At the end of last school year, Longfellow said goodbye to beloved orchestra teacher Ms. Collins as she moved on to run a high school orchestra.   Though she will be sorely missed, students were very pleased with her replacement, none other than Collins’ long-time colleague, Mrs. Robertson.

While Ms. Collins taught the higher level orchestras such as Chamber and Concert, Ms. Robertson taught the more beginning level musicians. Now that she is the Orchestra Director, Robertson teaches the more experienced string players, and has a new assistant director, Ms. Sevilla.

“I’ve been ready for this for a really long time,” Robertson said, “It’s really nice to be working with really high level and skilled musicians.”

Of course, since Ms. Collins is still in FCPS, the dream team hasn’t completely broken up.  Ms. Robertson is still in communication with her and they talk frequently, helping each other out with picking pieces and finding arrangements.

Despite saying that she doesn’t plan on making any major changes to the orchestra, she still has added her own little touch to the classes, along with Mrs. Sevilla.  Robertson says that Sevilla is a fountain of new ideas on how to improve the system.

“She’s great, and I’m so thankful for her.” Robertson said of Sevilla. “We are like Yin and Yang. She comes up with these awesome ideas that I never would have thought of.”

Ms. Robertson and Ms. Sevilla are an amazing team that will continue making Longfellow’s acclaimed orchestras truly unique.