Orchestra’s first concert of the year was held at the Performing Arts Center (the PAC) on Oct. 7. This performance served as a showcase of what the three orchestras have worked on so far this year. The Symphony Orchestra is the top orchestra, Philharmonic in between the Symphony Orchestra and the lowest orchestra, Concert Orchestra. The concert also provided an opportunity to record for the Honors Orchestra Competition.
“Our concert was really intense since we were recording it for Honors Orchestra competition,” Alina Park ‘16 said.
As with the repertoire that has been chosen, there are parts the members of the Symphony Orchestra found difficult.
“There’s this string-crossing part where we have to play octaves and they’re sixteenth notes,” Melissa Wijono ‘18 said. “I find that the most challenging, to get on beat and in tune.”
Perfecting this difficult music takes a lot of extra time and effort outside of school. The Symphony Orchestra has additional after-school rehearsals every Tuesday, which are mandatory for all members.
“We put in all the time and effort we could into performing a great program,” Min Kim ‘17 said.
Similar to the Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra encountered rhythm difficulties.
“Either some people would come in early or some people, like, play off the beat,” Janice Oh ‘19 said. “Even the little details can cause the entire orchestra to fall apart, but luckily that didn’t happen to us. We were all really prepared.”
In Philharmonic Orchestra’s piece, the third movement of John Rutter’s Suite for Strings, there’s a violin solo as well as a viola solo.
“Playing my solo was a little nerve-wracking but I knew I was prepared because I played many times for the class,” Oh said. “Overall, the main picture was executed really well and we all played amazingly.”
There was a solo in Concert Orchestra’s piece “Slava” as well.
“Our first chair cellist, Justin Tobar, did a really good job of playing his solo,” Tanuj Mahendru ‘18 said.
In the other piece the Concert Orchestra played, Suite of Strings, the violins end with a harmonic in it’s third movement, March.
“During the March, the last four measures was really tough for us and I definitely did practice that a lot,” Rajalal said. “So just parts of the pieces that were a little more difficult to get with the first couple tries.”
Being the new assistant director, Mr. Anderson only conducted Suite of Strings in the beginning of the year in order to help him transition smoothly into being the assistant director as well as the Concert Orchestra conductor.
“Mr. Anderson makes sure we get each section before moving on,” Kyla Gaganam ‘18 said. “Mrs. Williams trusts us to practice outside of class, which we do and the next block we get it right.”
The next concert will be the annual Winter Concert on Dec. 2 in the Cafetorium.
“I’m looking forward to getting new music, practicing hard, and improving as a musician,” Mahendru said.
Video contribution by Amy Vo
