Trying Something New for the February Concert
The music department performed a concert this Feb. that featured the Wahawk Choir, Orchestra and Band.
Freshman percussion player, Morgan Kisch.
March 1, 2023
This year, the spring concert took place on Monday, Feb 20th. Beginning at 6 p.m. the choirs started the concert off, then the orchestras, and lastly the bands.
The choir decided to do something new this year by having speaker read out poems then have the chorus perform it, many of which were love songs to celebrate Valentine’s Day. First it was treble clef chorus, bass clef chorus, and lastly concert choir, all of which were directed by Holly Roseland, a new teacher this year.
Brandon Molina, junior, who sings and plays bass in both choir and orchestra. As a person who is extremely engaged in music and plans on getting a music major in college, Molina found this concert much more engaging because “[it] showed how much we’ve improved as a group from the fall and it’s a really good middle point concert to show our growth.”
My favorite part about choir this year has been being able to sing and hang out with the other people in it too. I also really liked all of the songs this concert even though they were a bit more difficult than usual.
— Kylie Karns, 11
After the last choir ensemble performed, orchestra took the stage, conducted by Erin Gaherty-Williams. The concert orchestra began with four songs, one of which was a calm piece named ‘Jupiter’ by Gustav Holst and arranged by Deborah Monday. Symphony strings followed the concert orchestra up with also four pieces, the third one being character Lara Antipova’s theme from the 1965 film, Dr Zhivago.
To conclude the concert, the bands performed. The 9th grade concert band went first, directed by Sally Lange. They performed three pieces, one of which was a revisit of a piece they did for the winter concert this school year; Joy by Frank Ticheli. Lastly, the 10-12th grade wind symphony directed by Jason Dobbs finished the concert. They played three pieces and did something unique for the piece called Blue and Green Music by Samuel Hazo. Since the music piece was based off of the actual painting Blue and Green Music by Georgia O’Keefe, commissioned art by West High students was displayed on the big screen above the stage to create a more engaging experience.
Junior clarinet player Abigail Henry reflected on what made this concert different, Henry said “For this concert we did not have as much time to prepare compared to what we had for the December concert, but we were still able to pull it off well.” Although she had mixed feelings on the pieces, she believes the band has improved since December and that “compared to the past, we had a much fuller sound and were overall more confident in what we were playing.” Elizabeth Ernst, who is also a junior clarinet player, says her favorite piece they played was the first piece Sky Dance by Richard Saucedo because of it’s “rhythmic contrast between the faster and slower parts.”
This concert demonstrated that all of the students have improved since the last concert and seemed much more confident in their singing and playing.
