In preparation for String UIL Contest, Orchestra held a Pre-UIL String Concert on April 8.

“It gives us the chance to play our music before an audience which is definitely very different from playing it in a classroom setting and you kind of get the experience of playing it all the way through and seeing how you perform under pressure,” Erin Morris ‘16 said.

Symphony Orchestra performed Prelude for String Orchestra by Finzi, Bachianas Brasileiras Number Five and Salut d’amour by Elgar. Julianna Kim ‘16 performed the cello solo in Salut d’amour.

“I think Julianna played her solo really well, as usual,” Katherine Hsu ‘18 said. “I loved the piece and Julianna looked amazing while playing it. She looked so confident on the podium. If Ms. Williams hadn’t told us before that they’ve only worked on the song twice, I would have thought it was a song that was worked on many times.”

Despite this, the Symphony Orchestra decided keep the planned program. However, there were some changes to the program in the Philharmonic Orchestra.

“For the last song that we’re playing, Folk Song and Fiddle Dance, we actually cut out the first movement of it this morning because we had a really long program already,” Morris said. “So we ended up cutting out the first part because the second part qualifies for our UIL requirements.”

Concert Orchestra also cut their program. Instead of playing all four movements of Capriccio Espagnol by Rimsky-Korsakov, they performed only the third and fourth movements.

“The last piece, Capricious Espagnol, even though we didn’t play the first two movements, was more of a upbeat, fast, nice, fun piece more than anything,” Ramsey Foote ‘19 said.

Despite the changes, the musicians believe the performance went smoothly

“I think this performance went rather well, there were a few mistakes that I know I made, and no one’s perfect but I still think as a whole this was a very good performance,” Foote said.

Student teacher Ms. Kotzler conducted Concert Orchestra’s piece, A Scottish Ballade arranged by Robert Sheldon.

“The second piece, Scottish Ballade, is almost like a love piece, it was slow, caring and lyrical piece,” Foote said.

Ms. Kotzler’s experience will end right after String UIL, which will be on April 20 at the Georgetown High School Klett Center for the Performing Arts.