.”
Despite the challenge of finding singers to participate, Colosimo explains that his students possess “a desire to learn and grow as singers and musicians,” which he cites as the reason behind their success. Colosimo adds, “The students in chorus needed no convincing to shape strong rehearsal habits that afforded us a high-quality product going into the assessment.”
Although band, orchestra, and choir are the only music disciplines considered for the Blue Ribbon designation, Tuscarora’s guitar program also performed at assessment and earned Superior ratings. Matt Palmer, Tuscarora’s guitar teacher, isn’t surprised by his ensemble’s impressive performance.
“While a super fun class, the expectations laid out in Guitar classes are high. The students perform at a high level and play their music with artistry,” Palmer states. His guitar students have daily class routines, practice independently at home, and have “a strong sense of community.” “If the students enjoy their time together, trust one another, and receive solid guidance to achieve their goals, they will rise to these occasions together.” Earning the Blue Ribbon Award is a testament to the dedication, musicianship, and skill of the Tuscarora music staff and students. Congratulations to our Huskies!
