With the University Interscholastic League (UIL) contest closely approaching, Orchestra partnered up with Band and held a concert on Feb. 22 to prepare for the upcoming event.

“We got our piece towards the end of the first semester, so we’ve been preparing for maybe a little over two and half months,” Min Kim ‘17 said.  “The program was really hard and really fast, and has a lot of technical passages that are really hard to learn.”

The Concert Orchestra, which was split into Orchestra A and B, was first on the program. Like the other orchestras, Concert collaborated with the Band students to present a very enjoyable and musical performance.

“The hardest part was playing together with the band because we had to know our pieces,” Khadeeja Shah ‘19 said. “But it’s just sometimes hard to play together because you have to listen to each other to make sure it blends.”

Afterwards, there was a brief transition to the next orchestra, Philharmonic. With more students participating in this group, the cafeteria was filled to the brim. Philharmonic performed Finlandia, Chanson de Matin, and Variations on a Korean Folk Song, repertoires that required heavy practice on individual parts.

“I think my favorite piece was the Chanson de Matin because it’s really pretty and instrumental, and has a lot of cool cello parts,” Caelin Bird ‘18 said.

Once the final piece was played, the Philharmonic Orchestra quickly switched places with Symphony. Unlike the other orchestras, the Symphony orchestra included a violist soloist, Macklyn Hutchison ‘17, who performed the Walton Viola Concerto.

“I’ve been working on the piece for over a year,” Hutchison said. “I wasn’t very satisfied because we haven’t had much rehearsal time, but I think it’ll get better over the next week.”

To further add pressure upon the students, three judges were selected to critique the performance: Mr. David Chisum from Bowie High School, Mrs. Elizabeth Frederick from Canyon Vista Middle School, and Tim Washecka, Hutchison’s viola teacher. The three judges provided unbiased reviews not only to the Symphony orchestra, but the other groups as well.

The concert finished off with a loud fanfare that earned the applause of both parents and judges alike. As a whole, the students felt that the concert had ended well, and have high hopes for their performance at the actual UIL event in March.

“I think it went really well; sure, there are always things we can work on but I’m just glad that everything went as planned,” Kim said. “This was the pre-UIL concert, so we actually have the UIL concert later but I definitely feel nostalgic, and I’m glad it went well.”

The UIL competition for Full Orchestra will be held on March 9 at the Performing Art Center, where Orchestra members will be competing along with other RRISD schools for the  highest ranking of 1.