by Michelle Liu, managing editor
In combining selected wind ensemble players and the varsity orchestra, the orchestra’s winter concert ended with a bang–or rather, some bells–on last Tuesday, Dec. 3.
“We’ve been wanting to do it for a long time,” orchestra director Jane McCormick said. “[Band director Jonathan] Sweet just worked it out so that we had the time–he had the energy to get the kids together, encourage them to do it, so it was just really exciting that it finally got to happen.”
McCormick conducted the concert, with the combined freshman and junior varsity orchestras playing three pieces, the varsity orchestra performing the first movement from Brandenburg’s “Concerto No. 1 in F Major” and Elgar’s “Salut D’Amour” and the full orchestra playing the fourth movement from Beethoven’s “5th Symphony” and Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride.”
Preparation
Ensuring that rehearsals–and the overall concert–ran smoothly is simply a matter of practice, according to Sweet.
“Both Mrs. McCormick and I have experience conducting multiple kinds of ensembles, so we’re not really worried about that. But for rehearsing, Mrs. McCormick rehearses the strings during her class period and I rehearse the wind section of the orchestra during an advocate time with the wind ensemble,” he said. “And then we just put it together on Tuesday afternoon and it works very well that way.”
The students’ skill levels and prior experience enabled the directors to unite their generally-separated players.
“Well, basically at this level they rely on their training,” McCormick said. “Technical skills and really good sightreading skills, especially rhythm [are needed], otherwise it wouldn’t have fallen together, because the Beethoven is extremely complex.”
The night of the concert
Few students expressed pre-concert jitters, instead voicing their excitement to play together.
“It’s something that I’ve really been looking forward to all four years because we’ve always talked about it, but it’s never actually happened,” senior clarinet player Karleigh Adams said. “I’ve played in the musical before where it’s only a select number of people, but to play with the full orchestra–it’s really cool to hear all these different sounds coming together to form one piece of music.”
Post-concert
Junior concertmaster James Wu, who performed a solo during “Salut D’Amour,” expressed his pride of the full orchestra in general.
“It’s not often that we have a combined ensemble, so it was a wonderful experience for both the performers and the audience,” Wu said.
McCormick emphasizes that this certainly isn’t the last time band and orchestra are collaborating.
“We do a pop concert in May, and I thought it would be really awesome if we could shop for some really good full orchestra music,” McCormick said. “I’m thinking about classical music used in movies, as well as pop music. Maybe some music from musicals would be fun.”
All photos by Dana Branham and Eva Araujo, editor-in-chief and photography editor.
If you were unable to attend the concert, you can view the recorded full orchestra pieces below:
